Ceremonial Touches in Kaleidoscope Finale

You don’t have to know the mythology and context of a particular ceremony to enjoy it, but sometimes it helps. Joseph Campbell probably never said this, but it was implied when he started explaining myths and rituals to the general public on PBS. And it always comes to mind when dances with ethnic roots are featured, as they were in the last Dance Kaleidoscope ’96 program, at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday night. There were a few sparks, but also some empty repetition and slo-mo moments that seemed, well, rootless.

In “Creation Myth,” by Malathi Iyengar and Rangoli Dancers, Iyengar mixed the elegant, darting postures of bharata natyam (a compelling Ron Brown stood out), with sinewy modernistic writhing by dancers in unitards. To taped music and chanting, a sacred pageant seemed to be taking place, but in the end, the slowly unfolding enigma remained wrapped.

What Kayamanan Ng Lahi’s “Philippine American Contemporary Suite,” by Barbara Ele, had going for it was a soft-stepping charm and musicians who filled the air with romantic strings. In Spanish-influenced dances, women in glittering gowns and men with hats and canes circled and sashayed subtly. They seemed to combine the formality of a cotillion with the sweet pleasure of rocking in a hammock.

Kultura Philippine Folk Arts began “The Voyage to Mindanao” strongly: Six men manipulated large poles sharply as oars, while a line of 10 singing women came down the Ford’s stone steps, out of the hills. To gongs and drums of a traditional Kulintang ensemble, they found drama in straight lines, but then lost it in an overlong passage of arm waving and balancing at the end.

For Bre Dance Theatre, there were no lagging pauses in Clifford J. Breland’s “Rhythms of Life.” Live percussion put a frantic beat under a taped Jessye Norman singing Ravel, while seven vibrant dancers stalked and burst into impressive dance phrases as if someone dared them not to. They also seemed involved in a ceremony--at one time posing pristinely with a drapery, like Martha Graham acolytes who had splintered off into a jazzier sect.

A brief fiesta by Danza Floricanto/USA CQ and the previously reviewed Los Angeles Modern Dance and Ballet were also on the program, which was dedicated to Frank Guevara, the young L.A. choreographer and dancer who died this month.