Dance Review : Dance Theatre of East L.A. at Highways

Frank Guevara continued to emerge as an independent Latino choreographer in the four new works introduced by his Dance Theatre of East L.A. on Thursday as part of the “Ecce Lesbo/Ecce Homo” festival at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.

Nothing equaled the new “Hombres” in terms of achieving meaning and expression through pure movement. Against drumming and chanting by Kodo, Guevara and the strikingly handsome Bogar Martinez squared off in machismo contests, suggesting the polarized, pent-up physicality and top-dog games among incarcerated males.

The two progressed from isolated, follow-the-leader rituals to tentative explorations and even mutual support. But the work ended inconclusively, prematurely, with a repeat of Martinez slung over Guevara’s shoulder. How they had arrived at this point, what this point actually was and what it implied remained uncertain.

“Mojado,” with a witty text by Luis Alfaro (music by Hector Armienta), showed Guevara stretched out on a bed of chain-link fencing, which became his blanket, cross to bear and immigration barrier, as a concrete block he pushed around became the reality of hard labor and achievement.

The young choreographer powerfully communicated grief and pain and pride in “Cuerpo Marcado,” but the full implications of these and other emotions probably only could be appreciated by the Spanish speaker who understood the songs sung by Isabel Pantoja, Ana Gabriel and Flor Silvestre.

In “Mama” (music by John Kander), the choreographer tried to solve the problem of structure by repeating the opening section, deepened by a new text. Martinez was a penitent youth in prayer to the Virgin (the Ave Maria and a text by Alfaro). Midway through, however, he had to interpret a catchy Broadway-show-like song between a mother and a gay son and also a fearful yet slick dance of temptation with the alluring Melissa Arambasich. The shifts in tone between sections were disconcerting and unclear in purpose.

Concluding the program were Guevara’s solo “Cursum Perficio” and a reworking of his “Celosa” danced strongly by Arambasich.

* Frank Guevara’s Dance Theatre of East L.A. will perform at 8:30 p.m. today and Sunday at Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica. $10. Information: (213) 660-8587.