Uchizono’s ‘Butterflies’ mesmerizes the senses

Hristoula Harakas hung from a brilliant red swath of fabric. Silent. Serene. Cocoon-like. Then she snipped away at the cloth with a pair of scissors until she came crashing to the floor.

So began “Butterflies From My Hand,” a 55-minute foray into the strange but beguiling universe of New York-based choreographer Donna Uchizono performed Wednesday at REDCAT. The Los Angeles debut of Uchizono’s eponymous, four-member company was fraught with collective and individual terrors, indelible imagery and kinetic grace. It was also long overdue.

Set to an original electronic score by Guy Yarden, one buzzing with insect and bird sounds evocative of furiously fluttering wings, windup toys and the occasional thunderstorm, “Butterflies” throbbed with vitality and danger.

Levi Gonzalez, rooted to the ground, bounced as if in a trance, sweat flying, his heavy breathing a rhythmically percussive backdrop to his relentless quivering. During a mesmerizing mating dance, his and Carla Rudiger’s upright bodies whiplashed against each other in a tableau of startling intensity: Sex without sex, this pas de deux proved both alien and familiar.

Uchizono, a movement magician, offered scene after scene of spasmodic motifs in which manic faux floor-scrubbing gave way to moments of calm, with the dancers lying prone on the floor before slithering out of sight.

Sly wit also punctuated the piece as both the scissors and fabric made encore appearances. Andrew Clark sliced Gonzalez’s shirt to shreds (shades of early Yoko Ono), after which Gonzalez harvested another shirt from the floor; Harakas tugged on the long bolt of cloth as Rudiger, seated on the other end, smiling and waving robotically (think Miss America), was thrown from her perch, leaving Harakas to swaddle herself in this weird version of a security blanket.

Uchizono’s movement vocabulary also included fluid unison work, with duets and trios offering tangled, locked-arm turns that bled into a kind of regimental saluting.

Quaking bodies appeared storm-tossed in this sea of relentless agitation, where the notion of surrender was made manifest in rag-doll stances as prelude to caterpillar-like inching-on-the-floor antics.

Stan Pressner’s dynamic lighting design, from harsh spotlights to the warmth found in soft shadows, complemented an array of emotions. Wendy Winters’ colorful costumes (crimsons and eggplants) added to this slice-of-surreal-life adventure.

Hey: It’s Uchizono’s world, we’re just grateful to be watchers.

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Donna Uchizono Company

Where: REDCAT at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 2nd and Hope streets, L.A.

When: 8:30 p.m. today and Saturday

Price: $32

Contact: (213) 237-2800 or www.redcat.org