DANCE REVIEWS : Zhongmei Troupe: East-West Styles Clash

Enlisting nine accomplished young artists from the Beijing Dance Academy, the New York-based Zhongmei Chinese Dance Company arrived at the Japan America Theatre over the weekend with “Dynasties: China in Dance.”

Unfortunately, all three dance dramas presented Sunday afternoon reflected the priorities of the Mao Dynasty: an era in the middle of this century when Soviet ballet technique dominated and distorted virtually all forms of theater-dance in the People’s Republic.

If you visit China, you can still see folk dances and even reconstructions of ancient court entertainments crudely balleticized in the same manner as Weiya Chen’s “Divine Melody” and “Farewell to Love at the Wujiang River,” the two downbeat narratives, set in the distant past, that opened the program. Throughout both, the stylistic clashes between East and West reached the ferocity of the Boxer Rebellion and, ultimately, imported ballet bombast overwhelmed more delicate native traditions.

However, the dancing proved faultless--with effortless partnering and powerful jumps from the men (especially Chi Li and Tao Bai), gorgeous extensions from the women (most notably Xiao Lan Lang and Zhongmei Li), plus the softest, most sumptuous port de bras from everyone.

Zhongmei Li and Chi Li also brought a ravishing tenderness to “The Butterfly Lovers,” a tale of doomed romance in which choreographer Jianming Zhang used ballet technique artfully--and sparingly--to season a rich blend of formal dancing and expressive gesture.

Even here, however, creative compromises caused disappointment. For starters, why deny ballet-trained women the use of toe shoes and the technical dimension of dancing Zhang’s ballet steps on full pointe? Artistic director Zhongmei Li may not want to think of her company as a ballet troupe, but in its most basic movement assumptions Sunday, that fact seemed as unmistakable as the Great Wall itself.