Disorder in the Court

Friday, May 6, 2005 | 9:45 a.m.

The courtroom is their stage, their theater. They do handstands from wooden benches, crawl under them, hop over them, propel themselves from them.

Dancers serve as lawyers, witnesses, even evidence. They mock the judge and leap acrobatically into new positions and new roles.

At this stage of rehearsal, scenes are created as they go along. From here, anything could happen - though it's too soon to tell what that might be.

"It develops as we go and because the type of piece it is - site- specific - it's going to change each night," dancer Chris Stanley said Monday during rehearsals for tonight's performance of "Huh?" at POST Modern, the historic Las Vegas post office.

"For the first part, today and tomorrow, we're trying things out," Stanley said. "We see what works, then we solidify it."

This is how it's done with the nonprofit site-specific dance company, which turns abandoned or historic buildings into stages and its audience members into cast members.

They've danced in an abandoned jail, a newspaper building, the historic Ambassador hotel and even a working Laundromat where customers watched the show progress while doing their laundry.

"It's a challenge, but it's a lot of fun," Heidi Duckler, artistic director and founder of the Los Angeles Collage Dance Theatre, said. "We go into a space, examine it physically, look at its potential and use the site as context for the work."

Tonight's performance, a satirical romp that juxtaposes law and order with the chaos and wild side of Las Vegas, was commissioned by the city of Las Vegas as a way to celebrate the monthlong opening of the historic post office and first federal courthouse (where Sen. Estes Kefauver held hearings on organized crime in 1950).

"They really wanted to go all out, make a big statement, put it on the map. And that's what our company does," Duckler said. "It's about a 20-minute experience."

In conjunction with First Friday, the production will be performed four times between 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.

Based on legal jargon, it moves from the building's tax room to its conference room tother judge's chambers before ending up in the courtroom. Text, written by Duckler's sister and collaborator, Merridawn Duckler, will be projected onto the wall.

"It's very tongue in cheek,"Duckler said. "There's the law of the courtroom and the city itself being a place for excess."

Audience members serve as the jury and will be handed their summonses on the bus rides from First Friday locations tother courthouse. The bailiff leads the audience through the rooms.

Nimble and historic

Rarely does Collage perform outside of Los Angeles, though as Duckler pointed out, "You can be on tour in L.A."

Nor does the group usually have this short of time to prepare for a performance. A production in Miami was three years in the making. For 22 days the group lived in a hotel in which they performed.

"We've done lots of fun things," Stanley said after jumping off of a bench. "This is one of the most challenging (shows)because we have to do it all intone week."

Site-specific pieces require acrobatic feats and of extraordinary agility. Dancers have danced down stairs, in rivers, climbed jail cells and leapt tabletops.

"It takes a particular kind of dancer," Duckler said. "Some dancers, they want a controlled situation, and this isn't that." Of Collage performers, she added, "They are the most amazing dancers. They generate original movement. They create vocabulary on the site. They deal with such extreme circumstances. They've performed in 95,000 tons of water. They take a lot of risks."

The company's production of "Sleeping at the Ambassador" presented the story of affluent Hollywood in the setting of a bygone hotel. At Perino's restaurant, the group explored the ideaa of the struggling artist accompanied by text from Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist."

The 1988 "Laundromatinee" at a Thrifty Wash in Santa Monica, Calif., which a Los Angeles Times reporter described as "a capful of whimsy that's cross between Fellini and '50s TV variety," explored the idea of the endangered Laundromat.

"We often have open rehearsals," Duckler said. "People can see the work being developed.

When we did the Laundromat, the owner never closed the Laundromat so they would come every week to do their laundry and they'd see the piece progress.

"That's how you build an audience."

"Mother Ditch" was a performance that took place in the Los Angeles River in the Atwater Village community of Los Angeles.

"We hung out there, made friends with the locals, and at Davee's Accordion School," Duckler said. "Gabrielino Indians burned sage before the performance. We had a mountain climber.

"A Harley Davidson group came through one day. It turned out that they lived there. They performed their Harleys (as instruments). It was a real community effort."

Layers

An admirer of artist Robert Rauschenberg and of 1960s happenings, Duckler, who formed Collage in 1985, says she works in layers, incorporating objects, space, history and activities into the performances.

"It goes from found objects to found talent," Duckler said.

"Most often the group creates a work for the space it is performing. Other times we find a container for an idea.

"You keep a mental index for sites and ideas and hope they hook up. Sometimes you work with what you've got."

With Kafka's "A Hunger Artist," Duckler waited to find the right spot. When Perino's restaurant came up, it was a perfect fit.

Nancy Deaner, manager of the cultural affairs division, said that the city learned of Collage Dance Theatre through local Carol Goldstein, a former Los Angeles resident.

"All along I'd been looking for some kind of performance to tie in with all the centennial events in the downtown building," Deaner said. "They were such a natural tie-in and what a wonderful way to celebrate the history of the building."

Duckler isn't sure how large the audiences will be for each production, but says, "We're getting 200 chairs. That First Friday event can get kind of crazy." From the back of the courtroom Stanley watches Duckler, who serves as the judge during the production, as she slumps in an office chair while it rolls left to right.

Rolling, she sinks further into the chair until disappearing from sight, her chair still rolling. Five cast members sway side to side in time with Duckler. "Like Pong," one of the cast member says impulsively.

Smiling, Stanley said, "This be something we keep."