DANCE REVIEW : Ballroom Theatre Recalls ‘30s Hollywood

Paul Henreid and Bette Davis were nowhere to be found, of course. Neither were Fred and Ginger, who would have starred in “Now, Voyager,” if choreographer Peter Anastos had been in charge.

But the violins soared on the heart-wrenching musical line of that famous movie score. The hero in white tie and tails discovered his shy, tormented heroine hidden behind her Coke-bottle glasses. And, yes, after she bloomed in the nurturing of his love, the two danced off into the sunset together.

Thus began “The Silver Screen,” Anastos’ deliriously nostalgic sendup of Hollywood between the ‘30s and ‘50s--a piece that, at its least imaginative, finally settled into the typical American Ballroom Theatre choreographic routines offered elsewhere on the program, Thursday at Ambassador Auditorium.

Without question, the 8-year-old company puts exhibition value high on its list of priorities, relying on a somewhat academic approach as it surveys social dances up to the boogaloo.

It also bears the unmistakably British accent of its co-founder, Pierre Dulaine, who, with American Yvonne Marceau, sees no idiomatic glitch in dancers of a formal, upright persuasion taking on a soulful Frank Sinatra ballad. Even the music of Benny Goodman and Count Basie, at their upbeat snazziest, elicit the most polite responses.

But when the company turns to music of the ‘30s, and to tea dancing and the attendant prosaic attitudes with all their corny, asexual sweetness, a genuine grasp of the vernacular comes into view.

This grasp Dulaine and Marceau demonstrated in their best “Grand Hotel” style, particularly in an elaborate suite that included “The Continental” and some wondrously oblique lifts and supported spins.

“The Silver Screen” was a welcome departure from the more routine ensemble numbers, however.

Besides the opening sketch, which made comic points via a director with black eye-patch and other accouterments, there was a hilarious film noir episode (everyone stalking about bent-kneed in trench coats and hats, brim-down) that turned into a smoky, intrigue-laden tango--giving all-important context to the material.