Dance Review : Floricanto Labors to Express Activism

Gema Sandoval is a reformer--and they can be hard to live with.

As founder and artistic director of Danza Floricanto/U.S.A., Sandoval has worked for nearly 20 years to bring a greater sense of social context and contemporary relevance to folklorico performance in Los Angeles.

In her company’s program at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre on Sunday, the dancers performed straight at the audience only during her 10-year-old suite from Sinaloa. In recent repertory, they danced for one another, sustaining both eye contact and the concept of a society in which dancing fulfilled a deeper function than merely pleasing the outsider.

Both “Jarabes de Antano” and a depiction of California ranch life of the early 19th Century presented a reminder of Latino warmth and sophistication in varied arrangements of social dances accompanied by mandolin, voice, guitars, percussion--and, alas, an uninvited helicopter overhead.

A new Northern Mexico suite added bold, cowboy-style sashaying and other Anglo influences. And, as if the result wasn’t vibrant enough, Sandoval updated her selection of border dances with a finale of Chicano “La Quebradita” modernism--then invited members of the audience to join in.

After intermission came the downside of Sandoval’s artistic activism. As usual, her spoken introductions offered thoughtful and sometimes trenchant perspectives, but the dutiful dancing in “Los Concheros” couldn’t begin to match her eloquence. What she wanted us to see in the performance simply wasn’t there.

The gap between speech and dance widened into a chasm in “Jornada Mestiza,” an unwieldy mythic pageant adapted/excerpted from Sandoval’s “Epopeya Mestiza” of 1991. Here actor Albert Ybarra intoned high-minded phrases about Latino endurance and Sandoval conjured up supporting imagery both sacred and profane--everything from the Virgin of Guadalupe to La Catrina, the sardonic symbol of death.

Whatever their impact on Mexican Americans, these images aren’t automatically clear or meaningful to others--even other Latinos. And their juxtaposition on Sunday often proved downright confusing.

Moreover, neither the conventional folk dance passages nor the contemporary choreography by Francisco Martinez could hold the expressive weight that Sandoval seemed to intend. In trying to rid folklorico of its decorative conservatism, she not only overwhelmed her source material and her company but created a theatrical event in which dance itself somehow became just a sideshow.

The fine guest musicians for the program included the Violeta Quintero Ensemble, Mariachi Juvenil Sol de Mexico and AmmoniaAzul.