Out of the unexpected, a meditation on beauty

Early in Stephanie Gilliland’s “Tertium Quid,” Bryan Wallk solemnly displays a child’s toy -- one of those little canisters that usually wheeze a “moo” or “baa” when turned over.

Alone on the Highways Performance Space stage, where the dance troupe Tongue opened a two-week run Thursday night, Wallk waits calmly while the low moan of a train whistle emanates from the tiny object in the palm of his hand.

It’s a telling moment, evoking laughter in its sheer unexpectedness while bringing to mind a sense of wistfulness that only the rattle of a train heading into the distance can spark.

Such moments repeat throughout the evening: Bradley Michaud cuts through a sweeping, circular dance with a “Riverdance”-like jig; the epically proportioned Brittany Dunn ignores the primary action to languidly strike a series of classic pinup poses on the stage’s edge; a sudden blackout reveals the ever-amazing Caroline Aizawa go-go dancing in a strobe light.

In the hands of a less capable artist, such interruptions and choreographic asides might prove distracting or appear contrived.

Not so with Gilliland, one of L.A. dance’s most inventive minds, who uses these moments, ironically, to provide the 65-minute piece with a cohesion it lacked at its premiere three years ago.

Likewise, “Tertium Quid” marries Gilliland’s interests in contemplative, sensual movement and nonstop, uber-athletic slam dancing to create a rich palette of evolving imagery studded with startling moments of singular beauty.

Indeed, the entire evening is a meditation on beauty, beginning with the seductive spectacle of the company modeling Gilliland’s and longtime Tongue member Holly Johnston’s funky fashions created out of leather fetish wear and recyclables -- plastic trash bags, newspapers and other detritus.

Throughout, the assured Tongue ensemble continues to don and discard identities and clothing -- spiritual seekers blindly leading one another in one section; active combatants joyously flinging, diving, leaping and flying over one another in the next.

Highlights include a touching trio for Wallk, Michaud and Jay Bartley set to an aching cello and voice score by Robert Een in which men’s suit jackets worn as shoes create a statement about restrictive gender roles even as they open up new movement possibilities.

The emblematic suit jacket also becomes a shawl for Nicole Cox, then transforms into bird wings for the cast, which also includes Jessica Harper, in a hilarious interlude set to a Liberace piano tune.

Ultimately the coats are cast off in the redemptive finale, in which unrestrained, full-out dancing to throbbing rock music transcends and unites surface physicality and the soul’s hunger for deeper forms of beauty.

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Tongue

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

When: 8:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday

Price: $18

Contact: (310) 315-1459