A foot in many a dance scene

It’s not often that the names Britney Spears and Rainer Maria Rilke are uttered in the same sentence. But for dancer-choreographer Hassan Christopher, peppering his conversation with references to such disparate personalities is a matter of course: In 2000, Christopher was featured prominently in one of the navel-baring pop star’s music videos and, as founder and artistic director of the year-old, locally based modern dance troupe the Company of Strangers, he’s as likely to make use of lines from the revered Austrian poet as a text of his own.

It’s that kind of eclectic approach to dance making that earned Christopher a Lester Horton Innovator Award last month. The newly created honor, bestowed by the Los Angeles dance community, is a heady one, to be sure, for a 30-year-old who moved here only in 1998. But he’s been working nonstop since then. His latest creative efforts will be on display Thursday through Saturday at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.

“People are coming to this show,” says Christopher, “to see what’s the big to-do: ‘Who is this guy -- is he so innovative?’ It puts pressure on me, yes, but internally I don’t take it as pressure. This is the company’s first year, and I know how many resources we have -- not many. On the flip side, the limitations force us to be more innovative.”

Born in Chicago, Christopher, whose wiry body and finely chiseled features have screen-star gloss, first put on his dancing shoes in the pre-rave, underground Windy City club scene of the late ‘80s. His love of dance led him to formal training in a variety of styles, including jazz, ballet, modern, tap and hip-hop.

In 1991, he headed to the Big Apple, where he enrolled at New York University and began taking theater courses in addition to his dance curriculum. But after two years on the East Coast, he split for Seattle, immersing himself in that city’s experimental theater scene.

“I’ve always been divided between dance and acting. I love them both,” he explains. “But mainly, it’s about creating original work -- going on a journey. I’m not into just doing movements focused purely on form, although I have a great respect and appreciation for form.”

After settling in Los Angeles, Christopher began performing with many of the city’s top dance companies: the hyper-physical Diavolo Dance Theater, Rosanna Gamson/World Wide and Collage Dance Theatre, known for its site-specific works. His relationship with Collage has proved particularly fruitful, and he’s danced in the troupe’s last four projects. The Times’ Lewis Segal cited the “spectacular gymnastic showpiece” for Christopher and two others in reviewing the group’s recent performance at the soon-to-be-demolished Perino’s Restaurant.

Collage artistic director Heidi Duckler admires Christopher’s directness as a performer. “He’s also responsive,” she says. “He takes risks, and he thinks and feels at the same time. As a choreographer, he’s like that too. He’s a leader, and I think he’s going to do well with his company.”

Combining a strong sense of theatricality with the kinetic is a Christopher signature. Working on a project-to-project basis, his troupe numbers up to 20, with several performers coming from an acting background. This jibes with Christopher’s assessment of himself as a storyteller. “I love to abstract my stories,” he says. “They’re not always linear or literal, but there’s almost always a story for me.”

The Highways bill, “Move Your Meet,” consists of vignettes that occur in places such as an elevator, a waiting room and a park, the latter featuring Christopher and Marissa LaBog clutching newspapers and spouting personal-ad-like dialogue as they athletically maneuver around a bench.

The elevator piece has a dozen performers, along with a text by Christopher that rails against corporations and technology. Plus, it makes use of giant pingpong balls. Aimee Zannoni, 26, an actor and dancer who’s also worked with Diavolo, fields the balls while participating in a spelling bee that turns into a quasi-hysterical monologue on e-mail.

“Hassan’s work is interesting because it’s not afraid to say what it wants to say. It’s not so abstract that you don’t know what the artist is going for,” Zannoni says. “He’s very human -- and comedic -- which is refreshing.”

Unlike choreographers whose jumping-off point is music, Christopher says his work is generally inspired by ideas or themes. “It’s visceral. It’ll be a feeling or an image and, without analyzing it, I try to develop it in my mind’s eye. I ask myself what’s interesting about that image.”

Answers arrive, says Christopher, in the form of the offbeat, the rhythmic and a pushing-the-envelope physicality. But while these solutions to choreographic problems can come relatively easily to him, directing a company poses its own set of problems -- especially in Los Angeles. Yet he says that by teaching hip-hop classes at the Hollywood studio and school Edge, guest-lecturing at UCLA and keeping up commercial and concert work, he’s been able to support himself with dance. And he insists he’s up to the challenge of making a mark with his young company.

“People generally come here to fulfill fantasies, to reinvent themselves and live a warm, sunny life,” he says. “That’s not how I see it. Los Angeles is a city like any other, and you have to work hard. For me, I feel there’s opportunity and room to grow. Ultimately, good work is rewarded.”

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‘Move Your Meet’

Where: Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica

When: Thurs.-Sat., 8:30 p.m.

Price: $16

Contact: (310) 315-1459