Palace Theatre show has lots to discover, but no intermission was bad ide - Dance showcase is trove of talent

At two and a half hours without intermission, the Dance Showcase at Playhouse Square's Palace Theatre on Friday felt like an overly long dance recital.

Audiences need breaks to visit the water fountain or the restroom. Without them, it's not surprising that kids and adults alike would get fussy and loud, as this crowd did.

It was great that the showcase attracted so many children, and unfortunate that its structure was so unfriendly to them.

On the other hand, the audience was loudly appreciative of many of the dancers in these 13 Northeast Ohio ensembles, and there was some terrific talent to be discovered.

Take Lisa K. Lock, who performed as a soloist in liquid ritual, which she choreographed. Pushing up from the floor, standing alarmingly tall, Lock resembled a long-legged white spider. She took her time in her stretchy movements to a thrusting electronic score by Amy Knoles, letting her dancing build up in impact.

It was startling to realize Lock was wearing a ballet dancer's pointe shoes, since her style and the music were so contemporary. I wish I could have found information about any upcoming performances by Lock in the program or tables in the lobby.

A recording of Aretha Franklin singing a soulful version of Somewhere, from West Side Story, was an airy, joyful and irresistible duet choreographed by Gary Abbott for a glowing Antwon Duncan and Jennifer Sutton of Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theatre.

African Soul International's artistic director, Sista Jewel Jackson, put together a super-charged group for Guinea Montage, a set of traditional dances from Guinea, West Africa. These boisterous drummers and dancers performed with the likemindedness of a family, and with an appealing authenticity besides.

In totally different style, Sarah Savelli and Ayodele Casel put on one rockin' tap routine to live piano music played by an excellent jazz pianist, Jackie Warren. Well-chosen music, in this case by J.S. Bach, also helped to set the contemplative mood for an excerpt from David Shimotakahara's Before With After, affectingly performed by Lynn Deering and Joe Booth. But a score by the great Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla overwhelmed the choreography created by Joan Meggitt and Beth Salemi for Ladies Errant, performed by Meggitt and Carla Monzo of Antaeus Dance.

There was too much electronic music from the squeaking door/clanking chain school of composition on Friday.

That's discouraging, since contemporary dance is usually a place to find cool new music. Inlet Dance Theatre's well-drilled performers were models of gymnastic precision, holding their poses to a grating electronic score by Ryan Lott. Dancing Wheels is a good company shown in uncharacteristically coarse light by the dreadful Sensorized Sound, where dancers' movements triggered pre-recorded sounds.

The veteran performers of the night, Tom and Susana Evert, showed compositional craft in their co-choreographed Elements. Like Kora Radella with Uprooted, they have jumped on the video bandwagon, with reasonably good results. But as Lock proved, one person dancing compellingly is all it really takes.