Downtown and up
ODC/San Francisco returns with style and power.

By Rita Felciano

THEY'RE BACK. It took until the second weekend and program of this year's "Downtown Dancing" series for ODC/San Francisco's performers to slip into the groove of their famously exuberant ensemble work. When they flew across the stage in Brenda Way's 24 Exposures, engaging each other in thrown lifts, expansive slides, and hiccuping hops, it became obvious why audiences love ODC. The physicality of the company's dancing embraces and engages even when it seems offhand. Thanks to ODC, dance that evokes something akin to community is not only possible – it's also hip.

The same way that families are not made overnight, ODC's dancers – four of the nine are new this year – need time and space to adjust to each other. The process is by no means finished, but rough edges, out-of-sync encounters, and periodic hesitations have already diminished. Most remarkable is the synergy between John Santos and Private Freeman: despite their different personalities, they often look like shadow images of one another.

This year's "Dancing Downtown" is ambitious even for a high-octane company. Six of the eight pieces are world premieres; only 24 Exposures and KT Nelson's Last Hello are carried over from previous years. Performed rather stiffly by Brian Fisher, the latter – a be-careful-what-you-ask-for solo about a man who considers becoming a woman – is both sarcastic and tender. The festive Exposures, set to a recording of "Appalachian Waltz," juxtaposes snapshot poses with no-holds-barred encounters (a dreamy, explosive one for Santos and for ODC's new hurricane, Anne Zivolich; a gravity-defying one with goofy lifts for Justin Flores and Yukie Fujimoto, among others).

Program Two's major premiere, Kimi Okada's Flight to Ixcan, is based on the choreographer's experience of having lost her brother, possibly to Guatemalan "security" forces. Okada draws from a profoundly painful experience to create a parable about violence; though Fujimoto could double for Okada, and Santos for Okada's brother, Flight largely avoids a straight narrative, seeking to render individual experience as universal.

Flight's images seem born of the Fujimoto character's sleepless nights, unanswered questions, and speculations of what might have been. Most are quite specific: family celebrations, people falling and being dragged away, villagers' confusion and panic, women dejected and mourning, and sibling rivalry and affection. The choreography is clear, though the movements don't yet carry the emotional weight of Okada's theme. But Claudia Bernardi's costumes and props – boxes that held memories and maybe ashes; white dresses; dirt to dig and use for burial – are effective, as is Jay Cloidt's clashing score, which includes accounts of horrors committed and the decimated families left behind.

Alexander V. Nichols's lighting design soaks the five dancers of Nelson's new Pass in a raspberry tint; the color sets an affectionate tone for this trifle about competition and collaboration on the playing fields of romance and sports. A baseball cap is the prize that's yearned for, fought over, lost, found – and ultimately worn like a crown by a winner who emerges from the piece's tussles and turns.

Program One offers four world premieres. Its centerpiece is Way's fascinating if only partially successful experiment at choreographing two pieces to mirror each other. Fiendish Variations 1 and Fiendish Variations 2 are set to Bach's monumental Passacaglia in C Minor. The pieces make for a smart, intricately constructed puzzle that raises questions about perception – specifically, about how movements look different depending on who performs them and in what context.

Way's Noir, with Fujimoto as a femme fatale and Fisher as a gumshoe, takes on the film noir genre. Though a little thin, it's jazzy and fun, and it sports a fabulous score by Jay Cloidt. Nelson's look at an adult playground, Ringroundrozi, also benefits from intriguing music, an electronic score by Linda Bouchard that includes children's voices. In hindsight Ringroundrozi seems like a good companion piece to Pass.

'ODC/San Francisco: Dancing Downtown 2004' runs through Feb/29. Program One: Fri/27, 8 p.m.; Sun/29, 2 p.m.; Program Two: Thurs/26 and Sat/28, 8 p.m. (matinee Thurs/26, noon, includes work from both programs), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard, S.F. $10-$38. (415) 978-278.