Taller Coreografico Mixes Emotion, Eloquence

In a year in which major ballet presenters have brought Southern California virtually nothing but damaged goods or high-concept sleaze, the power and integrity of classical dance have been on view only on the ridiculously underfunded performance series at Cal State L.A. Such Luckman Theatre events as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and “Cocktails for Joey” (L.A. Chamber Ballet) have proved both bracingly contemporary and superbly aware of how much ballet can express without descending to desperate crossover strategies or hard-sell hyper-athleticism.

To this list, we now must add Taller Coreografico de la UNAM, founded by Gloria Contreras 27 years ago at the National University in Mexico City (the “UNAM”) and only now making its West Coast debut. In different but equally overloaded Luckman programs on Friday and Saturday, Contreras emphasized eloquent body sculpture and high emotion, challenging her company with a varied, demanding repertory rooted in music visualization.

Her musical choices not only included a host of Latino composers (Carlos Chavez, Jose Pablo Moncayo, Federico Ibarra, Blas Galindo) but several blockbuster European scores that other choreographers have turned into masterworks: Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” and Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder.” Throughout, her approach remained boldly dramatic and shrewdly attuned to the capabilities of her lead dancers.

Happily, those leads included one brilliant technical virtuoso (Angel Mayren), one unforgettable dancing actor (Fidel Garcia), plus several women displaying exemplary spirit and precision: Rocio Melgoza, Olga Rodriguez and Rosario Contreras. Most of all, however, Taller Coreografico introduced local audiences to Domingo Rubio, a dancer with the kind of looks, presence, emotional power and technical authority that immediately tell you he’s one of the great dancers of the age.

The ostensibly star-oriented American Ballet Theatre had nobody like this in its recent local engagement: an artist who can engrave upon your consciousness every shift of position and feeling, pulling the music out of his body and ennobling even the most problematic choreography. In “Solo for a Contemporary Angel” (1993, to Rachmaninoff), Rubio sustained a sense of brooding heroism even with his hands pinioned behind his back. In the large-scale, Aztec-style “Sacre” (1994), he made his final, exhausted act of sacrifice into a thrilling spiritual victory. Finally, in the “Kindertotenlieder” (“Dance for the Dead Children,” 1994), he reached up to embrace the stars with such greatness of soul that the daring intimacy of Contreras’ choreography became transfigured in one cosmic gesture.

Unfortunately, even Rubio and Mayren couldn’t generate more than fitful interest in “Images of the Fifth Sun” (1985), a by-the-numbers narrative spectacle that began as an Aztec creation saga and ended just like the later, better “Sacre” with the lead male losing a fight and getting ritually butchered on the backs of the male corps. “Tocata” (1997), Contreras’ most recent work in the Luckman rep, found her re-exploring creation abstractly, with the dance building up electricity through the ensemble’s powerful rhythmic attack, and the metaphysical implications mostly confined to the painted backdrop by Luis Nishizawa.

The programs also included examples of Contreras’ earliest choreographies, with “The Market” (1958) showing her aptitude for effervescent character dances based on Mexican folklore and “Huapango” (also 1958) her ability to preserve the impulse of those dances in a neoclassic context with no loss of charm. When focusing on steps, she seemed invariably far less original than when concentrating on the interlacing of bodies and, especially, the revelation of feeling through the adjustment of stance and the upper body. As such, she offers a valuable alternative to the obsession with virtuoso footwork in North American ballet.

Besides the works previously listed, the all-Contreras weekend included the despairing quartet “Dances for Women” (1970, to Pergolesi), the lyric duet “Opus 45” (1979, to Berg), the joyous Mayren solo “Gloria” (1995, to Haydn), the forceful Garcia solo “Density 21.5” (1996, to Varese) and the ensemble showpiece “Dancers” (1996, to Stravinsky). The artful use of scenery and lighting testified to the sophistication of the Taller Coreografico aesthetic.