DANCE REVIEWS : Diavolo, Kin Display a Provocative Edge

Diavolo Dance Theater and Kin Dance Company are fast-rising, locally based contemporary groups that don’t invent movement but take what’s already out there and re-contextualize it, creating daring and often outrageous social statements from familiar materials.

Their shared program Saturday at Occidental College confirmed their growing strength and popularity, though their newest works (Diavolo’s “D.2.R. II” and Kin’s “Viewer Discretion”) both fizzled out at the end. A sequel to the gymnastic showpiece in which Diavolo dancers hurtled down a vertical pegboard like human pin balls, “D.2.R. II” took place on another free-standing Daniel Wheeler wooden wall--this one hung with rope loops of various lengths.

After using the loops to create metaphorical snapshots (a hangman’s noose, for instance) and to explore unusual methods of physical support, the company assembled on this wall more depictions of sex positions than you’d find even on the notorious erotic temples of Khajuraho.

Equally wild and provocative, “Viewer Discretion” (a Kin work in progress) showed three males sitting on portable toilets, all reading The Times and executing bare-bottom disco moves in perfect post-Motown style--sometimes swirling ribbons of toilet paper like feather boas. Obviously, Frit and Frat Fuller (Kin) and Jacques Heim (Diavolo) are absolutely fearless and utterly in touch with the young, enthusiastic public that filled Keck Theater. Less obvious: the fine technical skills of all the dancers on view.

Previously reviewed works completed the program, with Diavolo’s “Man-Made” reorganized and boasting a sensational ascension-finale since it was seen at Highways late last year. As at “Dance Kaleidoscope ‘95,” Kin’s “Enemy Within” sagged in the middle for lack of conventional movement interest, but the horizontal rope effects at the beginning again proved mesmerizing.