Brenner & Dancers Struggle to Inspire

In their West Coast debut, Janis Brenner & Dancers got off on the wrong foot Saturday night at Theatre 200 in the UCLA Dance Building. At least artistic director-choreographer Brenner did, when she essayed a vocal suite of early Meredith Monk songs. With virtually no physical movement, much less dance, Brenner instead dived into bad tremolo territory.

What followed wasn’t much better. Brenner’s 1995 piece, “A Matter of Time,” danced by two couples to the Cirque du Soleil-like, New Age-driven music of David Karagianis, proved to be the clingy, come-back-to-me stuff of love and pain where the angst quotient is higher than the level of artistry. The clean-lined John-Mario Sevilla demonstrated power and control in his one-armed slow-motion lifts, but any emotional connection seemed fuzzier than a Georgia peach.

Brenner’s “Ton of Led,” a 1994 tribute to the Woodstock generation set to Led Zeppelin music, should have been splashy, quirky and psychedelically charged. Instead, it felt like lead--derivative, uninspired. The company (joined by some UCLA folks) proved more effective en masse, a line of shimmying, feet-stomping, butt-grabbing, bell-bottomed dancers grooving happily to the familiar beat.

Eddie Taketa’s solo, “Uzu Maki,” a joint conception between him and Brenner, showcased Taketa’s writhing, sweat-glistening torso struggling to free itself from a large piece of satiny fabric. Swirling the fabric around him, Taketa conjured up images from volcanic encroachment to rebirth.

“What About Bob” accented female bonding through the music of Bob Dylan. The piece played haphazardly and felt like Muzak, heartless at the core--much like the entire evening.