BALLET HISPANICO.

BALLET HISPANICO JOYCE THEATER DECEMBER 1-13, 1998

Ballet Hispanico's most recent season at the Joyce Theater presented a variety of choreographic styles and different takes on issues of identity. Some pieces were more successful than others. In a program that included Ann Reinking's slinky moves (in her 1997 Ritmo y Ruido) and David Rousseve's text-driven dancetheater (in the 1996 When Dreams Explode), Ramon Oller's new Bury Me Standing, a piece about the culture of Gypsy people, was exceptional for its meditative approach and resonant images.

The title of Bury Me Standing is taken from a book by Isabel Fonseca about Roma, or Gypsy, culture. It refers to a persecuted Gypsy's desire to be buried upright because, as he described it, he had been kept on his knees all his life. As the ballet opens, the company walks onstage pushing a cart. Slowly, the dancers walk their fingers over the surface of the cart and down onto the floor. Pedro Ruiz, whose dynamic solos are high points of the piece, eventually crawls across the stage on his belly, following the restless movement of his fingers. Walking and moving quickly emerge as the central metaphors, and Oller, a Catalan choreographer, weaves together flamenco, folk, and modern dance idioms to explore this theme.

Set to traditional Gypsy music, a series of scenes gives us glimpses into Gypsy life. There are group celebrations, fights, and love scenes. But over and over, the dance comes back to images of wandering. The company sometimes moves with hunched shoulders, sometimes with feet dragging, sometimes on knees or hopping awkwardly on all fours. Bodies cross the stage and disappear. One duet includes a man lifting a woman, not in his arms, but on the soles of his feet. As she floats above him she suddenly seems free, and the choreography's emphasis on solid, earthbound movement becomes apparent.

A stark set designed by Eugene Lee depicts a barbed-wire fence hung with bicycle wheels and rags of clothing. With its echoes of a junkyard, prison, or concentration camp, this setting prepares Bury Me Standing to tell a specific story from Gypsy history. But Oller resists narrative and instead layers scenes of departure and dislocation with joy and playfulness to provide us with a fuller picture of Gypsy life. The piece remains as mysterious as the people themselves, and while it does not hit you over the head with identity politics or wow you with virtuosity in movement, the final image of Ruiz running frantically in place is haunting and powerful.