I should mention the chime that sounds at regular intervals. In her introduction, Uchizono tells us we’re here for an hour and twenty minutes. Ding. Starting now. Even in the constructed world of stage time, the clock is ticking. The world is moving on. Or maybe the chime is history repeating itself. Thank goodness for this do-over of “State of Heads” for those of us who missed it the first time. 

Uchizono in her prim white dress offers a stylized Miss America wave, then claps her hands like seal fins. She and the wonderful Cyr sometimes move like puppets. Other times they seem like robots with batteries running down. They stumble forward and with a zipping sound, their heads yank up. Cyr dashes forward to music of a single marble rolling across a wood floor. She raises the back of her wrist to tap her forehead. Gonzales launches into frenzied footwork, swinging his arms, to the sound of a car whizzing past on wet pavement. All the while the dancers’ heads jiggle. They’re dashboard bobble-head figurines. 

These three (Uchizono, Cyr, and Gonzales) of the original 1999 cast are extraordinary in their awkwardness, slack and twitchy. The shifts in motion versus stillness and bursts of speed are masterful. The newly expanded cast ensures the work retains its hardy physical edge with robust younger dancers. Tim Benderhagel and Paulina Meneses engage in some fast contact partnering, soon joined by Chelsea Hecht. Even as the pace quickens, heads continue to bob and weave. Like the recurring chime, elements of James Lo’s excellent sound design continue to surprise. There’s a bell that rattles, gurgling water, an annoying ringing, rusty gate, a drilling that comes across as especially ominous, and a squeaking that sounds disturbingly like a dog in distress.