IN DANCE, EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN BARYSHNIKOV BRINGS CONCEPTUAL TROUPE WHITE OAK TO UCLA.

Byline: Vicki Smith Paluch Correspondent

At a time when theater and dance audiences demand lavish costumes, spectacular sets and high-tech lighting and sound effects, dance great Mikhail Baryshnikov is turning back the clock to those minimalist days when less was more.

With a program called PAST Forward, Baryshnikov and his modern dance troupe, White Oak Dance Project, are bringing a spare, conceptual choreography to UCLA's Royce Hall. Shows began Wednesday and run through Saturday.

Revolutionary choreographers first emerged in the early 1960s, performing everyday, naturalistic movements in everyday clothing - sweat pants and sneakers - to create New Dance, following the artistic impulse of iconoclast John Cage and his New Music.

Just as visual artists had Happenings, this group of choreographers began charting the new direction for dance at such venues as the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village during 16 dance events between 1962 and 1964. Because many of the performances took place at the church, the choreographers were dubbed the Judson Dance Theatre.

It all began in 1960, when Cage invited musician and accompanist Robert Dunn to lead dance composition classes at the Merce Cunningham Studio. Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, Simone Forti, Paulus Berensohn and Marni Mahaffay made up the first class, which grew to include Trisha Brown and David Gordon.

``It was a break-through period. The idea was to accept the body as it is, and taking the body to where the reflexes have to come in,'' said Forti, whose 1960 ``Huddle'' and 1970 ``Scramble'' will be performed as part of the two separate White Oak programs.

``Huddle'' was inspired by Forti's observations of children hiking and climbing rocks at summer camp. It was originally performed at an art gallery, where viewers were free to walk around the dancers and view the ``details'' as each dancer shifted weight to keep balance.

``I do not like to look back. Misha has made us work on what the pieces mean today and how to frame it for large stages,'' said Forti, a 60-something Westside resident and a visiting assistant dance professor at UCLA.

A cameraman, not the audience, now walks around the dancers in ``Huddle,'' and the details the naked eye once caught are now shown with live projection on a scrim, Forti said.

Directed by Judson Dance Theatre veteran David Gordon, the program celebrates the creative fervor of the 1960s and '70s as seen through the eyes of Baryshnikov, who will be featured in two solos: ``Homemade'' by Trisha Brown and ``Flat'' by Steve Paxton.

Boundless, creative curiosity drove Baryshnikov, one of the greatest dancers of the 20th Century, to leave Russia in 1974 to dance in the West. He not only danced at American Ballet Theatre, he eventually become its artistic director, ending a nine-year stint at the helm in 1989. However, he first worked with master ballet choreographer George Balanchine at New York City Ballet, and appeared in movies - co-starring in ``The Turning Point'' and tap dancing with Gregory Hines in ``White Nights.''

His interest in modern dance grew with his relationship with Twyla Tharp, who created ``When Push Comes to Shove'' for him shortly after he joined American Ballet Theatre. As the ballet company's artistic director, Baryshnikov brought Tharp on board as his assistant and brought the work of more post-modern choreographers into the repertory, including Lucinda Childs, whose work will also be included in PAST Forward.

After leaving American Ballet Theatre at age 41, Baryshnikov decided to extend his dance career by switching gears to modern dance. With the support of longtime friend and heir to the Gilman Paper Co., Howard Gilman, Baryshnikov launched the White Oak Dance Project, leaving ballet far behind him. Baryshnikov worked with modern choreographer Mark Morris in the fall of 1989, and the following fall White Oak Dance Project had its debut performance in Boston in an evening of works by Morris.

White Oak is Gilman's plantation in northern Florida, where the dance company makes its home. He died in 1998, but the Howard Gilman Foundation still provides the dance studio for the troupe. The company supports itself through ticket sales.

In addition to the 52-year-old Baryshnikov, the White Oak dancers are Raquel Aedo, Emily Coates, Rosalynde Le Blanc, Michael Lomeka, Emmanuele Phuon and Tadej Brdnik.

The program combines film, video and new media the reconstruction of seminal American modern dance works and the creation of new choreography.

Yvonne Rainer, who left the dance world 25 years ago to pursue a career in film, noted that due to the ``Misha phenomenon'' more people will see her work ``Trio A'' (1966) during this 11-city tour than ever saw her entire body of work from 1960 to 1975.

``Baryshnikov's presence and celebrity draw not only numbers, but accord a legitimacy and seriousness to bear on our work,'' Forti said. ``It shows that the work does stand the test of time.''

PAST FORWARD

Who: Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project.

Where: UCLA's Royce Hall, 405 Hilgarde Ave, Westwood.

When: 8 p.m tonight through Saturday.

Tickets: $30 to $60. Call [phone].

Our rating: Two and one half stars

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Photo:

White Oak Dance Project, led by artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov, far right, performs at UCLA's Royce Hall through Saturday.