Graham Company Presents Host of Memorable Women

A half-century after Martha Graham created some of her greatest feminist dance-dramas, it evidently is easier to cast her heroic, self-empowered women than the oppressive males of her repertory.

The Graham Company returned to Cal State L.A. on Saturday, dancing with great skill and dedication in a varied, largely familiar five-part program at the Luckman Theatre. As always, the pieces offered a gallery of memorable women--right from the start, when guest Janet Eilber splendidly embodied the quicksilver audacity of someone ready to conquer the world in the solo “Satyric Festival Song” (1932).

The plotless celebration of relationships in “Diversion of Angels” (1948) left Katherine Crockett (in white) somewhat shaky as an expression of statuesque serenity, but Miki Orihara (in yellow) had coltish innocence down pat. Best of all, Fang-Yi Sheu (in red) fused zesty dynamism with sharply honed technique in a fine performance of one of the few touchstone Graham roles not originally danced by Graham herself.

But where were the brutes? Derived from Greek mythology, both “Errand Into the Maze” (1947) and “Cave of the Heart” (1946) needed plausibly threatening machismo for the leading women to confront. On Saturday, the stolid Peter Roel looked anything but terrifying in “Errand” and Gary Galbraith proved perversely likable in “Cave.” (His strutting solo-on-the-rocks came out of nowhere.)

As a result, Rika Okamoto stayed at the same level of intensity in the former work and Terese Capucilli had to generate her own drama in the latter--far from ideal, though Capucilli is never an artist to be underestimated. Happily, “Cave” also boasted fine dancing by Orihara and, in particular, Crockett.

To complete the evening, the company had commissioned a work from former member Steve Rooks: a loose yet elegant showpiece for five couples reflecting the moods and sometimes the specific images in two songs by Paul Simon. Titled “Cool River,” it gave Krishsa Marcano and Kevin Boseman special prominence and used Graham technique fluidly--emphasizing a flow of motion and a sense of cautious optimism.

A bizarre misprint in the Luckman program credited Eilber with directing “the Paris Opera Ballet in Graham’s ‘Temptations of Fosse’s Dancin,’ ” a nonexistent opus that would have been an odd project, indeed, for Graham to have attempted--but no less surprising than some of her genuine, imperishable achievements.