BALLET FOLKLORICO DE MEXICO PRACTICES THE ART OF DIPLOMACY.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

As the official ambassador of Mexican folk dance, Ballet Folklorico de Mexico is used to behaving, well, diplomatically.

Controversy? Forget it. Political messages? Don't assume you'll find any in the brilliantly costumed, strikingly executed spectacles arranged by company founder and choreographer emeritus Amalia Hernandez.

Since its formation in 1952 as a modest ensemble of eight dancers, Ballet Folklorico has grown into a cultural juggernaut. Like Russia's Bolshoi Ballet or the Boston Pops, it's a franchise, an export that promotes not only entertainment but a nation's idealized self-image.

Today, Ballet Folklorico employs more than 400 people and markets itself to a sophisticated international audience. Carefully attuned to outsiders' perceptions, this outfit knows how to satisfy the popular image of Latino culture as a nonstop fiesta of skirt-twirling women, smiling mariachi players and foot-stomping men hidden under monster sombreros.

In quieter moments, the company reaches deep into history, borrowing the masks and stylized rituals of the Yaqui Indians for its mystical ``Deer Dance.'' Then a fistful of party streamers goes flying through the air, and it's back to the Mexican Hat Dance.

``We're trying to work very hard to create a professional, competitive company that can be presented anywhere on the world,'' says company general manager Salvador Lopez, ``to bring the traditions, the magic, the color to the stage, to present a good show.''

After 45 years of performances, not many critics would think to challenge Ballet Folklorico's professionalism or, for that matter, its showmanship.

While many folk dance outfits fizzle in a matter of years, Ballet Folklorico has outlasted eight U.S. presidents. The company has done it by constantly unearthing new ingredients that give Mexican dance its unique cafe-au-lait coloring: Caribbean polyrhythms, Spanish flamenco, Austrian waltzes, aboriginal percussion, French quadrilles.

For the corporate-sponsored 22-city tour that visits Los Angeles next week, the company has added another twist: polka, the much-maligned, Polish-bred round dance that migrated to the Americas with the early Spanish sailors. Polka makes its appearance in ``Chihuahua,'' an ambitious new piece named for the vast northwestern Mexican state that straddles Texas and New Mexico.

Evenly split in two parts, ``Chihuahua'' first explores the ceremonial song and dance of the Tarahumaras, an indigenous people who took their rhythmic cues from the songbirds and other animals they revered from the dawn of history.

``Chihuahua'' then switches to an up-tempo post-Columbian setting, as the dancers break out accordions and violins and boot-scoot their way through dance motions coined by the region's cowboy population.

This fundamental contrast of pre- and post-Columbian traditions, of Indian vs. European influence, gives an edge to Ballet Folklorico's crowd-pleasing visual harmonies, its jolly peasants and Fruit Loops-colored costumes. It's the same edge the company has shown before in works like ``Wedding in the `Huasteca,' '' the musicalized tale of a rancher who seduces an Indian girl on his way to the altar.

The ever-present challenge is finding dancers with not just technical finesse, but the means to convey their culture's history and mystery. In 45 years of staging the ``Deer Dance,'' says Lopez, only three lead dancers have been ``really good'' at it.

``And we've gone through thousands of dancers,'' he adds.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Pageantry, color and history blend in Ballet Folklor ico de Mexico's audience-pleasing dances, coming to Los Angeles this week.