First Position L: "Heritage Today, Gone Tomorrow"
Oct 3, 2005
By
ALLAN ULRICH
allan@voiceofdance.com
Erica Cornejo and David Hallberg of American Ballet Theatre in Agnes de Mille's Rodeo. Photo by Marty Sohl.
Not long ago in a telephone conversation with an established modernist choreographer and writer, I mentioned the fact that Agnes de Mille's Rodeo seems headed for a comeback. The contempt on the other end of the line sizzled over the wires; I thought my own phone apparatus would melt from the heat. It wasn't that this particular ballet seemed in dispute. No; called into question here was an entire generation of American ballets, an important part of what I would dare to call our American heritage. The question of heritage has been engaging scholars, dancers and ballet companies of late; and it's truly about time to take another look at this repertoire.
We will get the opportunity this season, too. This month, Ballet Theatre, the company that premiered it, will revive Rodeo during its fall City Center season. Next winter, the San Francisco Ballet will bring back the work after several yearsabsence. Also, this month (Oct. 14), when the reconstituted Oakland Ballet relaunches at the Calvin Simmons Auditorium, Billy the Kid will figure prominently. At Ballet San Jose of Silicon Valley, Dennis Nahat has earlier brought back de Mille's Three Virgins and a Devil, one of his personal successes when he danced at ABT, and a few seasons ago, assisted Oakland in its staging. If you ever wanted to see Lew Christensen's Filling Station during the last few decades, you had only two choices, SF Ballet and Utah's Ballet West, both creations of the Christensen clan.
Heritage is a buzzword these days, and I couldn't be happier; judging from recent excursions on the local scene, many younger choreographers have no memory of what happened in dance 30 years ago and even less interest in enriching their dance culture. It shows, too. Maybe, something will rub off with the interest in heritage.
In certain "with-it" circles, the neglect of a portion of the American legacy is almost perverse. You tell me why so many folks salivate at the mention of any and all Ballets Russes reconstructions and revivals, even if some of them, like Fokine's "Polovtsian Dances" from Prince Igor are scarcely stageworthy in the 21st century. Then, tell me why the same folks roll their eyes and sigh patronizingly when someone drops Rodeo or Eugene Loring's Billy the Kid into the conversation. Well, one reason is snobbery; anything with a hint of a Russian or French pedigree has gotta be better than anything Amurrican. Then, there's the question of over-exposure. American ballets to American themes were once prevalent through the stateside ballet world, but not recently. "Dated" and "cornball" are tossed around, but these are adjectives I would sooner apply to the stale psychosexual tropes of Spectre de la Rose.
Other naysayers consider these American works important paragraphs in the history of stateside dance, but, not, they say, a potential source of contemporary entertainment. Aside from overtly American themes, the ballets often arrived with American scores by major American composers; and those very familiar scores may lead people to believe they have seen the ballets more than they have. And don't forget those politically correct dolts, who find the crafty protagonist of Rodeo simply odious for attracting a man by deploying her feminine wiles, forgetting that we must judge art by the standards of its time, not ours.
We should recognize first that there is a valid American ballet tradition that parallels the neo-classic tradition launched by George Balanchine with Serenade in 1934. I'm the last person to claim that the Balanchine legacy has achieved too much prominence. Mr. B was the soul of generosity when it came to loaning out his ballets and we should properly cherish the many Balanchine works that survive.
Yet, we should not scorn the native tradition, simply because it is narrative based and derived, not from St. Petersburg's Imperial Maryinsky Theater, but from the tradition of popular culture. Lew Christensen, who was Balanchine's first American danseur noble, was proud of his start on the vaudeville stage, borrowing from that tradition, while acknowledging its limitations. And, of course, some of de Mille's greatest success were achieved on the Broadway stage (for starters, try Carousel or Oklahoma!).
Still, the American strain is definitely a tradition and it flourishes only as long as it is danced. Characterization on the dance stage must be learned and refined, and the longer it is neglected, the longer dancers will feel uncomfortable with it. A tradition is something to be passed on, so it was heartening to learn the other day that Joanna Berman, who was such an appealing Cowgirl a decade ago, will return from retirement to coach the SF Ballet revival of Rodeo.
Oakland Ballet in Billy the Kid. Photo by Marty Sohl.
It is significant, too, that Billy the Kid is coming back to Oakland. Thanks to the company's former director Ronn Guidi, Loring came from Southern California in the late 1970s to work with the dancers. He gave them his blessing and he even made a new ballet, The Tender Land, on them. Howard Sayette, who will restage Billy the Kid this month, is the anointed r'gisseur for the Loring estate, so authenticity is guaranteed. It was with Billy the Kid and other reconstructions from America and Europe that Guidi captured international attention, and in again exploring this aesthetic, current artistic director Karen Brown may attain the artistic success that has so far eluded her. There's plenty more where Billy came from, too.
And don't let anyone tell you this material cannot speak to us today. The final tableau of Billy, with the populace expanding inexorably Westward as Aaron Copland's score sings with its unique rhetoric, is among the most affecting moments in the entire ballet repertoire. Even the snobs reach for their handkerchiefs.
