A Lively ‘Dia de los Muertos’ From Danza Floricanto/USA

According to Gema M. Sandoval, artistic director of Danza Floricanto/USA, the Mexican holiday that honors the deceased, Dia de los Muertos , is little understood. Not so in her hands. On Friday at El Camino College’s Marsee Auditorium, the company breathed jubilant life into the Los Angeles premiere of their nine-part suite, “Dia de los Muertos at the Local Cemetery.”

The occasionally raucous treatment of the holiday’s rites proved poignant, whimsical and infectiously entertaining as the company depicted the figure of death, La Catrina (a smiley, skull-faced presence, vigorously danced by Seleka Singleton), who is given life by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada (Frank Sandoval as puppeteer). Set to taped tunes on a stage filled with floral-festooned tombstones, scenes of cemetery reveling, bullfighting and sensuous lovers gave the work gusto.

Choreographically simplistic (dips, turns, hip-shaking), the suite nevertheless rang with authenticity. Sandoval and Rafael Ponce shone in their “Los Enamorados” duet, and Sergio Mora and Christie Rios displayed finesse as bullfighter and bull respectively. The starkest number, “La Leyenda de la Nina Bonita/Trilogia” (The Legend of the Pretty Girl/Trilogy), effectively portrayed the predicament of teenage girls having babies.

The unifying thread, though, was the omnipresence of death--dancing, grinning, beckoning, inevitable. Previously reviewed works, as well as playing by Mariachi Mexicapan, completed the evening.