Limon at 50: passionate, formal - relevant.

NEW YORK CITY--This year, a modern dance company celebrates its golden anniversary, which, given the youth of the field, is a singular event. Limon Dance Company has been in existence for fifty years and is planning a birthday celebration with no holds barred, highlighted by seasons at the Joyce Theater, October 21 to November 2, and Riverside Church, November 13 to 16.

Over the years the company has seen many transitions. It is a testament to artistic director Carla Maxwell that Limon is not only the first modem dance company to decide to continue on after the death of its founder, Jose Limon, but that it is thriving, never in better shape, and ready for the next fifty years.

Limon came to the United States from Mexico as a child and began studying dance with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. He formed his Jose Limon American Dance Company, with Humphrey as artistic director, in 1946 and the company held its first performances in New York at the Belasco Theatre in 1947. Over the next twenty-five years, Limon choreographed numerous dances that have become classics and created a technique and style that is studied the world over. After his death in 1972--Maxwell was made artistic director in 1978--the company became a repertory ensemble, performing Limon's classics as well as new and existing works from many of the world's most exciting choreographers.

One choreographer with a special relationship with the troupe is Donald McKayle, its official artistic mentor and resident choreographer. His new work, Heartbeats, has its New York premiere this season. "What is different about this work," says McKayle, "is that I have had the luxury of time which I used to have with my own company. I had thirty weeks to work with the company before we premiered the work. It happened over a period of time. I would go away and think about what I'd done, and think about the members of the company. Through the whole process I was able to create for the individual artist, and that was marvelous." As a repertory company, Limon offers a home to choreographers, many of whom, because of funding restraints, do not have their own companies. With Limon, they have the luxury of substantial rehearsal periods and well-trained and versatile dancers. "The dancers are extremely open," explains McKayle. "They're a wonderful palette with which to create."

Limon has always been to some extent a repertory troupe, performing works by Limon and Humphrey, which McKayle says is as it should be. "The company should have its eye on the condition of what is happening today. To have a company that calls upon the aesthetics of many choreographers is very different than having a single-choreographer company. That has not been the tradition. I will go watch single choreographer companies, and some of them, after half the program is over I want to see something else, and I don't find this with the Limon company."

Dancing works by different choreographers proves a unique opportunity for the dancers as well. "It really is a challenge to dance all these styles in the course of one evening," reports Pamala Jones, a ten-year veteran. "We [will] perhaps have a Phyllis Lamhut piece, then a Limon piece, and then a Ralph Lemon piece in one program. We would literally do specific warm-ups for the piece before we went in and did it. You don't want to go into someone's work as a Limon dancer if that's not the style; you want to get into the place of that piece; otherwise it comes off looking all the same. If it's three separate types of pieces, you want three separate styles; yet Carla chooses pieces that gel with our aesthetic."

As when Limon was alive, the dancers range in age from 21-year-old rookies to fifty something veterans who have been with the troupe since it was headed by Limon. For those who never knew Limon, the older dancers offer invaluable insight. Emilie Plauche, with the company ten years, says. "Between Carla. [Limon West director] Gary Masters, [rehearsal director] Sarah Stackhouse, and Nina Watt, we have four entirely different perspectives--they all danced with Limon in different repertoire. They coach and direct us. We don't ever learn pieces from video. We learn the work firsthand, and they give us strong encouragement to explore on our own, to find ourselves, to spend personal time. You're not re-creating someone else's version." The work demands a group of soloists able to perform as an ensemble, and to absorb diverse styles, Plauche says. "One can't assimilate a style in a few weeks, but we have substantial rehearsal processes with each choreographer and it is like a miniexploration each time. I find it stimulating to explore many styles."

One thing that frees the company to explore many styles, and not just concentrate on Limon, is the Limon Institute, set up ten years ago 'to free the company from the responsibility of being the keeper of the Jose Limon torch," as institute director Norton Owen puts it. The institute organizes events such as the recent exhibit at the New York Public Library publishes the Limon Journal, coordinates educational programs, and licenses Limon work to other companies. "All of these activities would get pushed aside if we didn't have the institute," says Owen.

Far from getting pushed aside, the humanistic message and organic movement of Limon's work seem to be making a comeback, says Owen. "People find the Limon works to be fresh, full of life and breath, and find that because they sprang from the body organically, they can be as vital and meaningful to us now as when they were created. Limon's works speak to other dancers and choreographers in a meaningful way. Dancers love to do the movement--it's juicy, deep, and meaningful." The Limon style is taught in dance departments throughout the world and, indeed, the technique has inspired many young dancers to take a second look at modern dance. The way McKayle sees it, this is a good thing; the style could prolong their careers. Limon, he says, has "never been a company just interested in how to manipulate the body into fantastic shapes and exaggerated positions so that your body is constantly under strain, which many choreographers do. . . . The breath of the movement and the resilience keeps resilient bodies."

That Limon's work would still resonate with dancers and audiences twenty-five years after his death was not a foregone conclusion. "It was a tremendous struggle when Jose died," says Maxwell, who has danced with the company for thirty-two years. "We had to prove the company could survive its founder; we had to prove his work should be saved. Our legacy is more than personality or dances: we have a technique that is not codified; it is based on fall and release. Its point of view is connected to human experience. It is passionate and formal."

It is up to the dancers to convey that passion and make the work live today. Maxwell is aware that the torch must be passed to the next generation and is confident that the newer dancers understand Limon's legacy. "He once said to me, 'You'll know me by dancing my work.'"