During a 3rd Law Dance/Theater rehearsal Monday afternoon at the Lakewood Cultural Center, co- director Katie Elliott looked up from the stage to see where a light was focused.
She then turned to the nine dancers and, gesturing, said, “Let’s aim for this spot here.”
Because the Boulder company typically performs in a smaller theater, she was opening the choreography slightly and making minor modifications to accommodate the cultural center’s larger stage.
Besides providing a significant boost in performing space, Elliott and Jim LaVita, her co-director and husband, hope 3rd Law’s first appearance in Lakewood will also serve as a step up in terms of respect and visibility.
Although the 9-year-old company has appeared in the Denver area twice, this weekend’s performances of its 70-minute multimedia production, “The CleanRoom,” is its most ambitious foray outside of Boulder to date.
“We don’t want to abandon the audience we’ve built in Boulder,” Elliott said, “but if you don’t grow as a dance company, you’re kind of doomed in some ways. You have to keep expanding that audience.”
Rather than the programs of three or more short, often abstract works that many dance troupes present, the main offerings of 3rd Law (the name derives from Newton’s third law of motion) consist of one multimedia piece built around a social issue, such as ethnic and religious strife, and changing notions of ritual.
“I think we need to start using our art form to say something,” Elliott said. “It’s not just about form anymore.”
But rather than preach, the two collaborators try to challenge audiences with a series of ideas presented in a provocative, multifaceted form.
“We leave you with a question,” LaVita said. “All the pieces so far have been like that. They leave you with a set of things to think about when you leave.”
A dance ethnologist and video-collage artist who teaches at the University of Denver, he is responsible for the video projections, as well as each work’s thematic structure — a kind of semi-abstract narrative.
“It’s not ‘Oklahoma!’ but there’s a hub and spokes, and each of the chapters or sections focuses the thought on the central idea,” he said.
Elliott creates the sound design — typically a track of sampled music, voices and sounds — and assembles the choreography that is at the heart of the productions.
“It’s a nice, very active, alive way to put across an issue without also clobbering people over the head,” said Eliza Kuelthau of the company’s approach. “It will have lots of layers.”
Kuelthau has been one of 3rd Law’s six core dancers since 2003, commuting from Santa Fe for each of the company’s productions because of the paucity of dance in New Mexico and her belief in 3rd Law’s mission.
“The CleanRoom” delves into the ever-growing onslaught of digital information and the burgeoning role of cyberspace in people’s lives.
“It’s exploring the consequences of the encroachment of technology on social-cultural life and how human beings are increasingly interrelating via computers in a virtual reality,” LaVita said.
The title, which is reinforced at one point by the dancers appearing in white haz-mat suits, refers to the dust-free environments used in the manufacture of computer chips and other sensitive technologies. It serves as a metaphor for a potentially sterilized world, where technology dominates to the exclusion of other arguably more “real” elements.
The soundtrack for the work combines music by electronica guru Aphex Twin and the Hilliard Ensemble, a classical vocal quartet, as well as sampled voices and sounds from television shows, such as “Star Trek” and “Dr. Who” and old sci-fi movies.
Performing 70 minutes of choreography interrupted only by an intermission is no small challenge for the dancers, especially because some of the motifs reappear with subtle alterations.
“It’s a lot to keep straight,” said Gwen Phillips, who joined the company in October. “I have to go through it every night. Before bed, I lie there and I think through every time I have to come on.”
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
“THE CLEANROOM.”
Dance. Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 S. Allison Parkway. The 3rd Law Dance/Theater, a nine-member Boulder company, makes its first major appearance in the Denver area with a multimedia production exploring the increasing encroachment of technology in our lives. 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday. $22, $17 students and seniors, $12 children. 303-987-7845 or .
