A Tomorrow Collective production. At the Office (68 Water Street) on Saturday, November 26. No remaining performances

Vancouver lost one of its cultural leaders when Marc Diamond died on November 17, but the much-loved educator, playwright, director, and novelist's values are very much alive in the community he left behind. Leaving his wake to catch an evening of experimental duets in a funky Gastown loft seemed an entirely appropriate way to honour his memory-and that supposition was justified by the honest, imaginative, and above all unpretentious work created by Brief Encounters' 12 participants. Between them, they represented nearly as many different disciplines, and included at least one of Diamond's former students.

The idea, according to hosts Katy Harris-McLeod and Jennifer McLeish-Lewis of the Tomorrow Collective-which also includes Mara Branscombe-was to bring together artists who in most cases had never heard of each other, then give them a scant two weeks to come up with a piece. The results were mixed, but never boring.

Some of the invitees seem destined to collaborate on bigger things. The pairing of lighting designer Adam Waddell and hip-hop dancer Jojo Zolina, for instance, was an inspired one, although it's hard to explain exactly why.

On the page, their act will likely sound half-baked: with the house lights off, the black-clad Waddell used two flashlights-one with a yellowish glow, the other a bright bluish white-to illuminate Zolina as he performed a series of sinuous contortions to some trance guru's electronically enhanced yeti story. In the flesh, though, this proved pure magic. There's a primal ferocity to Zolina's dancing, and with Waddell's flickering torches filling in for firelight, their brief turn transported us to some Stone Age-ritual cave, with a parade of gods and demons appearing out of the darkness before receding back into the gloom.

The mood was primitive, but Zolina's moves weren't. Several passages, including one in which he appeared to disengage his head from his shoulders, showed that he has an extremely sophisticated understanding of the body's mechanics. The same is true of Karissa Barry, a recent graduate of the Ballet B.C. training program, whose duet with spoken-word artist Baba Brinkman illustrated how two performers who don't have much in common can still get along. Barry's all about control, about making the small, perfect gesture; Brinkman's out to impress with torrents of wordplay and his forceful personality. But when the poet went over the top, the dancer simply lay down to rest; rather than compete, she ceded centre stage while preparing herself for more of her spare, individualistic movement. It was a nice touch.

The four other "encounters" enjoyed varying degrees of success. Billy Marchenski's portrait of a meth-head street chemist deserves to be singled out for its twitchy realism, but all 12 artists are to be commended for their willingness to experiment-an ongoing and essential component of any city's cultural life.