Calculated ‘Instinct’ Gets in Its Own Way

“Instinct” proved a peculiar title for the program of strenuously overworked and anything-but-instinctual contemporary choreography Friday at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Presented by Dance LA, the evening featured 13 pieces by six choreographers--all of them relentlessly loading so many detailed technical and expressive agendas into their dances that the possibility of movement flow vanished altogether.

Only in Johnny Tu’s intricate, high-speed “Illuminated II” duet with Patrick Su did anyone seem to be dancing from an inner imperative or to be carried away by the movement. Tu’s choreography here and in two other pieces (“Illuminated” and “Untitled I”) harnessed a powerful gestural engine, and the fierce interplay with Su inspired him to dance wholly in the moment, losing the sense of studied execution afflicting the evening as a whole.

Three pieces by Moonea Choi boasted intriguing pretexts that soon crumbled into scattered riffs. “Claudia Gates” began with a strong spatial focus, “Versus” had women partnering folding chairs, and “Hohn” found Choi and Tu resisting opportunities for partnership and glumly insisting on isolation.

Jennifer McDonald Wilson created two showpieces for herself: the technically challenging ballet trio “In the Flesh,” and the more emotional and less satisfying solo “Bound,” in which she depicted personal freedom as hard-won, frightening and ultimately just as much of a burden as servitude.

Ellen Rosa’s “Move It” offered fine performances, an ambitious jazz/ballet style and artful structural ploys. Unfortunately, she then tried turning a women’s ensemble into lurking beasts in “Confined Prey” and succumbed to creepy-crawly overkill.

Rosa also danced Nancy Smith Fichter’s coldly jaunty solo “Grape.”

Host Brian Pelletier of Dance LA programmed his intense “Oxygen” solo (from “Domestika”) and an unfinished (or ill-finished) ensemble suite titled “Cravings” that confirmed his ability to forge intuitive links to pop music.

However, everyone’s quirky fingers, agonized posturing and geometric formations always looked arbitrary rather than organic, and even Pelletier’s own dancing has been infinitely more visceral on other occasions.

Two dozen dancers participated in the event, some of them leading lights of the local community (Tu and Lisa K. Lock, for instance), others less familiar but just as dedicated to making this collaborative venture successful. If many of the pieces looked like workshop etudes, the dancing delivered their limited achievements with consistent skill.