DANCE REVIEW : Following the ‘Voices of Eastern Women’ : Los Angeles Festival: “HOME, PLACE and MEMORY.” <i> A city-wide arts fest.</i>

Even before derailing its announced agenda by adding an unscheduled guest ensemble, the Los Angeles Festival “Voices of Eastern Women” program, Saturday at the Vision Complex (near Leimert Park in the Crenshaw area), suffered from conceptual confusion.

Curator Anthony Shay had assembled a number of local folk soloists and companies (including his own Avaz International Dance Theatre) for an evening of mostly Islamic female expression. In the wake of the recent Vienna conference on human rights, the premise seemed highly pertinent and rich with possibilities.

Strangely, however, Shay’s spoken introductions provided lots of data but little perspective. Rambling, anecdotal and sometimes oddly flustered emcee chitchat subverted any consistent attempt to consider the status of women in the various societies depicted. Moreover, the selection and sequencing of dances seemed arbitrary, minimizing points of contact between cultures.

Coming after one of Shay’s better introductions, Avaz’s Armenian bridal dance “Im anush davig” provided a bittersweet, atmospheric highlight of the program, just as the Silayan Philippine Dance Company’s familiar “Singkil” delivered the evening’s ultimate statement of dance-spectacle. Each accepted marriage as an ordeal for the woman--one to be endured (Armenia) if not conquered (the Philippines).

In contrast, Emily Mayne’s performance of the South Indian Hindu idiom Bharata Natyam emphasized joyous expectancy and longing for union with her beloved.

The dances of professional entertainers formed one major component of the program, whether the intricate hip-and-shoulder shimmies of the Egyptian Ghaziyeh performed with nonchalant mastery by Aisha Ali or the classical Uzbek dances of Bukhara and Samarkand presented studiously by Carolyn Krueger. In addition, Bukharan dance received additional exposure when the Shashmaqam ensemble appeared in seven pieces at the end of the evening.

This group of emigre Bukharan Jews didn’t really fit on Shay’s program, but the magical flying hands and sense of style that distinguished the dancing of Firuza Yagudaeva would have been welcome anywhere.