‘Misguided Vision’? No Way!

“61 Minutes of Misguided Vision” may sound like a put-down by a nasty reviewer, but it serves as the self-mocking title of Brian Pelletier’s latest neo-Expressionist suite for his DanceLA company.

As performed at Theater 6470 in Hollywood on Thursday, this “Post-Modern Experiment in Social Breakdown” (its subtitle) proved neither misguided nor postmodern; it is rather a series of dramatic vignettes intercut with more abstract pop dance showpieces for the four-member cast.

Using recordings by Radiohead, Pelletier depicted urban isolation though passages in which people danced alongside one another, sometimes in unison and often sharing the same props (a book, a set of earphones, an umbrella), but rarely touched or connected emotionally. Other scenes depicted stultifying family life and the obsession with pop culture or whatever’s new at any moment.

The cornball symbolism of dancers coveting gift boxes labeled “Pop” or “New” weakened the social satire, as did the inability to make the daily routines of a middle-class family seem oppressive enough to justify the desperation on view. Happily, the dancing compensated with its rock heat. Most remarkably, it managed to strip MTV style of its self-aggrandizement, doubting whether millennial pop culture has anything meaningful at its core.

Pelletier directed, choreographed, danced the lead, took the photos for the program cover (and also posed for them) and tore your tickets at the door. Moreover, the resourceful set and production design was credited to “Pelletier Entertainment.”

However, the very busy Mr. P. has every reason to believe in himself: Barely out of his teens, this whippet-like dancer excelled at everything from bone-crunching contortions to wide-flung extensions, and his choreography ably served the variable talents of the earthy Portia Holliman, the elegant Rita Foung and the intense Sarah Sydney Jenkins.

*

“61 Minutes of Misguided Vision,” DanceLA, tonight, Sunday and Oct. 4 through 7, 8 p.m., Theatre 6470, 6470 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. $15. (866) 468-3399.