Disappointment dances in

In more than 30 years of covering dance I have seldom seen a more disgusted and disappointed audience than the one Friday night at the opening of the Donna Uchizono Company at the College of Charleston's Robinson Theatre.

Choreographer Donna Uchizono should recognize that the themes of alienation and isolation have been danced many times, and in this reviewer's opinion much more compellingly than in her two works "State of Heads" (1999) and "Low" (2002).

The first of the two pieces was "State of Heads," which opened with a very loud noise and a very bright light. Perhaps the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima? Next, a barefoot man in a white suit stood for an interminable time with his back to the audience, staring at the white wall. The nihilistic scene was altered when two women trudged across the stage in white dresses.

They slowly raised their arms in movements reminiscent of Japanese dancers Eiko and Koma, who shocked audiences here nearly three decades ago with their nudity and minimal movements.

Things picked up when the man suddenly executed a fast soft-shoe sequence and then made an obscene gesture at the two women, Rebecca Serrell and Hristoula Harakas, who bounded around the room, making swimming motions with their hands. Then they removed their white dresses to reveal red satin evening dresses.

The man removed his suit to reveal a tuxedo and frenetically danced to some faint pop music as the women randomly moved about.

In the next piece, the desperation to connect seemed to be the theme of "Low," and dancers Serrell, Levi Gonzalez and Kayvon Pourazar skillfully rendered actual dance steps in the final eight minutes, as they moved to the music of Guy Yarden among bird feathers scattered on the floor. But it was too little too late. By then, a number of the audience members had fled.

Go spend your $32 elsewhere.