DANCE REVIEW : LEWITZKY COMPANY PERFORMS PRECISELY

Three familiar works by Bella Lewitzky seen Sunday at McKinney Theatre, Saddleback College, amply demonstrated the breadth of her formalism and the scrupulous dancing of her company.

“8 dancers/8 lights” (1985) wrapped movement around vertical neon tubes with some of the economy, if not the austerity, of post-modern minimalism. “Spaces Between” (1974) slung dancers over and under plexiglass platforms in a freewheeling celebration of movement invention. “Facets” (1986) developed contrasts in cool, sultry, and earthy tones.

Through it all her hard-working, 12-member company displayed splendid stamina, poise, and polish.

“8 dancers/8 lights” (music by Donald Knaack) playfully explored transmissions of human and electrical energy as the dancers’ movements triggered sometimes predictable, sometimes unexpected reactions. Poles of light glowed and extinguished as dancers passed and encircled, but never touched, them. Actions called for sympathetic reactions, as one dancer’s fall would send a second one sprawling.

Unison repetitions of angular movement motifs framed more expansive dance figures. A lyrical, sometimes balletic pas de deux displayed the smooth partnering of Nancy Lanier and Walter Kennedy. Kenneth B. Talley and Jennifer Handel matched paces in a bouncy, fast-moving duet.

Talley, Kennedy, and John Pennington infused their trio with the hammy, good-time exuberance of street dancers passing a hat. Gags abounded, thankfully they were tossed off instead of hard-sold.

“Spaces Between” (music by Cara Bradbury Marcus) explored rigorously lateral movement as dancers filed on stage left to right, somersaulted back across and tumbled through a dazzling series of crossings. Transparent platforms then descended to create a second movement layer overhead.

The Lewitzky dancers met the challenge. Swaying in place, they sent the platforms gliding from side to side, as the dancers directly below shifted for themselves to cover the corresponding distance. They walked across the plexiglass as their counterparts clung to the platform from underneath, matching steps in mirror images. Feats of daring, indeed.

Only “Facets” (music by Larry Attaway) explored the expressive powers of the company. The cool classicism of Nancy Lanier and Walter Kennedy (dressed in gleaming platinum) set off the smoldering drama of Claudia Schneiderman and John Pennington (in hot pink and red).

Lanier and Kennedy’s intertwined tenderly, Schneiderman and Pennington clung passionately, and both pas de deux savored the individuality of the dancers. The third section, a rough-edged, aggressive trio (Handel, Talley and Komo Kimura in khaki and purple) defied Lewitzky’s hasty resolution of the elements.