Dance Review : Collage Theatre Takes a ‘Lap’ Poolside

With their emphasis on spoken and graphic images that link her personal life to the mythic subtexts of American advertising, Heidi Duckler’s site-specific performance events for Collage Dance Theatre increasingly belong to the art world far more than the realm of dance.

Performed Thursday in and around an empty swimming pool at the Sherman Oaks/Van Nuys Recreation Center, Duckler’s new “Life in the Lap Lane” uses dance merely as a garnish. Indeed, it may be the least essential element in a spectacle that begins with clever parodies of poolside behavior, then goes off the deep end conceptually with a fixation on the devil and the end of the world.

With the audience seated on bleachers near the shallow end of the Olympic-size pool, Duckler inventively exploits the extreme depth of her performing space by creating simultaneous zones of action in different planes as well as using the hidden recesses of the far end to launch stage trickery galore.

For instance, visual designer Daniel Evans turns the pool walls and floor into projection surfaces for apocalyptic slide shows--and also offers a panorama of all the commercial products bearing the name of the devil.

Soon after, the devil comes to dominate “Life in the Lap Lane.” The pool becomes an unlikely metaphor for hell, and Carla Lucero’s propulsive score (played live) culminates in a “Blood and Fire” aria for Fanny McCartney on the high diving board, surrounded by torches.

Undeniably picturesque, this finale also features the Collage dancers--in flippers and Speedos--staggering toward the shallow end of the pool like waterlogged B-movie monsters. But Duckler’s devil-in-the-pool premise just doesn’t come together, and ultimately seems more of a caprice than a genuine concept--a whimsical evasion for a site-specific artist who somehow lacks a specific connection to her site.

* Collage Dance Theatre repeats “Life in the Lap Lane” today at 8 p.m. in the pool at Sherman Oaks/Van Nuys Recreation Center, 14201 Huston St. (one block north of Riverside Drive, between Van Nuys and Hazeltine), Sherman Oaks. Tickets: $10-$15. For information, call (818) 788-5113.