Graham Company Presents Host of Memorable Women

A half-century after Martha Graham created some of her greatest feminist dance-dramas, it evidently is easier to cast her heroic, self-empowered women than the oppressive males of her repertory.

The Graham Company returned to Cal State L.A. on Saturday, dancing with great skill and dedication in a varied, largely familiar five-part program at the Luckman Theatre. As always, the pieces offered a gallery of memorable women--right from the start, when guest Janet Eilber splendidly embodied the quicksilver audacity of someone ready to conquer the world in the solo “Satyric Festival Song� (1932).

The plotless celebration of relationships in “Diversion of Angels� (1948) left Katherine Crockett (in white) somewhat shaky as an expression of statuesque serenity, but Miki Orihara (in yellow) had coltish innocence down pat. Best of all, Fang-Yi Sheu (in red) fused zesty dynamism with sharply honed technique in a fine performance of one of the few touchstone Graham roles not originally danced by Graham herself.

But where were the brutes? Derived from Greek mythology, both “Errand Into the Maze� (1947) and “Cave of the Heart� (1946) needed plausibly threatening machismo for the leading women to confront. On Saturday, the stolid Peter Roel looked anything but terrifying in “Errand� and Gary Galbraith proved perversely likable in “Cave.� (His strutting solo-on-the-rocks came out of nowhere.)

As a result, Rika Okamoto stayed at the same level of intensity in the former work and Terese Capucilli had to generate her own drama in the latter--far from ideal, though Capucilli is never an artist to be underestimated. Happily, “Cave� also boasted fine dancing by Orihara and, in particular, Crockett.

To complete the evening, the company had commissioned a work from former member Steve Rooks: a loose yet elegant showpiece for five couples reflecting the moods and sometimes the specific images in two songs by Paul Simon. Titled “Cool River,� it gave Krishsa Marcano and Kevin Boseman special prominence and used Graham technique fluidly--emphasizing a flow of motion and a sense of cautious optimism.

A bizarre misprint in the Luckman program credited Eilber with directing “the Paris Opera Ballet in Graham’s ‘Temptations of Fosse’s Dancin,’ � a nonexistent opus that would have been an odd project, indeed, for Graham to have attempted--but no less surprising than some of her genuine, imperishable achievements.