Given dance's increased popularity and acceptance as a legitimate and indeed mainstream element within the family of the arts, it is instructive to examine the divergent routes taken over the years by impresarios, choreographers, and dancers alike. Just as music and painting either follow or discard tradition and convention and to varying degrees reflect the philosophy and outlook of their creators, so too can this most physical of the creative languages provide eloquent statements about the quality of the lives we lead, how we relate to one another, and which behavioral patterns unite and separate us.
Two companies regularly appearing in New York City, as part of their annual national tours, represent diametrically opposed approaches to what dance can and should do, and from a larger perspective indicate the heritage of cultural dichotomy that we are living for those who in years ahead will regard the contemporary as the antique.
The Jeffrey Ballet, generally recognized as among America's premier troupes, recent staged a sumptuous and extraordinarily moving production of John Cranko's "Romeo and Juliet" at Lincoln Center, and they will be taking the show to Florida, the Midwest, and California. The late choreographer set the piece for the Stuttgart Ballet to the gracefully portentous Prokfieff score, as have many of his colleagues throughout this century, but the work has rarely, if ever, received a more sensitive, ennobling, and refined interpretation.
Cranko knew that the essence of Shakespeare's tragic love story was the purity and innocence of Romeo's and Juliet's love for one another. Set against the violent feud between Capulets and Montagues, in this workhorse of a classic, the lovers' bittersweet romance felt as fresh and true as if it were utterly untouched, due in large part to the polished dancing of Patricia Miller and James Canfield, who showcased the sweetness and tenderness of their love as unforgettably as did the Bard's own poetry.
To augment the stunning veracity of these two performances, the opulent sets and costumes by Jorgen Ross of the Vienna Staaytsoper Ballet echoed the evocative paintings of Montesano, Carpaccio, and Piero Della Francesca. As a method of reaching their most private and intimate of emotions, which all of us share and few of us feel comfortable in revealing, this bravura production of the west's most famous love story is probably the finest to be found today.
In striking contrast is the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, which is likewise performing at the City Center as part of an annual national tour. These Cunningham programs consist of works that are choreographed without any intention of providing narrative development, character delineation, physical grace, emotional effect, or intellectual stimulation--unless you find the "music" of John Cage or the "painting" of the abstract expressionists suggestive of something beyond meaninglessness. As compared with the total aesthetic experience created by the Joffrey, the work of Cunningham begs the description anesthetic, so soporific is the effect generated by this leader of the avant-garde.
Instead of elegance of movement, through which Cranko expresses with precision the most delicate of feelings, Cunningham offers ungainly calisthenics devoid of emotional dynamism or visual beauty, and sets them not to an operatic or balletic
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