‘Identity’ remains unknown

Liz Hoefner and Nina Kaufman’s aims and methods couldn’t be more dissimilar in their shared program, “Time, Identity and the Body,” which began a three-night run at Highways Performance Space on Thursday.

In the first half, Hoefner uses a sprawling five-part suite to investigate the machinations of time.

The opening solo, “Time Unfolding,” introduces the topic, with Hoefner working through a chain of precise phrases in a severely circumscribed area. Each evolves with more expansive and quicker motions but ebbs after reaching a sustained momentum. Because Hoefner is covered in wristwatches, perhaps the message is that time cheats us of satisfaction.

In the subsequent “Out of Time ... Inside the Instrument,” Hoefner seems cheated as well, bounding about with great intensity only to repeatedly peter out (wind down?) on the floor.

A quartet of young dancers toting portable CD players creates a statement on useless utilitarianism in “Keeping Time.” Plugged into their own worlds, Melissa Dominguez, Luis Estrada, Liana Lazos and Betina Quijas pivot in tight circles, swing their legs in pendulum fashion and jerk ramrod-straight arms in incrementally marked arcs.

Such movement choices overstate Hoefner’s intentions, but the exercise is strong compared with two quintets.

“Time Travel” features Jacelyn Biondo, Rebekah Davidson, Amy Dore, Sundara Duncan and Molly Headley wearing miners’ helmets and what look to be Christmas lights on their sweatsuits. It’s unclear why these Orwellian holiday elves -- barely visible on an unlighted stage -- carry one another aloft and perform other obscure tasks.

The finale, “Timeless,” finds the group dressed in sequined gowns and invoking the natural world with stag leaps, stork-like poses and other animal moves.

Ultimately, Hoefner’s eclectic effects and costuming gambits fail to cohere. Kaufman, by contrast, dedicates the second half of the evening to a monochromatic portrait of female anguish.

The prelude, “Found,” features a shrouded Kaufman inching slowly across a detritus-strewn stage toward another similarly cloaked, anonymous shape (Jean Copeland) while wailing a wordless melody.

The two figures are joined by a third (Cheryl Asbury) for “What Remains?” -- an expressionistic drama that uses mime and hints of gesture. Flashing red lights and an electronica score by Pieter Kaufman emulating the sounds of bombing set the tone for this portrait of women broken by warfare.

“Burning Girl,” a collaboration with videographers Michael Masucci and Kate Johnson, restates the theme with recurring images of a woman’s emotional incapacity, but to far less effect.

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‘Time, Identity and the Body’

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Where: Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica

When: 8:30 tonight

Price: $12 to $15

Contact: (310) 315-1459