Technique: steps, styles & stars.

Performance is the goal of technique. In the past seventy years, has it been choreographic invention or gifted dancers that have most influenced the choreography, and eventually the material, taught as technique in the classroom? Historically, American dance technique has been influenced by both choreographers and performers. Here are a few significant examples.

By 1927, when The American Dancer now Dance Magazine, first appeared, America had seen the artistry and dramatic talent of Anna Pavlova for the last time and the craze for wearing pointe shoes had begun. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes brought brilliant technicians, including Vaslav Nijinsky, whose extraordinary power, magnetism, and unmatched elevation and ballon still set a standard for male dancers. There were a few regional dance companies throughout the country that performed locally, but financial support and travel opportunities were limited.

The Littlefield sisters of Philadelphia, Catherine (1908-1951) and Dorothie (1916-1952), founded the Littlefield Ballet (1934-1942) and produced original works, as wen as the first full-length American Sleeping Beauty. According to Ann Barzel: "The Littlefields and their dancers introduced an exactness unknown at that time in America, except for the teaching of Cecchetti's protege, Luigi Albertieri. The sisters studied in Paris with Egorova, Volinine, Preobrajenska, and others, and their teaching emphasized 180-degree turnout, neat footwork, well-arched feet, high extensions, clear batterie, and precise pirouettes.

"Ten of Dorothie's students from the Philadelphia school were invited to form the basis of the School of American Ballet, and she herself became an early SAB teacher. Her teacher training sessions at conventions took her methods to private schools throughout America."

Barzel adds that class attire in the Littlefield school, borrowed from Paris, was leotards and tights. Students across America quickly shed their rompers and tunics.

Ballet Caravan (1936-1941), founded by Lincoln Kirstein, gave an opportunity for American choreographers, composers, and designers to express national themes. Americana appeared in music, books, theater, and poetry. Ballet Caravan produced works by Lew Christensen, William Dollar, Erick Hawkins, and, in 1938, Eugene Loring's Billy the Kid.

The vocabulary incorporated free-style movements that gave a new openness, less-strict execution to its balletic vocabulary. High energy was demanded. Characterizations included pioneers, cowboys, Indians, outlaws, and dance hall girls.

Ballet Caravan merged with American Ballet, founded by Kirstein in 1934. George Balanchine was its choreographer. In 1946 American Ballet became Ballet Society, and, in 1948, New York City Ballet. Balanchine preferred sleek, swift, musical dancers whom he coached to the style of his ballets.

When Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo opened at the St. James Theater in 1933, audiences saw the most elegant, legendary, glamorous, and exciting dancers of the time. Evolved from the Diaghilev group and recomposed in various ways, with a repertoire that had expanded from the classics to contemporary ballet, the company, under Sol Hurok's administration, propagated ballet as an art form and a commercial proposition.

Alexandra Danilova, one of its most dazzling stars, recalls those days. "The audience was astounded to see full productions with sets and costumes by the avant-garde -- De Chirico, Miro, Derain, Dufy -- and so many wonderful dancers, all different from each other. Personal qualities were important to die interpretation of the ballets, especially Massine's ballets."

"The teachers in Russia," Danilova adds, "and the Russians in Paris encouraged us to be personalities, not just robots for the choregrapher. New York in the 1930s and 1940s was full of studios with teachers from Europe where professional dancers went to class since there was no company teacher. But the tours are what made us incredibly strong -- one-night stands, travel by train, bus, and boat. We saw nothing of America except the theater and hotel in whatever town we performed.

"Offstage, the dancers were just as glamorous and dressed to make an exit from the stage door to greet their fans. I find today's dancers so shabby, without a sense of style, without knowing who and what they are, and conforming to look like everyone else. I'm not talking about eccentricity, but about individuality."

Would the ballets of that time be considered demode?

"Jazz Dance," according to Gus Giordano, "bounced from Jazz Babies's Charleston to Balanchine's 'Slaughter on Tenth Avenue' from On Your Toes and moved on to Jerome Robbins's West Side Story, with Jack Cole a major contributor in movies and night clubs.

"Before this time, musicals featured production numbers and solo song-and-dance performers or eccentric dancers.

"Bob Fosse introduced his comedic, sensual style to Broadway and film, and in the 1950s his 'Steam Heat' from the musical Pajama Game became a jazz dance classic.

"Katherine Dunham, accompanied by seven African drummers, shook the walls of the Paramount Theater in the 1930s with her African styles.

"Although jazz dance is a living art form always changing and reflecting the times, as seen in disco dance, break dance, hip-hop and funk, and other less creative forms that appeal to young hobby dancers, classic jazz dance continues to demand more technique, more creative vocabularies, more individuality, and more knowledge of styles than its delightful but faddish and fickle offshoots."

Mordkin Ballet and American Ballet Theatre began in 1937 with the students of Mikhail Mordkin, Bolshoi danseur and ballet master, who had a school in New York. By 1938, the group had become professional (Lucia Chase was a principal dancer), and by 1940 it was restructured to debut as Ballet Theatre, now known as American Ballet Theatre.

The company was organized into "wings" -- classical, headed by Anton Dolin; English, headed by Antony Tudor; and American, headed by Eugene Loring.

Some of the early choreographers were Michel Fokine (who had a school in New York), Antony Tudor, Bronislava Nijinska, Anton Dolin, and Agnes de Mille.

John Taras, who has performed and choreographed for a number of American and European companies, remembers his early classes with Fokine: "We learned bits and pieces of his choreography. It was not a class for a beginner, which I was at that time, and it was expensive. Five dollars a lesson was his price in 1934! I could only afford to go once a week. But I was like a sponge, learning every step of Les Sylphides and his other works. It turned out to be invaluable"

With the formation of Ballet Theatre, dancers could now belong to a company that bridged the classics and contemporary ballet, where they could find their special place in a "wing."

"With or without strong influences" says Taras, "the urge to dance comes from within, not from wanting to imitate stars or choreographers. If the urge is not there, don't dance."

Ballet Society, founded by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine in 1946, became New York City Ballet in 1948. Balanchine, whose works were seen in the Ballets Russes, in musicals, operas, and films, now had his own company. Although works by several choreographers were in the repertoire, the company's ballets were largely created by Balanchine, who rehearsed his works and taught company classes to refine and elaborate upon his choreographic style. Most of his dancers were trained in his School of American Ballet, at first by Russians who had performed in the Diaghilev and other companies.

The signature costume of the company became black leotards, pink tights, and pink pointe shoes because of limited finances for costuming. It exposed, however, the elegant, detailed, and quick movements of his flexible and nontraditional dancers to the choreographer's best advantage.

NYCB dancers were known for their beautiful footwork in the 1940s and 1950s and, because of financial constraints, were given only two pairs of shoes a week for three ballets each night, eight performances a week. Their feet became stronger because of Balanchine's meticulous emphasis on the use of the foot and less dependency on the shoe.

Of special significance was a $7 million grant from the Ford Foundation "to strengthen professional ballet in the United States." It was given to SAB, NYCB, and a few other national groups as seed money.

As touring became too expensive for most companies, regional professional groups emerged in urban centers with official schools; these companies now have similar repertoires. (These groups are not the semiprofessional members of regional, civic, and community companies.)

Although the technical level has been considerably elevated nationally, none as yet has developed extraordinary talents or produced extraordinary choreography.

When Sir Rudolf Bing, manager of the Metropolitan Opera invited Zachary Solov to become the new ballet master in 1951, it caused a break from tradition and the formation of a new company. Solov, a Littlefield student, and member of American Ballet and Ballet Theatre, auditioned seventy-five dancers each day for five days. The group he selected as a company was almost entirely new.

Met dancers traditionally remained most of their professional lives in the opera ballets. Unlike other countries that form a ballet company in addition to their opera group, the Met had never given much attention to their dancers after Balanchine's aborted attempt to upgrade the ballet performances with his group, American Ballet, 1935-1938.

At first view, Solov saw dancers who "moved beautifully and posed" for $60 a week pay, a long New York season, and a spring tour. The Met had an early Cecchetti background and a school taught by Margaret Craske and Antony Tudor. Typical of the 1950s, most dancers studied with the many post-Revolution Russian teachers who had studios in New York.

Solov revised, refreshed, and rechoreographed the ballets in the operas during the Met's "golden period" of stars. Some of his ballets are still performed by the small nucleus of dancers who are now the company, augmented when necessary. Solov invited guest artists such as Dame Alicia Markova and Janet Collins.

"Many fine artists," says Solov, "were members of opera companies in their student days and benefited from performing in those works that required a wide variety of styles consistent with the epoch and ethnic derivation of the production. There was also an advantage in hearing great music and great voices. Regrettably, lack of time and expense no longer permit a separate or larger company."

NEXT? Although it's always risky to predict, there are some signs that indicate that modem dance, included more frequently in dance programs of European academies than in American schools, will continue to find its way into choreography and make demands upon ballet dancers to develop a new and safe relationship with the floor. Leaders in this amalgamation, among others, include National Ballet of Spain and Ballet Victor Ullate.

But then, jazz, modem, flamenco, folk dance, and everything else -- before it was called fusion -- appeared in ballets, depending on the work's particular style.

At best, dancers today perform on a higher level of technique ranging from vulgar displays of "tricks" to what appears to be low-impact aerobics or "marking." Fortunately, there are exceptions. Some attribute the choreographic six o'clock arabesque, the split jete, and the straight-leg pas de chat to the Russians, some to Balanchine.

There are also an increased number of "hobby" or "recreational" dancers who imitate what they see onstage without a well-grounded technique. A considerable number of older dancers coming back into performing have brought their experience and talents within their limited physical means.

The influx of Russian emigres into American companies and the forming of their own groups once more show us their high level of academic technique brought about by their selection, government support, and unified training. Although they teach as they have been taught, it is not very likely that they have completed any portion of the teaching-training programs in the Vaganova system in Russia. (Ask for credentials.) Their work, however, will probably strengthen the classical background of American dancers but will probably result in little choreographic contribution because of their lack of past exposure to contemporary works. But who knows? Dance has always taken care of itself without our predictions.