A choreographer’s comeback from crises

Dancer-choreographer Samuel Donlavy attempted over the weekend to reclaim the place in the local contemporary scene that he occupied more than 10 years ago before a series of crises interrupted his career. “I am home and I have come back to dance,” he declared at the beginning of his Saturday program at Studio A in Silver Lake -- a three-hour event titled “Rejoice and Celebration.” “I am HIV-positive for 20 years strong,” he said.

Walking with a cane, though dancing without it, Donlavy often used powerful pop music to accompany short dances emphasizing social issues: Pink in “Dear Mr. President,” for example, which boasted an arsenal of video images and ensemble dancing marked by intensely physicalized anger. Or Lenny Kravitz’s “American Woman,” which inspired a trio featuring provocative manipulations of the flag. If much of Donlavy’s other choreography proved sketchy or dominated by private meanings, his courage and dedication never faltered.

Guests provided the most finished dances and the most memorable performances, starting with Liliana Cattaneo’s solo “Cocytus,” which found her rising from inside a plastic trash barrel, dripping wet, her tattooed limbs gleaming as they led her into ever more amazing contortions. Almost as impressive and bizarre: “Deaf We Drifted,” Cattaneo’s gymnastic duet for Shana Walt and Sarah Keeney, linked mouth-to-mouth by a long, flexible cable. Both pieces seemed to explore insect metaphors, creepy but unforgettable.

More conventional modernism came from Rose Lago Thomas in her two extraordinarily weighty “Calling All Angels” solos and from the superbly soulful Dulce Capadocia and members of her Silayan Performing Arts Ensemble in an excerpt from the mournful “Mother Night” and other pieces.

Highlights of the evening also included a terrific bicycle showpiece by Jonathan Beasley and the rich vocalism of April Colon-Haywood. Rebecca A. Bearse and James Keene danced prominently in the Donlavy choreographies -- and Joshua Rollins contributed heartfelt singing and rapping.