Highways Bill Ranges From Epic to Sitcom

With his muscular back twisting and flexing, Jeffrey Grimaldo begins an epic, Blakean journey from creation out of blocky matter to full human stature.

The dance is “Sin Zapatos,” a work that Grimaldo and his partner Anne Goodman of Naked With Shoes presented in an uneven eight-part program shared with Victoria Marks and Dan Froot on Sunday at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.

Grimaldo’s solo is a journey fraught with struggle that ends in death, but the emotional impact is triumphant.

The work continued the sculptural, athletic motif in Grimaldo and Goodman’s agonistic, humorous and witty “Cybergenic Fast Food Bodybuilding Kit, Phase II” (with several small sculptures by Arthur J. Schwartz sharing the stage space). Sports and human relationships--a familiar conceit, still interesting here.

Athletic festivities also popped up in Victoria Marks’ “Present,” with Nami Yamamoto as a self-conscious competitor bounding around the space, noting and courting spectator response. Her activity in Part 1was contrasted with her stillness in Part 2, in which she stood behind a small package that contained--surprise--an alarm clock. “Present”--get it?

Minimal movement also characterized Marks’ “Dancing to Music.” Four women stood in a row, jerking their heads or otherwise making small moves on the crests of the melancholy arpeggios in Wim Mertens’ “Casting No Shadow.”

Fortunately, dramatic tension began to rise as the women (Kim Cadden, Julie Carson, Miriam Kramer and Rebecca Wei) reached out to one another seeking comfort and solidarity. Even so, the piece looked like a workshop exercise.

Similarly, Anne Goodman’s solo, “Evening at Pegs,” set to a noir text by Cynthia Rowlands that satirizes a suburban family, seemed like a pointless sitcom skit.

The program also included Dan Froot’s “Loop” and “Closer” and Naked With Shoe’s “Hydraulic Vertical Plunge,” all previously reviewed.