‘Elements of Life’ a creative leap for choreographer

An evening-long dance suite accompanied by pop recordings, “Elements of Life” is the latest attempt by a locally based choreographer to focus talents honed in the commercial dance world on the very different challenges of contemporary concert dance.

Danced by Liz Imperio’s Instincts Live Media Dance Company at the Alex Theater on Saturday, the uneven 10-part performance represented a major creative advance from Imperio’s uniformly problematic dance dramas “Labyrinth of Souls” (1998) and “Possibilities” (1999), in which she struggled to reinvent modes of expression that modern dance choreographers had explored for decades.

No longer clueless in “Elements of Life,” Imperio even managed to put her own feminist spin on familiar concepts that too often turn into cliches -- choreographed rape, for instance. Yes, four men did brutalize Megan Hiratzka early in Act 1, but she fought them off with unexpected power; later on, Imperio’s “Obsessions Possession” ensemble showed that women can dance (and be) oppressors just as effectively as men. In its own weird way, that’s progress.

Imperio has called the work “the personal quest for a better tomorrow,” and although she avoided a linear narrative, her dances, and the video sequences by Steven Butler, traced an arc from the troubled present (“God’s Lyrics”) to a possible future in which people are transfigured by the glories of art (“Colors of Debussy”).

Moreover, whenever the choreography doubled back on itself or threatened to seem repetitive, lighting designer Richard Taylor contributed one of his spectacular diversionary effects: gorgeous color washes, backlit smoke, overhead beam-sprays, a single glowing aura within a sea of darkness.

Unfortunately, the costumes (credited to four designers) needed to be simplified -- they often saddled the dancers with cloth panels, front and back, that looked like aprons and flapped uselessly when they moved.

A veteran of music video or touring projects for Cher, Selena, Gloria Estefan, Suzanne Somers and others, Imperio shaped group sequences with impressive authority and daring. However, her skill at creating solos seemed rudimentary at best, and the only individual showcase that didn’t fall apart Saturday sustained itself through the feisty performance of Joelle Martinec, not the choreography.

Local flamenco specialist Roberto Amaral contributed the “Passion” solo for Imperio herself, but all her commanding arm and hand flourishes could not compensate for the percussive foot-rhythms missing or smeared through this interlude.

If Imperio worked through some of her most difficult expressive choices respectably (depicting religion in “Release Me,” for example), her hottest showpiece choreography often proved the least original conceptually. “Is It a Crime” found the supple, commanding Shea Spencer impersonating a slinky sex goddess wooed but never won by Chad Azadan, A.J. Deneka, Cory Hiratzka, Cory Jones and Robert Prescott Lee. And “Wild Is the Wind” simply offered Azadan and Jorene Leonard in a conventional romantic adagio: borrowings from ballet accented with gymnastic floor action. Where’s “a better tomorrow” in these artifacts from yesterday?

However, Azadan proved exemplary here -- a master of perfectly sculpted turning jumps and serene airborne stretches -- so you could understand why Imperio wanted him in the spotlight. Anyone would.

The company also included Misty Rascon-Smith, Hunter Hamilton and Johanna Sapakie.