BALLET AND DANCE REVIEWS : Troupe Exudes the Power of Nostalgia

Trust the power of nostalgia. All those connected to American Ballroom Theater do, and they’re on to something.

The program danced by this engaging troupe, Friday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, was a bouquet of memories from another time--memories cast in music from the ‘30s to the ‘50s.

Yes, the whole thing is eminently stage-worthy. And yes, there were the inescapable mirrorings of Fred and Ginger. But the troupe is certainly more than a single-image clone. With the help of expert ballroom choreographers, the seven couples reveled stylishly in everything from fox trots to tangos, often done as ensembles.

It didn’t matter whether the tone was sentimental or cheery or satiric. The seasoned performers put across the message and the mode with elan. For the segment danced by co-directors Pierre Dulaine and Yvonne Marceau, however, something even better materialized: iconography in motion.

He, a strapping figure, became an emblem of concentration that she, a slip of a thing, could trust utterly. As an adagio duo they negotiated virtuoso lifts with spin-around finishes born of a single mind.

Even “The Silver Screen,” Peter Anastos’ glorious Hollywood sendup that begins with an extrapolation on “Now, Voyager,” manages, without stretching, to make Groucho Marx and his brothers dance, and to turn a film noir spy episode (men in trench coats and brim-down hats) into a fetching tango.