We can thank Buffalo Bill Cody for our love affair with the American cowboy. His Wild West Show toured the world in the late 1880's, and big city audiences flocked to see the spectacle of re-enacted attacks on stagecoaches, shooting exhibitions, and heroic cowboys and Indians.

Society is even more citified now, and only a small fraction of Americans actually make a living on a farm or ranch. The majority of us are drugstore cowboys - we can't ride anything but a stool at a soda fountain or bar - but we long for a home on the range and imagine a life of gunslingers and do-gooders that follow the cowboy code.

Dancers Keely Campbell, Sarah Larson, Kenna Crouch, and

Justin Viernes pose outside the Daley Double in Encinitas to

prepare for "Myth Project V - Cowboys: The American Heroes,"

presented at Sushi in downtown San Diego.

Photo: The Patricia Rincon Dance Collective

So how fitting that the fifth installment of the Myth Project presents "Cowboys: The American Heroes." On view at SUSHI downtown through tonight, the 50-minute production is staged by the Patricia Rincon Dance Collective and incorporates iconic images of the American cowboy in film, television, music, history, and popular culture.

The production questions our romantic relationship with the mythical buckaroo and video clips are deftly edited, but in several ways, "Cowboys" is a big hat with too few cattle.

To start, the production suffers from the big concrete venue and too few good seats. Not much can be done to improve the flooring or the acoustics in the industrial space. There is no dance floor, just a slab, and the hum of an obnoxious fan system is disturbing. Seats are lined in straight rows with no rake, and sight lines are poor. On the opening night performance Friday, I was only a few rows back from the action, but struggled to see. A better configuration would be, well, a horseshoe. If you plan to attend tonight, grab a prickly hay bale in the front.

While the choreography often mirrors film images on the back wall, it is restrained. With so many western motifs to draw on, slow motion stares, fingers pointed like guns, and bawdy dance hall sequences feel too easy and become tiring. More complexity - such as an abstraction of square dancing - would go a long way.

Aaron Guerrero briefly offers that dynamic in the lobby. He sizzles in shimmies and lunges and has exciting potential. It turns out he has studied Ballet Folklorico, but he is left out of the actual performance, a considerable talent that is missed.

The production's lone male ranger is Justin Viernes, a conflicted wrangler in a long coat and leather shorts. He is an exceptional dancer and conjures images of a remorseful gunfighter, or simply a young kid who misses his family. But he is outnumbered on the stage, and we are left wanting a man-to-man standoff, but also camaraderie.

The stereotyped cowboy is a tall white guy who carries a gun and fights a lot. In reality, cowboys came in many colors, rarely fought, and just worked hard. A woman dispels that myth as she describes the vivid lives of African American, Mexican, and Native Americans in history. Her character is reminiscent of a barker who sells snake oil and warns of the devil. Amazingly we can hear her over the drone of the fan.

Keely Campbel's portrayal of a lonely cowgirl packs an emotion punch. She looks out into the crowd and whispers, "These are my mother's boots…" and relives heartache with a keen internal focus, yet emphasizes the fortitude and sacrifice of women.

Memorable performances also come from a dancer in a long skirt. In one sequence, she raises her hands and arms like a shaman and recites the words of Tom Wait's "God's Away on Business." In a seamless transition, the gritty song plays and the six-member cast kicks up heels in rousing unison.

The production is driven by terrific music from artists such as Wait, Bonnie Raitt, Woody Guthrie, and Johnny Cash, and dialogue from our favorite Westerns that include Lonesome Dove, The Searchers, and Bonanza. The music and films are mesmerizing, but are too often more engaging than the dancing. A few more inventive dances and a larger cast balanced with rough-ridin' men would deepen the fantasy and take it farther down a very rich and dusty trail.

Program

About the Myth Project series