Troupe’s program fails to get in too deep

There’s something to be said for technical polish, energetic gyrating and perpetual pluck, which Bruce Wood Dance Company has in spades. Indeed, in its 2002 Los Angeles debut at El Camino College’s Marsee Auditorium, this reviewer had nothing but praise for the Fort Worth-based troupe. However, talent in spades with little burrowing beneath the surface goes only so far. Such was the case Friday, when the 11-member troupe returned to Marsee in a three-part program that was stuck in a shallow groove of bubbly but redundant dance-making.

Wood’s recent “No Sea to Sail In,” a 25-minute excursion into Balanchine territory, strove for depth in this abstract opus set to Steve Reich music. But with its droning minimalist score, the work, though fluid and swarming with fouettes, pirouettes and swell partnering, was all dressed up with no place to go.

In a moody study in black and white that alternately suggested isolation, angst and yearning, lighting designer Tony Tucci’s cones of white light saw the dancers share the shifting spotlights: Three female, tutu-clad soloists in black swan mode (Christine Freeman, Kimi Nikaidoh and Erin Printy), maintained clean lines while Doug Hopkins and Lee Scoggins contributed to the tangled-arm-and-leg motifs during intense couplings.

Striking a different chord: “Domestic Bliss,” Wood’s 2001 homage to the cigarette-puffing, martini-swilling, conformist 1950s. Making use of a Reinhard Denke sound collage that featured vintage ad jingles, Joe McCarthy witch-hunting voice-overs, and TV theme music, mop-brandishing women frolicked in big-haired wigs, floral shirtwaists and eternal smiles. Stepford-like hubbies in suspenders and ties marched to the beat of business. Tucci’s pretty pastels accentuated the parade of butt-wagging, arm-waving serial strutters, but it was 20 minutes of fluff.

Wood showed off his Texas thang in 2000’s “Lovett!,” a capricious romp set to six Lyle Lovett ditties. Exaggerated strides, two-stepping and knock-kneed stances, however sharp, still reeked of style over substance.

In a program heavy on pop culture, and considering Wood’s cow-country roots, one can’t help wonder, “Where’s the beef?”