GIMMICKS AND GADGETS : Innovative ISO Likes to Take a Humorous Approach but Hopes You’ll Look Past the Props

In “Psycho Killer,” four people with their legs tied together maneuver frantically to a ditty by David Byrne. In “Night Thoughts,” bodies hover on bungee cords and swoop around on aerial harnesses, accompanied by the heavenly music of a Bulgarian women’s chorus. In “Captain Tenacity,” a comic book astronaut poses campily on a slanted board while a recording blasts Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” In “Foreign Tales,” two tents turn into women’s hoop skirts that eventually serve as thrones, launching pads and protective coverings.

Welcome to the cheerfully gimmicky world of ISO, a 6-year-old dance group--performing at Orange Coast College on Saturday--that seriously believes in humor.

Founded by Daniel Ezralow, 35, Jamey Hampton, 37, Ashley Roland and Morleigh Steinberg (both 27), ISO is the perky offshoot of Momix, the eccentric dance group--frequently seen at Orange Coast College--that revels in such special effects as skis, stilts and aerial harnesses. Momix had earlier split off from Pilobolus, the group that transformed the possibilities of dance back in the 1970s by borrowing movements from competitive athletics.

“The key was, Pilobolus said you could do whatever you wanted to do,” says Ezralow. “We still believe in a very open-minded approach to dance--anything that is interesting, innovative and honest.”

What about observers who say ISO (which stands for I’m So Optimistic) relies too much on sophomoric jokes and elaborate gadgets? “It hurts me, that criticism,” says Ezralow. “People see one piece which is a gimmick and start to look at the whole program as a gimmick. In ‘Night Thoughts,’ we use the bungee cords to create a beautiful dance.

“I’m not one to say everything should be funny. . . . There’s a lot of heaviness I want to choreograph. But you cannot deny the element of humor in life. I don’t think humor has to be light (in the sense of) throwaway or superficial. But light in terms of energy and (optimism)--that’s OK.”

What about the extreme brevity of some of ISO’s pieces? Does that have something to do with the fabled short attention spans of the twentysomething generation? With MTV? With TV commercials?

Ezralow brushes aside such suggestions. “Our instinct was founded out of the short, quick punch. In the end, it’s not a matter of what’s too long or too short. If you can say everything you want to in 30 seconds, that’s great. If it takes three hours to do the ‘Mahabarata’ of Robert Wilson, then it takes three hours. I do a duet with Morley, ‘I Do,’ about the fear, anger and pain in a relationship. It’s about four minutes. I (sum up) the entire relationship in those four minutes.”

During the past year, Ezralow says, the group--which “started as four people who lived together and had relationships together”--had grown apart. The relationships and the round-the-clock togetherness had ended, and everyone was developing interests outside the company.

But “maturity and growing up” averted a looming creative crisis, Ezralow says. “If you can honestly ask what you want, you can change.”

Two new company members, Jack Gallagher and Brian Frette, have expanded ISO’s options. The original members, who had always choreographed for themselves or for the entire group, are now free to make work that will be danced by somebody else.

A new work choreographed by Hampton, “Slow Fade to Roger”--with music by former Led Zeppelin member John Paul Jones and the oddball jazz group, the Lounge Lizards--is based on the 1966 Phillipe De Broca film “King of Hearts,” in which a stranger walks into a town abandoned by everybody except members of an insane asylum.

“One thing we do--it’s either an attribute or a fault--is that we’re very aware of who we’re playing for,” Ezralow adds. “I believe I dance for myself. I don’t do it for you or anyone else. But when I perform, I am doing it for the audience, so I have a great deal of respect for them.”

Although ISO’s Orange Coast College appearance was advertised--due to a communications snafu--as a co-performance with the Bobs, a San Francisco a cappella quartet, the dance group actually will be performing solo, with taped music. For Ezralow, there is a distinction between what he calls the “ISO-Bobs show” and the type of performance ISO gives on their own.

“If we’re going to a showcase place, I’m fine with the ISO-Bobs show,” he says. “It’s very fast-paced. We intersperse them singing and us dancing . . . and we dance and they dance. But if we’re playing in one of the dance theaters of America, I’m not happy with such a commercially oriented show.”

On the other hand, he says, “as soon as you get a little bit popular, you become commercial. Look at (filmmakers) Wim Wenders and Peter Greenaway. It doesn’t mean you sell out. . . . We are commercializing the avant-garde.”

The idea doesn’t seem to bother him at all.

What: “ISO and the Bobs,” a dance company and a capella quartet.

When: Saturday, Jan. 11, at 8 p.m.

Where: Robert B. Moore Theatre, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa.

Whereabouts: San Diego (405) Freeway to the Fairview exit; South to Orange Coast College.

Wherewithal: Advance purchase tickets: $13.50; at the door: $16.

Where to call: (714) 432-5880.