Avaz tells multicultural ‘Tales’

A classic Persian parable of sweet revenge became a multicultural dance drama when the locally based Avaz International Dance Theatre premiered “Tales of the Fox� at the new Nate Holden Performing Arts Center on Saturday.

As in his different versions of “Guran� (about wild zebras), choreographer and designer Jamal expressed timeless concepts of personal responsibility through animal dances of great variety and charm. Once again, different species interacting in a bamboo grove illuminated various facets of human nature -- not all of them laudable.

Using lush recorded music by Ahmad Pejman, the one-act narrative showed the fox (Carolyn Melson) as not merely a predator but a thoughtless friend. And though the moral of the fable could not be as clearly expressed in movement as in words, the resolution scene gave this reckless creature its comeuppance without sacrificing the fanciful lightness of style that Jamal cultivated in the dancing.

This fox danced in a contemporary Western idiom influenced by ballet, while the moth (Karen Ochoa) had clearly been fluttering around ancient Persian court dances and the rooster (Melonie Grasty-Vazquez) had just as obviously been pecking somewhere near a flamenco enclave.

The juxtaposition of dance forms made the characters’ movement-identities as boldly defined as their shimmering, tasseled costumes. Moreover, all the accomplished Persian whirling and percussive flamenco heel work couldn’t prevent the woebegone camel (Edgar Miramontes) from stealing every scene by being the slowest, weightiest character onstage.

A hardworking corps played bats (perhaps the weakest choreography), foxes and villagers, switching costumes, masks and styles with great dexterity. To further showcase their expertise, Jamal adapted group dances from the Avaz repertory, making these dances into expressions of fantasy as much as folklore.

A Baluchi stick dance became an assault upon the camel (wrongly blamed for the fox’s misdeeds). A Bandari turning dance served as the celebratory finale. And a stylish, urban Shateri strut made no narrative sense whatsoever but was great fun to watch. Such skillful Avaz soloists as Tommy Lee and Shabnam Darbiri-far led the ensemble in some of these sequences.

The mask for the hen (Guadalupe Gonzalez) showed the greatest comic flair in Jamal’s menagerie, but you might argue that Melson’s fox looked far too catlike. Other lapses included the uncredited lighting design, which not only seemed ill-timed or even arbitrary at points but also failed to evoke a watery environment for the crucial river-crossing choreography.

Still, Avaz has been an important force in Southland dance, helping show all sorts of audiences that world dance idioms can go beyond colorful folk vigor to convey an ideal of refinement equal to that of any idiom anywhere. “Tales of the Fox� added new luster to that achievement.