DANCE REVIEWS : Lewitzky’s Troupe Masters Her Demands

The clock is ticking toward the June 1997 deadline that choreographer Bella Lewitzky has set for disbanding her company. But there was no evidence of a dispirited troupe in a program of three familiar works over the weekend at Occidental College’s Keck Theater.

In fact, five new dancers appeared with five veterans, testifying to the appeal and vitality of Lewitzky, whose work was last seen at the college almost a year ago.

Newcomers Adrienne Clancy, Tim Cowart, Heather Harrington, Anthony Hernandez and Melody McKenney showed mastery of the choreographer’s demands for virtuosic movement that by no means draws attention to its difficulty. Moreover, they also emerged in character vignettes, as required, or attended to more abstract movement challenges, as did veterans Walter Kennedy, Lori McWilliams, John Pennington, Karen Woo and Yolande Yorke Edgell.

With Lewitzky, the boundary between the two kinds of movement is fluid and unpredictable.

They were seen in two company pieces that opened and closed the program--the coolish, postmodern “Impressions No. 2: Vincent Van Gogh” and the whimsical “Changes and Choices”--both danced to music by Larry Attaway.

Kennedy, McWilliams, Pennington and Woo, however, hit deeper emotional levels in “Meta 4,” set to an intense and eloquent four-movement quartet composed in collaboration with the company in 1994 by Robert X. Rodriguez, who was on hand Saturday.

This dance moves from isolated individuals striking out in searching but frustrated gestures to ultimately an integrated group bound in playful kids’ games. The work reflects Lewitzky’s awareness of and optimism about our social predicaments.