MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : Repertory Dance Theatre

It’s either feast or famine at Repertory Dance Theatre of Los Angeles, which performed Saturday night at the Japan America Theatre. The program’s premiere lasted scarcely long enough to develop its stark theme, but a revision of last year’s “Graffiti: Writing on the Wall” splattered all over the place for 75 minutes.

Credited to artistic director Jon Johnson, associate director Lady Helena Walquer Vereen and Robert Gilliam, “Part of the Tide” is a symbolic piece about apartheid.

A soldier (Gilliam) marches, a coal miner with a shovel (Sebastian Russell) stands in doubled-over oppression, a guerrilla (Johnson) slithers and attacks, an “interpolator” (Gregory Gonzales in a white mask) eventually shakes off his torpor to make impotent, ape-like gestures, and an African warrior (Miles Thoroughgood) struts and thrusts and lets loose a great bellowing cry.

These are potentially strong characters, but they need more carefully individuated movements--and more rehearsal--to make the final moments register with real power.

After an instrumental interlude by the Billy Childs Jazz Ensemble, Johnson’s “Graffiti” started its meandering route into the realms of insanity, graffiti history and jazz dance. With such able dancers, it’s a pity Johnson relies so heavily on endlessly repeated movement cliches in ensemble work.

The solos (a silently shrieking one for himself and a tour de force for Debra Johnson) are much more flavorful. But a duet for Gilliam and Kim Jeske suggesting a trusting relationship via gymnastic and wrestling holds needs a more supple sense of timing.