Ballet Folklorico Lifts the Audience’s Spirits

During the last 15 years, Ballet Folklorico de Mexico de Amalia Hernandez has performed hundreds of times on U.S. tours, never missing a show until Sept. 11, when a Manhattan performance for U.N. delegates was, of course, canceled. In the wake of the terrorist attacks and the grounding of all aircraft, the company traveled by bus for 56 hours to make its first California engagement.

On Friday night, the fallout was minor--the first of three Ballet Folklorico shows at the Universal Amphitheatre was delayed by 45 minutes due to increased security procedures. But once underway, the spirit of Mexican dance revived a worn-out crowd.

No significant changes marked the familiar program, despite the death of company founder Amalia Hernandez last November. Her daughter, Norma Lopez, had already taken over as artistic director, staying the course with programs that shift slightly from year to year but not significantly.

Announced as a U.S. premiere, “Sugar Harvest in Tamaulipas” included the rope dance often seen in other suites--this time short, sweet, deft and appealing--as well as a few simple group dances that involved easy hopping and rhythmic swinging of the free leg.

Lopez and her sister Viviana Hernandez offered “Carnival in Tlaxcala” as their first choreographic “renewal,” by making a few changes to one of their mother’s suites. It was the weakest entry on the program, a somewhat lugubrious parade of inventively attired dancers whose movements were shadowed by puppet figures in a tiny theater shell behind them. For a carnival, it had a very formal, desolate atmosphere.

Onstage musicians were a bit distorted by fuzzy or sharp amplification, and sets were minimal, but the brilliantly costumed, beautifully danced suites from Michoacan, Tixtla (with especially athletic iguanas) and Tlacotalpan survived well. Jorge Torres Chavez gave “The Deer Dance” an impressive warmth and fervor.