Dancing Shines Over Singing in Uneven ‘Gospel Kwanzaa’

Part revival, part student recital, part town hall meeting, Lula Washington’s “Gospel Kwanzaa,” which steamrollered into Cal State L.A.’s Luckman Fine Arts Complex on Saturday, is an evening of good cheer and intentions sorely in need of fixing. This two-act tribute to Christmas and the weeklong African American celebration of family and culture, Kwanzaa--which is inching its way toward cash-register consciousness with cards, dolls and candles--bludgeons its audience with too much of a mediocre thing.

After premiering last year as a work in progress, “Gospel Christmas,” Washington’s hoped-for holiday chestnut has, fortunately, been trimmed from 55 minutes to 40 minutes. This part of the show still, however, proves to be a collection of gospel songs couched in clouds of dry ice and flowing costumes, as the story of Jesus, narrated by the wooden Ralph Glenmore, comes to half-life.

The dancing--what there is of it--came off as first-rate: Members of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre are gifted, indefatigable and gorgeous to watch. If only Washington’s choreography would allow for more variety and emotional depth, a true connection could be forged. This was not to be, as Shameika Hines, swaying and circling the floor on her knees, found herself upstaged by Sabrina A. Francis’ shaky rendering of Schubert’s “Ave Maria.”

Similarly, “Three Angels of Peace” had Shari Washington-Rhone, Keisha Clarke and Anthony Jackson executing deep lunges and the troupe’s signature one-legged turns, while floridly gesticulating with their hands to a George Winston tape. Technique takes precedence over substance.

Christmas and Kwanzaa are both about children, though, and whenever the Dance Theatre students, ranging from 4-year-olds to teenagers, took to the stage, the atmosphere was charged with inspiration and hope--90 minutes’ worth--as dozens of foot-stamping kids shimmied and jumped to the rhythms of Da Lion’s pulsating drums in the first half of the program. Washington’s roll call of departed souls and her salute to some living ones added to the sense of community but further muddied the artistic waters.