Washington’s spiritual vision honored

A retrospective allows us to see recurring concerns in an artist’s life. In the case of Lula Washington, who was celebrating the 25th anniversary of her Lula Washington Dance Theatre over the weekend at the Harriet and Charles Luckman Theatre at Cal State L.A., those themes were myth and ritual.

The first half of the six-part program on Friday opened with Washington’s version of the creation and fall, “One Man, One Woman

Bernard Brown and April Thomas-Wilkins danced Washington’s Adam and Eve with sweetness and joy.

For all its indebtedness to Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations,” Washington’s “African Memories” has its own energy and distinctive character solos: Warrior Woman (Michelle Hall), Black Madonna (Thomas-Wilkins) and Ghosts of the Middle Passage (Khilea Douglass). Tamica Washington-Miller was the Speaker.

But it was Washington’s “Women in the Streets” that explored the themes with the greatest complexity and ambiguity. Four down-and-out street women (Collette Williams, Nabachwa Ssensalo, Queala Clancy and Washington-Miller) huddled together, then broke apart to demonstrate paranoid or otherwise mentally afflicted behavior. As music by Prince began suggesting inner conversion to Christianity, they pulled themselves together, stood upright and seemed to enter a new existence.

Not all the dances fit the rubric. Washington’s “Urban Man” showed Rocklin Thompson and Miguel Edson as competitive figures, whose efforts at one-upmanship unfortunately culminated in self-groping. With kids in the audience, this was a poor choice of repertory.

Christopher Huggins’ “On the Edge,” receiving its world premiere, had Michelle Hall and Edson dancing mostly in separate diagonals of light to explored issues of isolation and fear of connecting.

With its integrity and craft, McKayle’s “Songs” brought the evening back to those fascinating concerns that have fueled Washington’s 25-year journey.