The show goes on, and on, and on

The new “Split” series went splat in its first outing at the Alex Theatre. Subtitled “Dance in and Out of LA,” the series danced in and out of whack with an inaugural program Friday that began 20 minutes late, then took more than three hours to expose the strengths and weaknesses of four companies -- three of them local, one a guest from New York City.

According to a management rep, nobody planned to have the performance last past 11:30; several companies simply doubled and sometimes tripled their allotted time lengths and wouldn’t get off that stage. Indeed, the dancing might still be going on, even now, except for the intervention of some merciful soul backstage who turned off the lights and dropped the curtain right after the last group launched an impromptu encore.

But overkill reigned even before intermission, with a pileup of heavy-breathing gymnastic love duets capped by the relentless daisy-chain couplings of Robert Gilliam’s new “Chained Heat,” a contemporary “La Ronde” with plenty of same-sex, as well as hetero, action.

Set to an obnoxiously repetitive percussion score by Quami Adams that, all by itself, made every pas de deux seem endless, this showcase for some of the Southland’s most distinctive soloists had a few sequences displaying Gilliam’s original pop sensibility. Many more, however, borrowed styles from such worthies as Edouard Lock (La La La Human Steps) and Donald Byrd.

As with Gilliam, Abdel R. Salaam sold a dark view of sexuality through stale partnering stunts in “Passion Fruit,” a 1993 vehicle for his versatile and energetic New York-based Forces of Nature company. Moreover, his sense of dramatic contrast (aggressive sex versus sweet sex versus folksy sex) soon seemed as formulaic as Gilliam’s sense of structure.

Much better from the same company: Salaam’s “Rhythm Legacy” (2000-2001) a three-part exploration of African American identity with many creative gaps and lapses but a pervasive and ultimately beguiling wonderment.

“Split” co-producer Deborah Brockus paralleled Salaam’s group pride in her 1994 feminist anthem “Still Waters Run Deep” (rather raggedly executed); she also paralleled the Salaam-Gilliam obsession with lift-laden romance in her 2002 “Love Duet” (very expertly danced).

However, the most original and unpredictable choreography for her Brockus Project Dance Company arguably came in her 1993 sextet “Fragments of the Soul,” in which restless but emotionally placid corps dancing heightened her own anguished solos.

As it happened, Jamie Nichols adopted a similar idea in “If She Could Remember,” a 2002 quintet in which her galvanic, hair-lashing seated solo became a fulcrum for artfully arranged women’s corps dancing. Nichols also performed her familiar, luminous 1997 solo, “El Trabajo Solo Progressa,” which won a 2001 Lester Horton Dance Award and lost none of its remarkable gestural detail on the large Alex stage.

Besides Nichols, the most memorable dancers on Friday included Lisa K. Lock, Jeremy Tatum and Kim Borgaro in “Chained Heat”; Ruby Karen and Kaleo Francis in “Love Duet”; and LaNiece Mobley, Jeffrey Page and Sarae Garcia in the Forces of Nature pieces.

“If She Could Remember” and the two Forces of Nature segments offered live music; “Rhythm Legacy” even featured an onstage DJ adding to the mix. “Split II,” a sequel with different participants -- and, one hopes, greater quantity control -- is set for March 1 at the Alex.