Kimmie Dobbs & Enoch Chan Wedding August 16, 2008 Toronto, Canada

By Lisa TraigerSpecial to The Washington Post Friday, July 4, 2008; Page WE15

A New Troupe Deviates Far From the Norm

Kimmie Dobbs, standing, and Jennifer Klem will perform in "Aspiro," about a girl caught in unfamiliar territory. (By Enoch Chan)

A quick look around the rehearsal room and it's clear that Deviated Theatre is not your typical troupe: One performer rolls away a unicycle while a couple of actors munch on carrots, an aerialist unrigs her crimson silks from the ceiling grid and a stagehand gathers assorted costumes and a basket brimming with maybe a hundred party masks.

" 'Deviated' means 'to depart from the norm,' " says company co-founder Kimmie Dobbs. "We're trying to do something different. All breakthroughs come from innovation: doing something different than has been done before."

This out-of-the-ordinary collection of performers, with choreographer Dobbs and her artistic collaborator, Enoch Chan, has created the world premiere of "Aspiro," with performances Saturday and Sunday at Dance Place in Northeast Washington.

An uneasy journey into the unknown underworld, "Aspiro" is the first full program by the newly minted Deviated Theatre, a local troupe that envisions making art that crosses disciplines and breaks barriers.

"From what I've seen of this new endeavor, the way Enoch and Kimmie combine different dance and theater disciplines . . . is really creative and innovative," says Alexandria writer and poet Magus Magnus, who collaborated with Chan on a poetry performance festival last year.

"We really want to have a company to love and take care of and to have fun with," says Dobbs, 24, who grew up in Anne Arundel County, dancing at the Ballet Theatre of Annapolis. She met Chan, 31, when they were both teaching at an arts summer camp in Northern Virginia. Chan was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Northern Virginia, attending Lake Braddock High School before studying theater at Boston University. He's active as a photographer in the local dance community.

Concepts influencing "Aspiro" were drawn from a 1998 painting by Chan of the mythical three Fates. The show, borrowing from contemporary dance, ballet, hip-hop, circus, vaudeville and movement theater, focuses on Dobbs's character, the Umbrella Girl, who is part waif, part wanderer, caught in unfamiliar territory. In her encounters with the circuslike cast, she becomes a stand-in for all of us: lost in the wilderness, trapped in a circus of the absurd, cornered with no exit in sight.

"Both Enoch and Kimmie," Magnus says, "have a unique artistic vision that they want to communicate to the audience, and it benefits from the cross-pollination that happens when the different disciplines work together."

Deviated Theatre Dance Place, 3225 Eighth St. NE. 202-269-1600.http://www.danceplace.org/. Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m. $8-$22. Deviated Theatre Dance Place, 3225 Eighth St. NE. 202-269-1600.http://www.danceplace.org/. Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m. $8-$22.