Rites Of Spring

Rather astonishing reports began filtering in from U.S. colleges about three years ago: the most heavily attended student events were not rock concerts or even football games, but dance performances. All over the country, the general public packed the theaters. In 1965 the total dance audience was an estimated 1 million. By 1974 it had risen to 11 million. Not since the Second World War had U.S. ballet known so bright a moment of glory. At that time Dance Critic Edwin Denby attributed the public's eagerness for dance to ballet's "civilized and peaceful excitement." Psychologists now mutter about correlations between dance movement and the human pulse. Whatever the explanation, Americans apparently cannot get enough of dance.

Nowhere is the renaissance more apparent than in New York City, now the dance capital of the world. This spring Manhattan will provide the backdrop for 16 world premieres at New York City Ballet's Ravel Festival. Galas will be presented by Martha Graham, New York City Ballet and, in the summer, American Ballet Theater. Two foreign companies -- the U.S.S.R.'s Bolshoi and Germany's Stuttgart Ballet -- will perform at the Metropolitan Opera House. One wonders, in fact, if Diaghilev's Paris or Petipa's St. Petersburg ever had it so good.

A brief review of leading companies besides A.B.T. and this spring's events:

NEW YORK CITY BALLET. Along with Martha Graham, George Balanchine helped lay the foundations of 20th century dance. In Edward Villella, Patricia McBride, Allegra Kent, Helgi Tomasson, Peter Martins and Peter Schaufuss, City Ballet has wonderful dancers. But it frowns on stars and remains a choreographer's company, mainly in the Balanchine mold. Too much of a good thing has resulted in high-quality, efficient but somehow uninvolved evenings. The return of prodigal Suzanne Farrell from five years abroad, plus increasing focus on Choreographer Jerome Robbins' wide-ranging talents, may create some needed excitement.

This season City Ballet confronts its stiffest artistic challenge ever. During the last three weekends of May, Hommage a Ravel, a centenary celebration of the French composer's birth, will feature a festival of 16 new ballets against a vast fresco of Ravel music. "In ballet there has to be something new every season," Balanchine explains calmly. "Also, Ravel was a Basque and all the Basques dance." Because the company cannot afford to close down even for a week, the new dances must be created and rehearsed while the company continues to perform the 36 ballets now in repertory. Possibly no other troupe but Mr. B.'s is capable of such labor. Balanchine claims that American dancers have a greater ability to memorize than Europeans do. "Of course, in Europe people go out for two-hour lunches and come back groggy," he adds. "Here we don't eat."

PAUL TAYLOR COMPANY. A former Graham disciple, Taylor is a modern dancer tantalized by ballet. His hip thrusts and broad jumps are as big and cheerful as he is. His linear choreography has satiric bite. Esplanade, a new piece, will be shown during a June 10-15 engagement at Manhattan's Lyceum Theater.

CITY CENTER JOFFREY BALLET. From half a dozen dancers practicing in a former chocolate factory, the Jeffrey has grown into a troupe of 43. In 1967, Choreographer Robert Jeffrey created Astarte, the first multimedia ballet. But it was Associate Director Gerald Arpino's Trinity (1970), a contemporary barn dance set to the throbbing sounds of a rock band, that roused a Leningrad audience to 36 curtain calls and a 27-minute ovation during last fall's Russian tour. Summer activities include a West Coast tour in June.

DANCE THEATER OF HARLEM.

"Why shouldn't a black be a ballet dancer?" No reason why not, said former City Ballet Member Arthur Mitchell, the first black artist to become a principal dancer in a major ballet company. In 1969, Mitchell and Dance Pedagogue Karel Shook started the only black classical company in the U.S. Today they preside over a school of 1,000 and an exuberant troupe of 27. Chicagoans will have the chance to see stylish, unaffected dancers next week.

ALWYN NIKOLAIS' DANCE THEATER. Alwyn Nikolais' choreography stresses sculpture, light and color with effects that can be droll or sinister. Costumes, light projections and electronic music are all his own creations. The ten-member troupe performs in New York in late June.

OTHER U.S. DANCE COMPANIES. The dance explosion is not confined to New York. Ten years ago there were two professional dance companies outside of Manhattan with budgets exceeding $100,000. Last year there were 20. Bustling activity in other U.S. companies, like the San Francisco Ballet, reflects the new enthusiasm for dance. There is wit behind the footwork of San Francisco's Alexander Filipov, who is yet another Kirov-trained dancer. Dramatic range, nervy dancing and a varied repertory --Giselle, Merce Cunningham's Winterbranch--place the Boston Ballet high on the list. Small wonder that subscriptions nearly tripled last year. The most important company outside of New York, however, is the Pennsylvania Ballet. The women are lithe; the ensemble work is solid. The clear, precisely articulated style of Principal Lawrence Rhodes (who moonlights with Eliot Feld's company in New York) marks him as one of ballet's leading male dancers. In June the Pennsylvania Ballet will appear at the Blossom Center Music Festival in Ohio.

Visiting Troupes from Abroad:

BOLSHOI BALLET. The key to the enduring Bolshoi mystique is its magnitude: the colossal technical prowess of its dancers, their grandeur of emotion, the elaborate theatrical productions. Alas, on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera the gallant dancers often sag beneath the weighty spectacle of the frantic choreography of Director Yuri Grigorovich. Yet Giselle, the company's corner stone, abounds in fresh lyrical dancing and finely drawn characterizations. Radiant young Ludmila Semenyaka and Vyacheslav Gordeyev, a powerful classical dancer, should win fans during the Bolshoi's nine-city national tour.

STUTTGART BALLET. This is the group's first U.S. appearance since the death of principal Architect-Director John Cranko in 1973. American Choreographer Glen Tetley, a former A.B.T. and Martha Graham dancer, was the company's unanimous choice to succeed Cranko. But whereas Cranko's story ballets and acrobatic choreography strengthened the theatrical aspect of Stuttgart, Tetley's blend of classical and modern dance vocabulary may add more plasticity of movement. His Voluntaries and his new Daphnis and Chloe will be given U.S. premieres during May-July visits to New York's Metropolitan Opera and Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center.

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