Dance and Music Reviews : Caracalla Brings Lebanese Folklore to Pasadena

Abdul-Halim Caracalla may be the Lebanese equivalent of Alvin Ailey: a popular choreographer who can deftly blend the folklore of his people with modern-dance techniques and social commentary.

In a three-part program Wednesday in Pasadena Civic Auditorium, his Caracalla Dance Company of Beirut delivered vibrant performances of works divided equally between exciting showpiece passages and broad satire.

His targets: Lebanese who abandon their heritage when they move to the West (“The Return”) and the Turkish officials who ruled Lebanon until the end of World War I (“The Villa”).

In a parallel to the 20th-Century ballet classic “Les Noces,” Caracalla’s “Before the Wedding” focused on preparations for village nuptials--and revealed how these social rituals can leave young people feeling oppressed and panicky.

Significantly, these fears were resolved through a dream sequence depicting Bedouin marriage ceremonies: Arab culture at its most archetypal. Here, and in the evening’s other major set-pieces, Caracalla’s superb use of stage space--the artful interrelationships of small groups and the dynamic layerings of action--matched the exciting movement vocabulary at his disposal.

Belly dancers and the Aman and Avaz suites based on Arab performance traditions have made components of Caracalla’s dances familiar to local audiences. But, along with the mobility of spine and shoulders, the liquid undulations of arms, came a surprisingly light, resilent attack in footwork.

Shared by barefooted women and booted men, this springy execution of steps unified the genre scenes and drapery dances, the playacting and evocations of various eras. The sense of a legacy completely understood and powerfully embodied made Caracalla an absorbing experience even for non-Lebanese--and despite the drawbacks of deafening taped music and unreliable stage lighting.