Showcase’s Star Is the Choreography

Nobody needs opportunities to workshop and showcase dance ideas more than commercial choreographers, artists who normally spend their careers under the thumb of recording stars, film directors and others who control, manipulate and sometimes marginalize what those choreographers create.

Each month, “The Carnival,” a choreographer’s showcase at the Key Club on the Sunset Strip, provides a stage, technical resources (including overhead video projection) and a packed audience of young standees ready to scream for dance, all kinds of dance.

On Wednesday, for instance, an ensemble segment credited to D.V.S. offered onstage rappers, cleanly executed hip-hop, a flurry of jazz-dance turns, a glimpse of tap and even some choreographed martial arts moves. No concept unified the components unless you consider the piece a celebration of dance. And the whole evening took on that role.

A depiction of the dancers’ world shaped several pieces, from Razberry Jam’s irreverent update of the audition from “A Chorus Line” to Ocean Duran’s Hawaiian-flavored look at a hectic video shoot, and Chonique and Lisette’s affectionate spin on retro rock.

Thrillingly performed, Selatin Kara’s fierce abstraction of street life proved the choreographic highlight of the night, along with Robert Gilliam’s hot inversion of the gender norms of a ballet pas de deux. In an evening with no shortage of energy, technique and boldly merchandised sex, these dances had something more: creative ambition and a powerful sense of direction.

Deftly staged group dances by Scott Hislop and Chill Factor featured an intriguing use of props, and provocative costumes gave an edge to promising, underdeveloped dance dramas by Cati Jean and Wes Veldink. Celebratory works by the Others and Stacy Keathley completed the program.

Created by Carey Ysais and directed by Ysais and Kimo Keoke, “The Carnival” makes choreography the star: Individual dancers aren’t even named in program credits. But someone identified from the stage as Osgood danced with spectacular skill in two brief interludes between segments.