‘Happened’ Hangs Its Emotions Out to Dry

Explorations of identity under a clothesline, dance parodies that illuminate the performers’ attitudes toward their work and one another: Choreographer Arianne MacBean is on her favorite turf with “This Happened,” a new hourlong example of what she calls “smart dance,” performed by her Big Show Company at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.

At the premiere on Thursday, the nine-part piece began with five women mixing mundane tasks under that clothesline with poetic longings but soon reached its epicenter--a poem by C.K. Williams about a young woman who threw away her life because of the lack of true feeling or authenticity in it.

Images of that woman teetering on the brink of suicide kept recurring in somber modern dance solos, punctuated by depictions of authenticity lost and found. These depictions included outrageous lampoons of professional corps dancing--everything from ballet to commercial jazz--that highlighted the individuality that dancers sacrifice for cookie-cutter uniformity.

However, a look at backstage relationships helped reinforce the sense of camaraderie that MacBean portrayed as the saving grace in women’s lives--a reason to keep going no matter how meaningless or degrading the task.

Perhaps the most complex choreographic vision came in a somber duet for Rande Dorn and Miriam Kramer, each of them feeling the same feelings and dancing the same steps but unaware of each other: separated by one of Ernie Avila’s geometric set units that served as walls and platforms during the evening.

Isolated, restless yet deeply connected in ways the audience could understand even if they could not, these women represented all those who desperately need the lifeline of friendship or sisterhood so feelingly celebrated in this thoughtful, humane feminist panorama.

Other dancers in the performance included Robin Conrad, Elizabeth Hoefner and MacBean herself. Percussionist Mike Robbins composed and performed the music for three sections.

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Arianne MacBean and the Big Show Company, “This Happened,” tonight at 8:30, Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica. $13 to $15. (310) 315-1459.