Anchorage Daily News

It's hard to believe that choreographer Maureen Whiting is also a mathematician. The works she presented in Alaska Dance Theatre's "Out of the Box" series on Friday seemed miles away from the calm, linear and cerebral world of numbers and equations.

Four dancers from the Seattle-based Maureen Whiting Company performed two duets that were parts of larger works Whiting has created. "Performed" might be too weak a word to describe what these dancers did in ADT's Black Box space. The four wreaked a physical and emotional havoc with intense movements that almost blasted through the walls.

Two dancers on a stage together almost immediately suggests a relationship, and when they are male and female, that relationship must somehow be sexual. Or so one might think. Neither "Other Jello" nor "Juicy Point B" was overtly sexual, although each definitely was physical. Both dances had complex relationships; "Other Jello," with its suggestive wordplay on "Othello," was quite irrational, while "Juicy Point B" was a bit more sane and comfortable.

"Other Jello" was 35 minutes of nonstop frenetic actions for dancers Ezra Dickinson and Tamin Totzke. They expended tremendous energy in movements that crashed into each other, jerking in abrupt shifts of design, direction and shape. The two moved in unison at times, but there seemed little personal contact between them. Their physical conversations seemed more like static than anything with real meaning. Yet they always returned to each other after solo flights of kinetic insanity.

There were dance motifs that echoed through the work, movement sections that seemed to provide small links in the actions. But these also were obsessively raw and only increased the piece's craziness. The dancers whipped their heads back and forth, their hands flapping in front of their faces. Dickinson accented many actions with his elbows held out from his sides and his fists up at his shoulders, while Totzke repeatedly scratched her legs and arms.

By contrast, "Juicy Point B," a duet for Julie Tobiason and Kory Perigo, was relatively easy to watch, although it too was chock full of near-constant movements. But the actions were softer and more rounded, and they were done at less than warp speed so one could watch them unfold. The two also had a definite sense of communion with someone they knew was real and right beside them, unlike the isolation of Dickinson and Totzke in "Other Jello."

Tobiason began the work as a whacked-out classical ballet swan queen. Her tutu was bright yellow, her tights were black fishnets, and her dancing was more spastic than graceful. But this former Pacific Northwest Ballet soloist was beautiful to watch, with wonderfully articulate feet and hands that seemed to stretch movements past their oddly angular shapes.

Perigo was a bit of a snake trying to entice this dopey bird into his arms. His body insinuated itself into Tobiason's space; he wound himself around her until she answered him with her own suggestive movements. Their heads rolled over each other's torso, and legs wrapped around body parts with wiggling toes sticking out.

"Juicy Point B" was a quirky duet, more approachable than "Other Jello." But both of Whiting's works were full of invention and, coupled with the performers' total commitment, made for a passionate evening of dance by this young artist and her company.

Anne Herman holds a master's degree in dance and has been a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts.