A wide spectrum in ‘Dance in L.A.’

So much dance, so little time. Granted, Southland stages were bursting with hot movers and shakers over the weekend, but it’s a shame more audience members didn’t turn out for presenter Deborah Brockus’ ongoing choreography showcase, “Spectrum: Dance in L.A.” Opening the 24th edition -- a two-day mini-festival at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre -- Saturday night’s dozen offerings, including six premieres, proved an exhilarating, if occasionally bumpy, ride.

A standout in a trio of works, Seda Aybay first appeared on pointe in Megan Hornaday’s new work, “Red Line.” Lithe, daring and a delight to watch, Aybay, abetted by Rachel Bowman and Sven Toorvald -- all dancing in a neo-Romantic mode -- struggled for identity and control against the backdrop of a John Corigliano violin score, with a ticking metronome adding to the piece’s suggestion of fleeting time and innocence lost.

In “Istanbul Hatiralair” and “$irket,” both from this year, Aybay displayed choreographic flair and a cutting-edge sensibility. Her company, Kybele Dance Theater, shifted fluidly from faux Indian moves in the former, a meditation on the dancer’s life in Turkey, to controlled pandemonium in the latter, a postmodern take on office wonks. In addition to Aybay, Norman Follosco, when not doing one-armed handstands, juiced up the workplace with dizzying spins, and the other five cast members also dealt with crisis management through gambits with chairs, mock typing and wet-noodle collapsing.

The evening’s soloists proved equally engaging. Kana Miyamoto performed Kenji Yamaguchi’s 2006 work “Snowfield” with ferocious grace, her lyricism easily ceding to martial arts-like posturing. Mike Williams, strutting in Denise Leitner’s latest, “In the Palm of My Mind,” was a revelation of high kicks, backward leaps and intense skittering.

Charles “Bubba” Carr, holding court with an umbrella, served up a spiffy study in emotions with his Subliminal Movements Company in the premiere “Always Late to My Own Funeral,” featuring five dancers performing unison gestures, including bits of ersatz violence.

Commercial choreographer Jeffrey Hornaday (of Madonna tour fame and films such as “Flashdance”) got in touch with his inner ballerino in “The Tipping Point,” a new work featuring his statuesque wife, Megan, and Toorvald. This beautifully danced vignette teemed with thrilling lifts, split-leg landings and arabesques, all in service of an intimacy-versus-alienation scenario.

Two numbers by California Theatrical Youth Ballet -- the premiere “Etudes,” choreographed by Yehuda Maor and featuring six tutu- and tights-clad dancers not up to terpsichorean snuff; and “Blind Journey,” artistic director Erin Holt’s contemporary work for 10 performers -- fell flat. Also less successful were Nannette Brodie and Company performing Brodie’s jazz-flavored “Somewhere in Between” (reworked from 2003), a frenetic romp for seven to synthesized music by Orbital.

Completing the program were two works from Brockus Project Dance Company: the producer’s surreal “William the Octopus,” from 2003; and her 1994 piece celebrating women, “Still Waters Run Deep,” which could lose the poetry (spoken by the indefatigable Brockus) and keep the dance -- five gals bouncing, jamming and kicking things up for a joyful finale.