Les Grands Ballets Canadiens; Place des Arts; Montreal, Canada; March 26-28, April 2-4, 1998.

PLACE DES ARTS, MONTREAL OCTOBER 30-31, NOVEMBER 6-8, 1997; MARCH 26-28, APRIL 2-4, 1998

In forty years, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens has seen much social, cultural, and political change in its home province of Quebec. Born in Canada at a time when dance was damned from pulpits in Sunday sermons--no one was allowed to dance for recreation, let alone support a professional dance company--LGBC may be unique in North America for the nondance battles it has fought, However, as the company's fortieth-anniversary season shows, it has performance style and repertory panache that attract a broad range of spectators.

Two of these three programs showed the always-willing group at a high point in its history. In "Mostly Diaghilev" lost fall, and in an early spring program of contemporary works (another production was given later), LGBC danced with an ever-deepening cohesiveness.

Lawrence Rhodes, artistic director since 1989, has, except for The Nutcracker and Coppelia, purged the active repertory of nineteenth-century classics. In exchange he has broadened the company's grasp of twentieth-century ballets by adding eloquently danced contemporary works in well-constructed programs.

An example was "Mostly Diaghilev," which included ballets by choreographers influenced by the great impresario. Les Sylphides (Fokine, 1909), The Afternoon of a Faun (Nijinsky, 1912), and Apollo (Balanchine, 1928) were considered radical in their time. Gala Performance (Tudor, 1938), from well beyond the Diaghilev era, showed how the Ballets Russes influenced later periods.

The contemporary menu was similarly composed: Jiri Kylian's Stepping Stones (1991), James Kudel ka's In Paradisum (1983), and the premiere of Le Funambule ("The Tightrope Walker") by Ginette Laurin.

In the eighties LGBC was criticized for being too "eclectic," a term that rarely implied approval. Today the company has transformed the tag into a compliment by dancing on top of a variety of styles with the kelp of expert coaches.

Former American Ballet Theatre ballerina Sallie Wilson, a frequent visitor to the company, helped Gala attain a sparkling silliness, and sculpted Les Sylphides into the best production of Fokine's much-danced classic seen here in years. Working from Nijinsky's notes, historian Ann Hutchinson Guest personally reconstructed Faun; David Bushman was riveting in the leading role, The result was exceedingly lean and contemporary-looking, backed by a reproduction of Leon Baksts colorful set. Bushman's laudable focus on the interior motivation of the Faun was almost postmodern.

Ib Andersen's version of Balanchine's Apollo, a ballet new to the company, was also danced with a startling modernity by a well-cast group that emphasized the crisp, cool lines of early Balanchine.

The skill at reducing steps to their essence is responsible for LGBC's ability to do justice to such choreographers as Kylian and Kudelka. While traditionally the company has excelled in dramatic works like Kudelka's swirling masterpiece about the dignity of dying, In Paradisum, it brought a similar luminous emotional commitment to Kylian's quirky, quick-shifting Stepping Stones.

Following the popular success of Edouard Lock's Etude last year, LGBC commissioned another Montreal modern dance choreographer, Laurin, to create Le Funambule for this season, dedicating to its late founder, Ludmilla Chiriaeff.

Using the tightrope walker as a metaphor, Laurin made a pretty, brightly costumed fly-past full of darting directional changes, long balances, and shifting perspectives.

Founder-director of O Vertigo, Laurin specializes in passionate, fast, devilishly risky dances in which dancers fly through the air, tossing and spinning in apparent disequilibrium. Le Funambule was full of sometimes unrelated imagery and attempts at physical bravery meant to evoke the risks circus performers take.

Laurin's second work for LGBC, it is her first to make use of pointe work. As tightrope walkers, dancers balanced for long moments on Pointe, sometimes in head-to-knee, unballerina-like postures. So far, so good. However, while the dancers had no difficulty with the implied dangers, their technical strength and confidence undermined the sense of daring that is a Laurin trademark.

In seriously underestimating the dancers, Le Funambule was not much of a physical challenge. Perhaps Laurin needed more time to comprehend the dancers' capabilities.

Nault's Carmina Burana, voted LGBC's most popular ballet by Montreal audiences, wound up the anniversary season in May.