Getty, American Rep Bring Pictures Back to Life

Because photographs often represent a primary source in the reconstruction of lost choreographies, the relationship between camera and stage is unusually deep and complex for the American Repertory Dance Company, a locally based ensemble founded five years ago as a living archive of early 20th century dance. On Saturday, the Getty Center presented an eight-part program of solos by the company in conjunction with the center’s ongoing “Dance and Photography” exhibition--though many of the most celebrated photos on display seemed paltry, indeed, compared to the best American Rep performances.

Renowned photographer Edward Weston, for instance, isolated the hands of German dancer-choreographer Harald Kreutzberg in a powerful 1932 image, but John Pennington’s superbly noble and intense interpretation of three studies from Kreutzberg’s “Tanze vor Gott” (1927) in a new version by Emma-Lewis Thomas showed the audience how much of Kreutzberg’s greatness Weston had cropped away. Brilliantly infusing body-sculpture with a profound spirituality and extending his gestures through the manipulation of a long black cape, Pennington deserved a Weston of his own to document, as much as photography can, his remarkable artistry.

Similarly, company co-founder Bonnie Oda Homsey found the core of Valerie Bettis’ dramatic “The Desperate Heart” (1943) in the kind of restless onrush of motion that would leave most photographers helpless--every fluid gestural statement unlocking another memory, another loss. Photography, by its very nature, is the art of what can be seen--and shown. But in this Mary Corey restaging, Homsey made us see her character’s past: people and objects and incidents very real to her, and to us, on an otherwise empty stage.

Other new additions to the company’s choreographic gallery included Karoun Tootikian’s reconstruction of Ruth St. Denis’ sculptural “Greek Veil” (circa 1918), majestically danced by Nancy Colahan; Gregg Lizenbery’s reconstruction of Ted Shawn’s brief, thoughtful “Ich Ruf zu Dir” (1940), again showcasing Pennington’s refinement; and Lar Lubovitch’s own revival of his lush, liquid “Air” from “Joy of Man’s Desiring” (1972), authoritatively embodied by Colahan.

Among more familiar selections, former Joffrey principal Carole Valleskey brought her expertise in Agnes de Mille dance-gesture to “Debut at the Opera”; Douglas Nielsen repeated his authoritative performance of Charles Weidman’s suite of character portraits “On My Mother’s Side”; and Victoria Koenig danced the Prelude from Mikhail Fokine’s “Les Sylphides,” a curious inclusion since the choreography is neither lost, rarely performed nor specifically relevant to any image in the Getty exhibition.