Brockus Troupe Scores With Spins on Brubeck but Misses More Edge

There may be safety in numbers, but being secure in modern-jazz dance does not always make for the edgiest, most enlightened performance. Brockus Project Dance Company, founded and directed by the indefatigable Deborah Brockus, presented such a program on Saturday at Cal State Long Beach’s Knoebel Theater.

Her 12-member company, which crowded the stage with endless running, leaping, spinning and Broadway-based beaming, strove for epic status in an evening of seven Brockus-choreographed works, none more evident than “Four Corners Suite,” dated 1990-97. This 25-minute homage to the American Southwest proved a magnet for busyness, sloppy landings and excessive joy, replete with fog and tilted slide projections.

More successful were the night’s premieres, “Lussac 5 to 9” and “Honey & Wax.” Taking her hip-undulating cues from the swinging sounds of Dave Brubeck, Brockus, in the former, jauntily swayed and posed, assuming a cool air of hepcat sensibilities as she led her charges in this stylish romp. Also displaying shoulder-shrugging savvy were, among others, the pliant Julia Wilson, Andrew Smith, Shana Levy, Felicity Flanery, Angelique Christensen and James Hernandez.

The latter premiere, a slinky duet with the porcelain-faced Christensen and a sturdy Hernandez, also employed Brubeck to moody effect. The dynamic pairing saw Hernandez hurling his partner in the air, only to have her slither and slide down his torso with vixen-like ease, bringing to mind a kind of airborne tango.

A fiercely committed performer, Brockus spared little emotion in the previously reviewed “Fragments of the Soul” while further substantiating her belief in--and celebrating the strength of--women, in “Still Waters Run Deep.” Would that Brockus’ choreography do the same.