MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : 4 CHOREOGRAPHERS AT JAPAN AMERICA

Seeing the individual in terms of a larger context seemed a pursuit common to all four Asian American choreographers featured in the last Dance Sampler Series of the season Saturday at the Japan America Theatre.

Hae Kyung Lee’s ambitious new “Yun Heh” (Cycles of Life) tackled only the big-picture natural environment, with time-lapse photography of billowing clouds superimposed upon beach and ocean establishing the glacier pace of the dance from the beginning.

Despite some haunting images, the repetitiousness and lack of interaction between dancers Lee, Kimberley Begley, Frank Joseph Adams and James Kelly made this 40-minute version of the natural cycle barren and incomplete.

Jane Watanabe’s 26-minute solo “White Ashes” (to music by Toru Takemitsu) concentrated on the missing ingredient of a relationship, using videotape projections of falling flower petals to underscore the dancer’s loss, isolation and anguish. Watanabe was a secure, steady soloist, but the emotional reverberations remained private.

Not so Louise Kawabata’s comic solo “Wallflower,” which delightfully evoked self-consciousness and maladroit moves at high school dances.

Angelia Leung’s exciting high-energy piece, “Opus,” focused on the little picture: Leung and Frank Cofrancesco overcoming isolation to find mutual discovery and trust.--CHRIS PASLES