‘Navidades’ showcases the changing face of folklore

To hold audiences -- particularly foreign audiences-- the pioneer world-dance companies relied on sampler programming. Technique, spectacle and the resources of a rich, centuries-old folk culture might be at a choreographer’s command, but the format remained ethnic vaudeville: a fast-moving cavalcade with an emphasis on variety.

No longer. The face of theatricalized folklore is changing. Newer, ambitious, creative troupes such as the Pokrovsky Ensemble, with its survey of Russian peasant weddings, or American Indian Dance Theatre, with its theme-based compendiums, or the locally based Avaz International Dance Theater, with its Persian dance-drama “Guran,” have narrowed the scope of their presentations to explore one facet of folk traditions, one concept, one carefully curated vision of cultural splendor.

On Sunday, the late Amalia Hernandez’s beloved, influential Ballet Folklorico de Mexico took its own timid steps in the same direction with the first performances of “Navidades: A Christmas Celebration” at the Universal Amphitheatre.

Starting with a familiar pre-Columbian eagle and serpent ceremony, Act 1 offered the usual compendium of regional suites -- Guerrero, Zacatecas, the Yaqui Deer Dance and Tlacotalpan. Company aficionados noticed some editing (the fisherman and their nets no longer opened the first-act finale, for instance). But the company women, in particular, infused the choreography with so much zest and buoyancy -- and Jorge Torres Chavez marshaled so many startling bursts of instinctual electricity as the doomed deer -- that nearly everything seemed just as fresh as the Christmas suites that premiered in Act 2.

However, much of the equally episodic second half depended not on the dancers but on the chorus. Despite the overbearing amphitheater amplification, chorus director Fernando Mejia Gomez delivered singing of such sweetness and urgency that the spirit of a Mexican Christmas remained powerful through all the diversionary pageantry and battles between good and evil.

Indeed, devils proved as much in evidence as the Holy Family, and evil’s subjugation to an army of archangels gave the sequences from the states of Mexico, Puebla and (later) Guerrero plenty of humor as well as bold color. Zacatecas, Oaxaca, Michoacan and other regions lent their traditions to the production, though everyone kept pretending that the action stayed in Bethlehem and the vicinity.

Before the festivities swerved into the standard confetti-strewing Jalisco finale, the three Wise Men presented dances as gifts, just as in the last act of “The Nutcracker.” Some of these divertissements might need expansion -- the costumes are so ornate and fantastical that there’s scarcely time for the movement to make its effect. But their haunting effect Sunday highlighted a whole array of exotic Mexican traditions as well as the wealth of production research by the creative team working for Norma Lopez Hernandez, Amalia Hernandez’s daughter and the general director of the company.

Disappointments included a faked breaking of a pinata after a big buildup, and a women’s ensemble to a slow version of “Sandunga” that seemed pointlessly repetitive and devitalized. Steeped in smoke much of the time, Guillermo Barclay’s scenery for the whole act did resemble a fancy, cutout Christmas card. But this wide floral arch with a platform at the back served the formal Nativity tableaux more effectively than the more active sequences, where its fussy decoration competed with the dancer and chorus costumes.

If “Navidades” represented a compromise, it dared question a Ballet Folklorico format sanctified by half a century of international success.

Following an impulse to go deeper and get more specific, it dared to love Mexico differently, perhaps, than Amalia Hernandez loved it but honored her name by updating her repertory and sense of mission.

Artistic growth is always inspiring. When it begins to transform an entrenched, nearly unassailable institution, you don’t need ushers in Santa hats or any other seasonal artifacts to make you want to deck the halls.

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Ballet Folklorico de Mexico de Amalia Hernandez

Where: Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City

When: Tonight, 8:15

Price: $34-$59

Contact: (818) 622-4440