DANCE REVIEW : Nagoya Odori at Japan America

For American audiences, the touring Nagoya Odori company of Japan offers something that might be called diet-Kabuki: traditional dance-theater that resembles the fabulous original, but lacks its richness, might and juice.

At the Japan America Theatre on Sunday, the company presented a lavish three-hour performance marked by superb musicianship, fine dance skills but only a limited mastery of the dramatic repertory that director Ukon Nishikawa insisted upon emphasizing.

As in the Koryu Dance Company program at Scottish Rite Auditorium in January, you kept noticing difficulties that Grand Kabuki actors make invisible: The manipulation of long sleeves and longer leggings, the stashing or retrieval of props (especially fans), the rather flat climax of many plays--emotional plateaus that Kabuki stars make into peak experiences.

In the intense, anvil-hammering duet of “Kokaji” and the lyrical group dances of “Wankyu,” the company looked its best, in command of the many overlapping disciplines of Japanese classical dancing and successful at defining an expressive context as well.

However, the crucial moment-to-moment acting interplay in the domestic comedy “Yado no Tsuki” and the seduction/betrayal drama “Tojuro no Koi” (both duets) overtaxed the histrionic skills of the cast members. They provided something generally right that never developed and thus could not sustain interest for long. (Complicating the problem: Inadequate plot synopses in the program booklet.)

Nishikawa himself brought impressive authority to flamboyant roles in “Kokaji” and “Kishu Dojoji,” the latter a version of the classic dance-drama about monstrous lust and revenge. An elaborate lecture/demonstration (evocations of different historical idioms plus makeup and wig preparation) completed the program.