'American Festival I' Dances with Kick

"American Festival I"

At The Wang Center off Boylston T on the Green Line

Through March 19

Tickets $12-$52 ($12 students prior to curtain)

at 8:00 p.m. and at 2:00 p.m. Sat and Sun

Boston Ballet's dazzling new ensemble, "American Festival I," features three of America's premier modern dance choreographers: Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp.

The eclectic musical scores alone promise an especially colorful evening. The abstract strains of John Driscoll, the toe-tapping rhythms of the Andrews sisters, and the inspiring sounds of Philip Glass set a dynamically distinct tone for each piece. This remarkable diversity combined with the dancers' talent and enthusiasm make "American Festival I" a shining success. Boston Ballet throws itself wholeheartedly into the original style of each choregrapher to give the audience not only a night of excellent dance, but a night of superb art as well.

Commenting on the company's two-part tribute to American dance, Artistic Director Bruce Marks noted: "The message is the movement, with the idea that all movement is dance." Indeed, the trio of works is unified by its defiance of convention. Cunningham's "Breakers" features dancers in sharp and unpredictable poses, arms, legs and torsos working in stark juxtaposition. In "Company B," Taylor evokes the swing era of the 1940s, while poking fun at characteristic swing moves with its frantically shifting pace. Tharp's "In the Upper Room" combines modern, classical, even aerobic dance elements with exhiliarating boldness and energy.

In "American Festival I," bare limbs characterize the visual scenery more than tutus and tights, and on the rare occasion that toe shoes replace sneakers, they come only in shocking red.

Boston Ballet premiered Merce Cunningham's innovative "Breakers" in Washington last year as part of the Kennedy Center's Ballet Commissioning Project. Opening the show, "Breakers" is a perfect example of a successful artistic whole coming together from many different elements. Cunningham's choreography, Driscoll's score and Mary Jean Kenton's scenic design were developed independently for the piece. Cunningham also choreographs computer-generated movement through experimention on a software package called "Lifeforms."

The result is a work of extremely modern dimensions, a challenge to both the dancers and the audience. The celestial quality of the score makes it difficult for the dancers to perform certain steps in unison. It's often unclear whether the intricately controlled moves are supposed to be together, in canon or in random sequence, for the music lacks any hint of an underlying beat. But the score sets the other-worldly atmosphere of "Breakers" to perfection.

The choreography has the dancers arching and lurching from grand movement to virtual standstill. The body never moves uniformly; arms and legs are set at sharply contradictory paces. Yet the unnaturalness of a single step seems to ebb when the flow of dancers repeats it across the stage and the rich colors of the lighting change to infuse the dancers' tunics with newly-brilliant shades.

The Kennedy Center also commissioned Taylor's "Company B," performed for the first time by Boston Ballet as part of the "Festival." The spirited songs of the Andrews Sisters and the witty exhuberance of the dancing makes this piece pure fun. Songs such such as "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "Pennsylvania Polka" and "Rum and Coca-Cola" highlight the array, evoking the feelings of a confident and patriotic era, with underpinnings of tragedy behind every beat. Although some of the steps are clear reminders of swing dancing, Taylor adds many new elements by experimenting with the pace of the moves. Some of the dancing is heightened to a hysterically breakneck speed, while at different points, most notably the very beginning and end, the dancers perform the steps in slow motion. The effect of these changes is similar: the popular dance steps become humorously "uncool."

Tharp's "In the Upper Room," also performed for the first time by the Boston Ballet, is unquestionably a masterpiece. The dancers first enter in Norma Kamali's stylish black-and-white-striped costumes with only a suggestion of color underneath faintly visible when a shirt falls open or a skirt flies up.

By the end of the piece, the troupe, clad all in red, dominates the stage. Garments have been stripped one by one as the dancing heightens to an unbelievable pinnacle. Mist fills the dark stage and creates a dramatic "film-noir" tone, while dancers enter, seemingly out of nowhere, to astonish the audience with their reckless and energetic moves. The dancing is definitely classical, but definitively Tharp. Her dancers hurtle then strut across the floor, playing delightfully with their own talent.

The individuality and inventiveness that we so like to call "American" come forth clearly in every piece. "American Festival I" proudly salutes American choreographers, American dance and the growing success of the Boston Ballet as America's fourth-largest dance commpany.