Music and Dance Reviews : Pittsburgh Troupe at Terrace Theater

The social order may be turning upside down in various Soviet republics, but in the repertory of the Duquesne University Tamburitzans, centuries of traditional Slavic dance and song are protected, celebrated and displayed for American audiences.

A Pittsburgh-based troupe of 40 dancers, singers and musicians, the Tamburitzans offered a tightly structured program at the packed Terrace Theater in Long Beach on Wednesday evening. Now in their 53rd year, they took the stage with interwoven ensembles of dancers and instrumentalists. From bagpipes, oboe-like sopels and the women’s throats came the strange and wonderful harmonies of Croatia; meanwhile, men danced in lines with men, and women in clusters with women.

A single choreographer, Zeljko Jergan, arranged the dances for the first half of the seamless presentation. After intermission, each work had a different provenance, including a charming adaptation of a satirical sketch by Igor Moiseyev. In this number, the “Starogorodski Kadrille,” students in homely dresses and mismatched coats, pretending to be post-revolutionary Russian clerks pretending to be the aristocrats they despised, danced a pre-revolutionary quadrille.

Stomping dances in high black boots were performed to Polish folk melodies; May Festival dances from Serbia were executed by processions of men and maidens wearing traditional curly-toed shoes. The dancers’ upright bearing contrasted pleasantly with their deft footwork. Clusters of musicians played a variety of stringed instruments as well as accordions and the haunting pipes.

The Tamburitzans will offer additional performances Saturday at 9 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m in the Gindi Auditorium at the University of Judaism.