Egeland and Glassman study a world of actions and reactions

Choreographers Ilaan Egeland and Keith Glassman each see dance as estranged from the so-called real world, and they used video images to evoke that estrangement in experimental pieces at Highways Performance Space on Thursday.

Egeland’s “F Action = F Reaction” filled a wall with life-size video projections of observers in street clothes indifferent to an increasingly passionate and fluid onstage duet by Ragen Carlile and Rajendra Serber.

Dancing to music by Michael Wiese, the live duo initially bonded with the video cast, remaining pressed to the wall and nearly motionless. Soon, however, they shook off their deadening composure, with Serber dancing affectionately and protectively, and eventually inspiring Carlile to join him for fast and technically demanding passages of ecstatic interaction.

As the two ran off the stage, they (or doubles) could be seen ascending ever higher into the clouds in a video sequence projected onto the ceiling. A press release mentioned that “the faint images of people seen in the clouds are two close friends who tragically died at the Santa Monica farmers market last July,” but this information was not available to the Highways audience.

Transcendence of another sort dominated Glassman’s quartet “Personal,” which began with backstage and offstage video glimpses of the dancers, then developed into an attempt to make abstract choreography more meaningful through an infusion of spoken biographical data and reenactments of everyday activities.

Thus Eryn Schon shampooed her hair, Rollence Patugan brushed his teeth and Alan Grant shaved his head before their formal solos -- while Rebecca Romero personalized “Personal” with a whole slide-show of family lore. Set to music by seven contemporary composers, “Personal” doubled back on itself at least once too often. However, Glassman’s insistence that dancing represents a person-to-person interchange -- with his cast, using cards filled out before the performance, greeting every audience member by name -- shattered the fourth wall that separates performers and public, uniting everyone in a sense of community.

Glassman and Patugan shot the video segments for “Personal.” Francesco Mazzini, Kevin McCarthy, Serber and Egeland were credited for “F Action = F Reaction.”

*

Egeland/Glassman

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

When: Today, 8:30 p.m.

Price: $16

Contact: (310) 315-1459