A dance company falls a few steps short

Once you've witnesses dancers of the caliber of Zane Booker, Bill T. Jones, Desmond Richardson, Paule Turner, Charles Anderson, and the magnificent men of companies like Philadanco, Alvin Ailey and Senegal's Compagnie Jant-Bi, such slight fare as the choreography and skill offered in

The Determining Factor

ranks low.

Helanius J. Wilkins founded the company Edgeworks Dance Theater in 2001 and brought it up from its home in Washington to offer

The Determining Factor

at the Painted Bride on Friday and Saturday night.

Given the company's puerile concept and flimsy execution, its sparse audience seemed fair. The recent election may have substantially marginalized the issue of racism, but not so gay rights, nullifying gay marriage in California and leaving thousands of couples and families in legal limbo. This performance took shots at both these issues but widely missed its marks.

Many performers in the above litany of black male dancer/choreographers have taken on these issues far more profoundly. Their moving, thoughtful works, performed with passionate virtuosity and cool heads, hit audiences between the eyes - opening them, perhaps for the first time, to the idea of equality for all the sexes. With its poor quality, Edgeworks' messengers nearly killed that message.

Little can be said about the choreography in Determining Factor because there was little enough of it. There were some balletic moves - pirouettes that several dancers were unable to complete without a little hop, and a lot of running about. There was far more prancing than dancing. And as these dance ideas dwindled, they were interspersed with preachy video. The music, too, by Sven Abow, was more sappy than savvy.

In this club-like revue, a stated complaint was being ridiculed as gays, yet that ridicule is what they held themselves up to. Monstah Black acted as a sort of MC, wearing a floppy and oversized screaming yellow Jiminy Cricket hat and Southern Belle crinolines and later appearing in cheesy, sequined-palazzo pants and not even voguing well.

At the beginning, the announcer welcomed several in the audience new to the Bride. If they were new to dance as well, let us hope they will not judge dance at the Bride by this show. After the New Year and through the spring, you can see Kun-Yang Lin's company, Gesel Mason; Tania Isaac; Marianela Boan and Gabri Christa; all of whom know how to travel, whether across the world or across the stage.

Talent. Training. Thought. Don't leave home without them.