Trekking across latitudes

French choreographer and dancer Julie Dossavi is known for her diverse influences, most prominently club dancing, postmodern aesthetics and the West African rhythms and moves of her Beninese heritage. But it was her mastery of subtlety and nuance that stood out in the debut of her company Thursday night at REDCAT.

True to its title, “P.I. (Pays) or Presentations Intimes” found meaning in private moments and intimate reflection, beginning with Dossavi brushing her teeth in the prelude to the 65-minute piece. As if retiring for the night, she curled up on a small area rug only to be roused by the singing of Papa Gedeon Diarra, a griot from Mali who sometimes danced with her and whose original lyrics recast traditional melodies to encourage her throughout the performance -- at one point calling on unseen angels to support her efforts.

Accumulating potency from minute details -- a reassuring touch to the back of the knee here, a kiss blown to the audience there -- which spilled out into spiraling circles of movement that Dossavi traced and retraced on the stage, “Presentations Intimes” was infused with a spacious calm but resonated with personal and global implications.

For example, when Dossavi appeared in a bright red dress, the hem of which was tied to her wrists, her visible discomfort might have led to the conclusion that the ensuing solo, marked by orbiting spins and abrupt halts, was a statement on the selling of oneself that comes with the act of performance. Especially in dance, which springs from a modernist tradition of self-expression.

Then again, given previous segments set to composer and bass player Allan Houdayer’s beat-heavy electronic dance music or percussionist Yvan Talbot’s strumming of the bolon (a three-string harp), the solo could have been read as a comment on the latitudes Dossavi treks as she moves back and forth between club and stage, West Africa and France, the past and the future.

Much of this had to do with Dossavi’s assured presence, which repeatedly -- and rightfully -- has been called mesmeric. She not only moves with fluidity but also carves out gestures with surgical precision.

Underscoring the sense that Dossavi was negotiating long distances was her frequent return to the area rug where the piece began. Set upstage with a dim lamp and tea tray, it became a literal and metaphoric home base.

As an artist working in France and Africa and touring internationally, Dossavi has an acute perspective on the matter of home, which may amount to little more than the memories we carry with us and the small joys we discover on life’s journey.

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Compagnie Julie Dossavi

Where: REDCAT at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. 2nd St., L.A.

When: 8:30 tonight, 3 p.m. Sunday

Price: $16 to $25

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