Silver: Limon lives through Carla's passionate preservative. (Maxwell's).

Carla Maxwell, artistic director of The Limon Dance Company, is ebullient. She is celebrating her twenty-fifth year as the troupe's leader, and her latest project, the reconstruction of Limon's treasured work Psalm (1967), received standing ovations and rave notices across the country. [] A lead performer in the company from 1965 to 2000, Maxwell was a thrillingly expressive dancer. "Onstage she had a commanding presence. You found her and stayed with her throughout the entire performance," says Donald McKayle, who has known her since she was 14 when she was studying at the New Dance Group. "She didn't perform a role; she inhabited it." Limon created several roles for Maxwell, including parts in The Winged (1966), Psalm (1967), Dances for Isadora (1971), and his last major opus, Carlota (1972), a story about the Mexican empress.

Limon died in 1972. After a transitional period in which Ruth Currier and Clay Taliaferro played key roles, Maxwell became the artistic director, and since 1978, the company and repertoire have been in her hands. "She is one of the most underacknowledged gems of the dance world," says McKayle, who is now the Limon company's artistic mentor. "She has stuck to her vision and belief, which is why the company is in such a sterling artistic state at the moment."

Maxwell, who received a Dance Magazine Award in 1995, recently recalled the period when Limon was creating Psalm with composer Eugene Lester. At that time, Lester was also Martha Graham's accompanist and occasional collaborator. "Poor Eugene!" says Maxwell. "He was getting it from both ends, Martha and Jose, and I'm surprised he didn't lose his mind."

When Maxwell started to reconstruct the work two years ago, she commissioned Jon Magnussen to compose a new score with baritone voices and a chamber ensemble. In a recent rehearsal, the dancers were soaring within the movement material as if it were a second skin.

"Psalm, in my mind," says Maxwell, "is like the birth of a planet or a star. It is like a natural event and everybody has to play a certain role. It is the bravery of the human spirit."

When it was performed in San Francisco in November 2002, Allan Ulrich wrote on Voice of Dance that Psalm leads one "to marvel at the expressiveness, at the sheer moral integrity of it all.... The cast ... invade[s] the stage in metamorphosing ritualistic patterns of rare emotional force."

Limon's technique, which he considered to be constantly evolving, is what enables the dancers to project this kind of emotional power. It is based on fall and recovery, emphasizing the grandeur in the weight of the body in motion, like that of his mentor, Doris Humphrey. The exercises teach dancers to explore their own momentum within the Limon style. "Having a true understanding of the principals of this technique would help any dancer in any style of movement," asserts Maxwell, "and would probably add .light years to their dancing lives."

But developing into a Limon dancer requires the opportunity to perform his works. "It's a whole gestalt," Maxwell continues. "You can't imitate it. You have to live in it. It's the earth's pull of gravity on your soul." For that reason, the Limon Institute is arranging to accredit future teachers. "Just because someone is swinging in class doesn't mean it is Limon [technique]," explains the artistic director. "Jose talked about the body being like an orchestra, having all of the counter-energies and movements in the body becoming an organic whole. The weight of the pelvis takes you though space, and your torso has to be very expressive. It also demands a certain vulnerability."

Not every dancer has that level of commitment. "It is a technique and a body of work you have to devote yourself to," says Maxwell. "I feel even more passionate about it now than ever!"

THE LIMON DANCE COMPANY

Jose LIMON DANCE FOUNDATION

611 BROADWAY, SUITE 905

NEW YORK, NY 10012

212.777.3353; FAX: [phone]

WWW.LIMON.ORG; [e-mail]

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Carla Maxwell

ARTISTIC MENTOR: Donald McKayle

ARTISTIC ASSOCIATES:: Roxane D'Orleans Juste, Nina Watt

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Mark W. Jones

GENERAL MANAGER: Lisa Barnes

INSTITUTE DIRECTOR: Ann Vachon

* Annual budget: $1.6 million

* 13-14 dancers, ages 21-43; 5' 2"-6' 1" in height

* 26- to 37-week contract; non-union company

* Open auditions on an as-needed basis in New York City 

* Recorded and live music

* Venues: The Joyce Theater in New York City, Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose, and other performing arts centers, theaters, colleges, and universities

* Touring: Nationally and internationally, including master classes, workshops, discussions, or lecture demonstrations

* Official school: The Limon Institute offers classes in modern dance in the Limon style, as well as repertoire, composition, and improvisation workshops, open to intermediate or advanced students. A nine-month Professional Studies Program is offered in New York City, and summer intensives are held on both the East and West Coasts

* Scholarships: Work-study scholarships for technique classes and financial scholarships for the Professional Studies Program, awarded on the basis of artistic merit and need. To apply for scholarships for the Professional Studies Program, students must submit a letter stating interest and need, a letter of recommendation from a dance professional, and a videotape of performance or studio work.

* Outreach: Master classes, teacher-training workshops, and lecture-demonstrations in New York City public schools are offered through Limon Institute Nurturing Kids (LINKs); master teachers restage Limon works in colleges and universities; and the company conducts residency programs when on tour.

Jose Limon formed his dance company in 1946 with his teacher and mentor, Doris Humphrey, as artistic director. The company performs the works of its founders and commissions works from contemporary choreographers, including Meredith Monk, Jiri Kylian, Doug Varone, and Kurt Jooss. [] The company was the first group to tour under the American Culture Exchange Program in 1954 and the first dance troupe to perform at Lincoln Center in 1963. Along with the Limon Institute, which conducts educational programs and oversees licensing of the Limon repertoire, The Limon Dance Company is guided by the Jose Limon Dance Foundation, whose mission is to keep classic American modern dance alive.

LIMON DANCE SAN JOSE

LIMON DANCE SAN JOSE

C/O SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY

1 WASHINGTON SQUARE, SAN JOSE, CA 95192

408.924.5046

PROGRAM MANAGER: Elizabeth Price [e-mail]

The Limon Dance Company has had a West Coast presence since 1994, when Gary Masters, a former Limon dancer and the director of San Jose operations for The Limon Dance Company, created a California training center and ensemble, The Limon West Dance Project of San Jose. The ensemble disbanded in the late 1990s, but the training center remains, now called Limon Dance San Jose. [] Limon technique is also taught at San Jose State University, where Masters is a professor of modern dance along with Fred Mathews, a former Limon Dance Company member. Current Limon company members visit periodically to teach master classes to students in SJSU's School of Music and Dance. [] The Limon company's twelfth annual West Coast workshop takes place at Mills College in Oakland, California July 13-25, 2003. (It will return to SJSU in 2004.) Carla Maxwell, along with Limon Company greats Clay Taliaferro, Sarah Stackhouse, Nina Watt, and Ann Vachon, will teach technique and repertoire. This summer the Limon teachers will reconstruct the solo Danzos Mexicanas, which drew on symbolic figures of Mexico's history. While working on this choreography on the Mills campus in 1939, Limon wrote (in Jose Limon: An Unfinished Memoir), "Living became a sublime adventure. There were moments when I seemed to explode, and the fragile, fleshly envelope and the four confining walls were shattered into oblivion, and the only reality was a convulsive blinding consummation, I worked like a madman. While making these dances, I grew up."

Robert Tracy is the author of Balanchine's Ballerinas: Conversations With the Muses; Goddess: Martha Graham's Dancers Remember; and Spaces of the Mind: Isamu Noguchi's Dance Designs.