David Dorfman Dance

Sat/10-Sun/11, Kanbar Hall

IT'S BEEN PROBABLY close to a decade since David Dorfman's work has been seen in these parts. A latecomer to dance, he drew attention in the '90s with work derived from football moves (Out of Season) and by playing the saxophone hanging upside down from fellow player Dan Froote, both of them in kilts (Horn). Familiar Movements was a poignant, intergenerational ensemble piece in which his dancers performed with members of their families. Maybe because he discovered dance so late in his life – after graduating from college with a business administration degree – Dorfman has not been burdened by dance history; he approaches every work with a clean slate. Dorfman's choreography is athletic yet airborne, beautifully formed yet friendly. Neither is he afraid to ask big questions, clothing them in luscious shapes that seduce while stabbing at us. In the first of these two West Coast premieres, Lightbulb Theory, he asks whether it is better for a lightbulb to first flicker and go out, or simply quit. The other work, See Level, with design by the gifted videographer Samuael Topiary, formerly of San Francisco, plays with the idea of the body as self-contained – but yet always in a relationship. Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m., Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California, SF. $22-$28. (415) 292-1233, www.jccsf.org/arts. (Rita Felciano)