Dance in America: A Renaissance Revisited.

The dizzying task of sorting through Dance in America's seventy-plus programs to come up with a fair representation for its twentieth-anniversary celebration, "Dance in America: A Renaissance Revisited," must have been daunting to PBS producer Judy Kinberg. But my real sympathy goes out to writer Holly Brubach, who had to create a coherent context for this juxtaposition of thirty bits and pieces of great choreography and superb dancing. When the hour-long program airs on Great Performances, June 3, 1996 (check local PBS listings for time), the diverse segments will have been divided into three "acts": Story, Music, and Movement, each introduced by Joanne Woodward.

Woodward hails Dance in America for having recorded a golden age of dance, noting that while there have been other golden ages of the art, this is the first to be recorded. She then asks, "What is dance?" a question that is repeated in each section. The answer is presented as a modem narrative, with the audience given glimpses of George Balanchine's The Prodigal Son, Michel Foldne's Petrouchka, and Kurt Jooss's The Green Table, all examples from the early years of the century. From midcentury, we savor Jerome Robbins's Fancy Free and Antony Tudor's Lilac Garden. Lester Horton's The Beloved and Martha Graham's Clytemnestra represent storytelling from a modem dance perspective.

In the second act, Woodward makes the connection of dance to music, as Lynn Seymour tears breathlessly through space in Five Brahms Waltzes, choreographed by Frederick Ashton in the manner of Isadora Duncan, and Gregory Hines accompanies himself tapping up and down stairs. The finale of Alvin Ailey's Revelations to "Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham" is as relentlessly exuberant as Mark Morris's Dogtown, accompanied by Yoko Ono's harsh shrieks, is relentlessly brutal. Much of this section is devoted to dances by Balanchine, from his early Serenade with music by Tchaikovsky to Union Jack with the lively orchestrations of Hershy Kay.

The premise of the third act is that dance is movement shaped into various styles. The choreographers introduced in this segment are Merce Cunningham, with excerpts from Scramble and Sounddance; Paul Taylor, with moments from his dances Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal), Last Look, and Esplanade; and the choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky, with The Afternoon of a Faun. In the end, it appears that the dances shown in each of the sections could have been interchangeable. Cunningham's relationship to music? Balanchine's acrobatic movement in The Prodigal Son? De Mille's horseback riders in Rodeo? What is the story in Last Look? Brubach did not have an easy job tying it all together.

Vital words of wisdom, both serious and humorous, from many of these choreographers augment the choreographic fragments. With the dances broken up, however, it is the dancers' performances that are most striking. For some of us, the beginning of Dance in America was just twenty years ago. But for young people, it is a generation ago, and the names and faces are familiar only from pictures in books. Performances like these give life to legends--Judith Jamison in Revelations, Mikhail Baryshnikov in The Prodigal Son, Ruth Andrien in Esplanade, Christine Sarry in Rodeo, and so on.

At first glance, the major omissions of this retrospective are works by Twyla Tharp, Eliot Feld, and some of those "beyond the mainstream" artists. Mark Morris, who will be forty this August, is the youngest choreographer represented.

While the twenty-year retrospective is giving a glimpse of the Dance in America treasures, Nonesuch Records is continuing its releases of complete New York City Ballet programs originally done for the series. [Readers interested in ordering directly should call Warner Vision at [phone].1 This spring it released three programs as part of its Balanchine Library. Choreography by Balanchine, with Stravinsky Violin Concerto and selections from Jewels, was produced for Dance in America in 1977. Jewels is marred by flimsy flats that represent the particular gems, but the "Diamonds" Pas de Deux shows Peter Martins and Suzanne Farrell at the peak of their partnership. The performance of Stravinsky Violin Concerto is an extraordinary one, due in no small part to the fact that three of the four principals--Kay Mazzo, Karin von Aroldingen, and Martins--are in roles created for them. Bart Cook performs the part originated by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. Cook's size does not match von Aroldingen's, but his dancing does. As for Mazzo and Martins, their partnership is one of delicate interaction between two dancers and, as Nancy Goldner wrote of the first performance, "by extension, to an intimacy and sympathy between two people."

The Balanchine Celebration consists of two tapes that capture performances at the conclusion of NYCB's 1993 Balanchine Celebration. The company is joined by artists from companies around the world, and the excitement in the audience is palpable.

Nonesuch has also released two more cassettes in its The Balanchine Essays series, Passe and Attitude and Port de Bras and Epaulement. These essays, with Suki Schorer and Merrill Ashley, are increasingly tantalizing yet frustrating. These videos are not pedagogical. "Analysis and Aspects of the Balanchine Technique" is how the tapes are described, and the word aspects is critical here. Schorer homes in on wonderful details while at the same time omitting huge chunks of information. She describes the placement of the hands and the wrist and elbow joints with great passion and precision. She takes the dancers through simple First and Second port de bras, without ever calling them such. She articulates the "breath" before the arms descend from Second to low Fifth beautifully. But there is never any mention of arms in Third or Fourth Position. Did Balanchine eliminate them?

With three of the nine essays available, it is clear that the impact of the series will be cumulative. The information in one elucidates that of the others, and the evocation of the style emerges as a gradual, essential process.