Troupe Takes Frenzied View of ‘Love, Death’

Modern dance with a French accent inevitably offers a cornucopia of gestural eccentricity. Modern dance from French Canada typically reveals an emphasis on breakneck speed and ensemble power. To these qualities the 14-year-old, seven-member Montreal Danse company added a taste for startling theatrical contrasts and a penchant for gallows humor in an ambitious, exciting program titled “Love, Death and Other Details” at Cal State L.A. on Saturday.

Dancing to taped music in the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, the company and two guest artists explored dysfunctional relationships in Paula de Vasconcelos’ “Love Letter to Tarantino” and evoked the death fever of a dying woman in Jose Navas’ “Enter: Last.”

Each piece used a woman in a formal gown as a compositional fulcrum: Manon Levac going to her reward wearing scarlet in “Enter: Last” versus Nathalie Claude as a veiled bride stripped emotionally bare by her bachelors in “Love Letter.” Both also portrayed life as a constant state of frenzy.

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Less adoringly than her title suggests, De Vasconcelos depicted the gun-toting machismo of films by a certain Quentin T. in such mime-dominated sequences as the one in which Paul-Antoine Taillefer and Martin Bernier attempted to terrorize Maryse Carrier but ended up looking infantile. Happily, Annie Roy kept rebelling against the tough-guy silliness on view and eventually lured other women into a more footloose independence--at high speed, of course.

Juxtaposing text and a rhythmic noise track, Navas not only created a solo displaying the prowess of Bernard Martin but also surging group dances heightened by ominous visits from the lady in red. As in “Love Letter,” costume changes created the illusion of a larger cast, but the prevailing image here remained black--and bare--with the basic apparel suggesting a backless hospital gown turned into a funereal fashion statement.

Besides those already listed, the fine dancers Saturday included Daniel Firth and Rachel Harris.

* Montreal Danse performs Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Campbell Hall on the campus of UC Santa Barbara. $12 (students)-$22. (805) 893-3535.