DANCE REVIEWS : EISENBERG GROUP UNVEILS NEW WORKS

Earlier work by dancer/choreographer Mary Jane Eisenberg showcased a sassy cast of characters testing their powers and defying convention. In two impressive new works performed by her company, Shale, Friday at the Japan America Theatre, Eisenberg’s characters confront their limitations and roll with the punches.

She always showed a sharp eye for detail. Now Eisenberg presents a broader and more sober view of the human condition, burdened by responsibility for our lives and beset by forces beyond our grasp.

The two-part “Group Portrait: The Satoh Piece” contrasts getting there with being there. In the “Traveling” section seven dancers cross our field of vision, moving unsteadily towards their goal. In the “Destination” section they shift in and out of the frame, struggling to stand their ground.

Eisenberg uses a sweeping line, a smooth surface, and movement that draws on classical antecedents in ballet and modern dance. In “The Satoh Piece” (music by Somei Satoh) her approach is architectural. Dancers fan out in colonnade formation, freeze in profile like ancient glyphs, and in lifts the women rise like statues.

Intended as the overture to a larger work, Eisenberg’s new solo for herself, “A Gestural Way of Looking,” explores endurance on a more personal level. Rapid-fire gestures signal the fragmentation of a modern woman. She runs in circles, stumbles through her relentless routine, collapses, and rallies--neither triumphant nor defeated, just a weary survivor.

“Tango,” Eisenberg’s wicked dance drama for a quartet of sexual predators, still captures more tango flavor than most earnest tango imitators, but dangerous sex has acquired deadly serious overtones since the piece was created in 1980. If it still deserves a place in Shale repertory, it also deserves a tighter performance. “I’m Innocent,” Eisenberg’s 1983 version of a dance at the gym, completed the program.