DANCE REVIEWS : Folkloric Look at Mexico’s Past, Present

The “Gods” made a West Coast premiere Saturday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Or at least a version of them, as envisioned by Amalia Hernandez, a formidable director and choreographer of events herself when it comes to the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. But, as is usual with this impressive ensemble, “the people” made a stronger impact in dances that evoked various customs and movement styles of Mexico.

Actually, it was also a version of “the people” that emerged, one in which bodies tilted and swirled neatly, ruffled fabric caught the wind like the wings of birds, and feet that resolutely drummed the ground carried men and women forward with a gusto that brought the audience along.

But first came “Gods,” one of those pieces where higher beings wear elaborate headdresses and glittered spandex as they strut into poses found in ancient drawings. Between still moments, when fingers splayed and knees lifted at right angles, the dancers sprang into balletic leaps to taped music dominated by dramatic drums.

If “Gods” served as a sort of invocation, it was also a physical announcement of the company’s mandate: to take elements of Mexican culture (Hernandez is an advocate of copious research) and theatricalize them for another life as spectacle. But the more formal protocols of staged performance haven’t cut down on audience-performer communication. Even in the barn-like velvet vastness of Orange County’s opera house, a warm sense of community prevailed.

A friendly roar always went up whenever the strolling mariachi musicians were heard. Their music was occasionally faint--some problems with the setting of microphones--but they provided strong support in numbers like “Sounds of Michoacan,” a balletic, high-kicking version of women’s dances in brilliant be-ribboned skirts; and “Tlacotalpan’s Festival,” in which intricate in-unison fast footwork sounded like rain pounding on a hundred rooftops.

A perennial favorite, the Yaquis deer dance, seemed shorter than other company versions, still drawing its power from the chuffing drums and rising voices of the original ceremony on tape. Also brief was the new “suite” of dances from the Yucatan, consisting mainly of a tame version of danzon, an urban social dance of Afro-Cuban origin. Arranged in neat lines and performed in unison with identical costumes (strategies overwhelmingly employed by Hernandez), the couples did something like a rumba, without the definite attack one might expect from Afro-Cuban influences.

Narrative-based dances, such as “Wedding in the Huasteca” and “Zacatecas,” with their sudden duels and flirtations, seemed as old-fashioned and occasionally fun as any story ballet but when it came to straightforward festival atmosphere, Ballet Folklorico went full speed ahead. In the finale, dances from Jalisco alternated courtly side-to-side parries with dynamic surges forward, while flame-colored streamers, timed with bursts of music, sailed into the audience. Something about all that bouncing and surging forward seemed to say, “There is a future worth plunging into.” Or at least another fiesta somewhere up ahead.

* Ballet Folklorico appears in Santa Barbara at the Arlington Theatre, (805) 963-4408, Wednesday-Thursday 8 p.m. Tickets $23.50-$33.50. In Los Angeles at the Universal Amphitheatre Friday-Saturday 8:15 p.m. Tickets $22.50-$45. All tickets available at Ticketmaster (213) 365-3500.