Dance : In Between Lines, Individuals Stand Out

The lobby talk about Winifred R. Harris’ Between Lines performance at the Keck Theater, Occidental College, Saturday night often turned to wondering just what her influences were. Was that music African or Middle Eastern--or just synthesized jazz? The movements were no easier to pin down--they were from Senegal at one moment and ballet class the next, with more than a few images of bharata natyam and body-building thrown in.

Or, rather, blended in, because fusion is probably what Harris does best. With three premieres on a mixed program, the most definitive statement of this talent remained an older work, “Thunder Is Not Yet Rain.” Stunningly performed by Harris, Wendy Samuels and Miko Doi-Smith, this hypnotic piece has a kind of crystallized, noble movement that makes you think you know what the gods (or goddesses) look like dancing.

Sections of distilled, focused movement occasionally occurred elsewhere, especially in the new “Alien Animals Inside You,” to buzzy, percussive music by Brian Eno. Emphasis here was on four hard bodies in purple unitards, quickly etching clear, aggressive shapes in their separate realms, sometimes preening, sometimes seething elegantly, like caged cats.

Another premiere, “And Then There Were Three,” was little more than five minutes of conventionally jazzy maneuvers to fast-paced music by Eric Serra. Although the third new work, “Spirit Split the Reed,” often returned to sculptural postures, it also rambled in a self-consciously mysterious way. There was a hint of a plot--two women in skirts of fringed cloth may have been facing an intruder--but it wasn’t at all clear.

What was clear was the power and skill of Harris’ dancers, even in the sometimes confusing vignettes of “One Race Woman,” and in “Water Ballet,” a clever, Esther Williams-esque lark done in swimsuits and goggles. Unfortunately, Handel on tape was spiked up to ear-splitting proportions and the piece was slightly ragged at moments, but here, as throughout, individual performances were strong.