From the near-ridiculous to the sublime, “See Saw” (1960), one of Forti’s Dance Constructions, was deftly performed by Dietrich and Swenson. By combining ordinary movements—walking, sliding, bouncing—with everyday objects like ropes and plywood boards, the duo teetered up and down on a long plank while balancing their bodies in relation to one another. 

A conceptual work with purpose, here the body was in neo-playful mode.   

Johnson, in between numbers, also read excerpts from two of Forti’s tomes: “Handbook in Motion” (1974) and “New Book” (2023), the afternoon ultimately tracing the arc of an astonishing life, one still committed to making art.

Cut from the same post-modern cloth as Forti, Perez also maintained a dance troupe in his adopted home of Los Angeles. Indeed, his Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble was in full command of their craft in a program of group pieces, duets and solos from rarely seen works. And after showing an über-grainy film, “Download/Overload” (2012), Perez’s last performance from “Walking Tall” at the Hammer Museum, the movement guru’s multi-generational troupe performed an excerpt from “Slate in 3 Parts” (2015). 

With music by Jeff Boynton and others, Anne and Jeff Grimaldo, Jarred Cairns, Alessia Patregnani, Sarah Swenson and Isabel Van Zijl epitomized the art of pedestrian movement: jumping, running in place, hopping, shaking a leg, lying down, all to a clangy soundscape, where each move is considered, and nothing is random. 

Another excerpt, this from “Dance Crazy Kid From New Jersey Meets Hofmannsthall (1992), set to music by Michael Bayer, featured the Grimaldos, Cairns and guest Mona Jean Cedar. Here, canes and poles, symbolizing the beginnings of Perez’ failing eyesight, would become a recurring motif in this and future works. Anne Grimaldo furiously tapped hers; she and Cedar had a kind of tug of war with theirs, and Jeff Grimaldo, twirling his, also talked of a dream he had, “I was going up in an elevator that was going down.”

Again proving that postmodern work can be humorous, Perez’ “Bang Bang” (1963), featured audio of Julia Child’s “Asparagus from Tip to Butt,” while Van Zijl, dressed in worker’s garb and goggles, carried a pole and cavorted to the mellifluous sounds of Ms. Child acknowledging that asparagus is “a vegetable that should be taken seriously,” while the solo might also be seen as having a kind of low-key eroticism.

With an excerpt from “Topload/Offprint” (1967), Cairns, Patregnani and Swenson beguiled with chairs, the ubiquitous dance prop, to a Perez-curated music collage featuring Aram Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance,” where this reviewer half-expected the terpsichores to come out and spin plates on top of their poles. No such luck, but, to the tune of Donovan crooning from, “Song of the Naturalist’s Wife,” the dancers found ways to wield a toy pistol, paper airplane and glowing yo-yo.

Ah, Rudy!