Arts & Manners

New York now boasts so many dancers and dance companies that there aren’t enough weeks in the year for any of them to go through their paces free of competition. And even though the general public no longer seems to consider dance a branch of esoterica, there still weren’t enough fans to fill all the theaters which, this spring, were simultaneously playing host to dance troupes—a sad situation, since this meant that all of them lost money while we poor enthusiasts were faced with choices that would have defied Hobson. From midMarch to mid-April, for instance, the Joffrey Ballet was ending its four-week stint at the City Center, and the Paul Taylor group was appearing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. No sooner had these rung down their curtains than the Harkness Ballet opened in a fancy new home; the Dance Theater of Harlem embarked on its first, long-awaited full-scale season; and Martha Graham, at 80 no longer dancing herself but as richly creative as ever, presented an almost wholly new company in revivals of her great dramatic works of the Forties and Fifties. She’s a subject by herself, so this report will confine itself to the three ballet companies. Actually, the distinction between “ballet” and “modern” has lost any meaning it once had since dancers now are trained in a bewildering variety of techniques from classical to “ethnic”—a catch-all word for everything from the Irish jig to the Samba. So-called “modern companies” like Martha Graham’s or Paul Taylor’s perform only the compositions of their founders, but “ballet” companies generally pride themselves on their eclecticism—for apart from stars of the first magnitude, a Nureyev, for instance, what attracts subscription audiences is a varied repertoire; and subscriptions are what make regular seasons—and regular meals for dancers—possible.

The Dance Theater of Harlem is the love-child of Arthur Mitchell, the only black dancer ever to make it big in the New York City Ballet; indeed, he is still the only black in the company. He started his group in 1968, after the murder of Martin Luther King, in the belief that blacks could easily break into classical ballet if they could get the necessary training and encouragement, since their skill at other forms of dance was so obvious. Not surprisingly, his project evoked considerable support, especially from whites: the Dance Theater of Harlem now has its own well-equipped building and operates a school for amateurs and professionals. The school is integrated; the company, unlike that of the other great black dancer, Alvin Ailey, is not. Mitchell says that as soon as black ballet dancers have proved they can compete on a level with whites, such a restrictive policy will be superfluous. This spring’s two-week showing, marking the group’s official debut, proved that such parity will not be long a-coming: the Harlem dancers are fine, the men especially.

RB

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Ruth Berenson

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New York now boasts so many dancers and dance companies that there aren’t enough weeks in the year for any of them to go through their paces free of competition. And even though the general public no longer seems to consider dance a branch of esoterica, there still weren’t enough fans to fill all the theaters which, this spring, were simultaneously playing host to dance troupes—a sad situation, since this meant that all of them lost money while we poor enthusiasts were faced with choices that would have defied Hobson. From midMarch to mid-April, for instance, the Joffrey Ballet was ending its four-week stint at the City Center, and the Paul Taylor group was appearing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. No sooner had these rung down their curtains than the Harkness Ballet opened in a fancy new home; the Dance Theater of Harlem embarked on its first, long-awaited full-scale season; and Martha Graham, at 80 no longer dancing herself but as richly creative as ever, presented an almost wholly new company in revivals of her great dramatic works of the Forties and Fifties. She’s a subject by herself, so this report will confine itself to the three ballet companies. Actually, the distinction between “ballet” and “modern” has lost any meaning it once had since dancers now are trained in a bewildering variety of techniques from classical to “ethnic”—a catch-all word for everything from the Irish jig to the Samba. So-called “modern companies” like Martha Graham’s or Paul Taylor’s perform only the compositions of their founders, but “ballet” companies generally pride themselves on their eclecticism—for apart from stars of the first magnitude, a Nureyev, for instance, what attracts subscription audiences is a varied repertoire; and subscriptions are what make regular seasons—and regular meals for dancers—possible.

The Dance Theater of Harlem is the love-child of Arthur Mitchell, the only black dancer ever to make it big in the New York City Ballet; indeed, he is still the only black in the company. He started his group in 1968, after the murder of Martin Luther King, in the belief that blacks could easily break into classical ballet if they could get the necessary training and encouragement, since their skill at other forms of dance was so obvious. Not surprisingly, his project evoked considerable support, especially from whites: the Dance Theater of Harlem now has its own well-equipped building and operates a school for amateurs and professionals. The school is integrated; the company, unlike that of the other great black dancer, Alvin Ailey, is not. Mitchell says that as soon as black ballet dancers have proved they can compete on a level with whites, such a restrictive policy will be superfluous. This spring’s two-week showing, marking the group’s official debut, proved that such parity will not be long a-coming: the Harlem dancers are fine, the men especially.