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AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

NYC Ballet presents 37 dances to American compositions

by Sheryl Flatow

The New York City Ballet's spring season gets off to an ambitious start on April 26, when the company launces is 40th anniversary celebration with a three-week American Music Festival featuring 37 works--including 21 world premieres-by 17 choreographers.
     In addition to presenting a dazzling array of music - by such composers as Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, George Gershwin, William Bolcom, Steve Reich, John Adams, Michael Torke, Ellen Taafle Zwilich, Leonard Bernstein, Les Stuck, Paul Schwartz and John Cage, to name just a few--the Festival also brings together creative talents from both classical and modern dance, ranging from established artists to burgeoning choreographers selected from the company's roster of dancers.
   George Balanchine and Jerome Robins, whose works makes up the backbone of NYCB's repertory, are, of course, well represented, as is Peter Martins (co-director of the company), who is contributing nine ballets overall, including seven world premieres. Novelty will likely be supplied by the controversial William Forsythe, or such modern masters as Laura Dean, Lar Lubovitch and Paul Taylor. And audiences will also have a chance to sample the nascent choreographic skills of company members Ib Anderson, Bart Book, Robert LaFosse and Miriam Mahdaviani.
Of those creating new works for the Festival, Taylor and Mahdaviani perhaps best represent the diversity that is at the center of the celebration. Taylor is not only the most accomplished of all the participating choreographers, but one of the most inventive, original artists working today. Mahdaviani, a member of NYCB's corps de ballet, has created just two previous works for public viewing, and sees the Festival as an opportunity to extend her skills in an area that, at this point, she still considers "a hobby."
Taylor worked with NYCB once before, in 1959, when Balanchine teamed with Martha Graham on the ballet Episodes. Graham choreographed the first part on members of her company and Sallie Wilson of NYCB, while Balanchine choreographed the second half using his company and Taylor, then a Graham dancer. When the Balanchine portion permanently entered NYCB's repertory, Taylor's solo was eliminated. It was not seen again until 1986, when Taylor taught it to NYCB's Peter Frame. 
   In recent years Taylor had been unsuccessfully approached several times to create a ballet for NYCB. His refusal stemmed from his desire to work with his own company. This time, when Martins asked him to participate in the Festival, the Taylor company was invited along. In an arrangement similar to the one devised by Balanchine and Graham, Martins and Taylor are presenting works that will be shown back-to-back: Martins, choreographing to music by Samuel Barber, is working with members of NYCB, as well as Taylor dancer Kate Johnson and former Taylor dancer David Parsons; Taylor has devised a piece set to music by Charles Ives, to be danced by his own company and Peter Frame. 
   "I've always liked Ives, but I've been intimidated by him," says Taylor, whose company is appearing at City Center from April 5 to May 1. "I'm not sure that his music needs anything else, and it's not the easiest music to choreograph to. I started with the idea of a collage, and we'll see where it goes. It's a difficult piece, not at all pretty, and I'd be surprised if it were popular. It's not balletic. I'm making a slight gesture toward Peter, to allow him to do what he's so good at. I wouldn't say the steps I've created for him are classical, but they have a kind of brilliance."
   Taylor, who has also choreographed two new works for his company's New York season, claims that although he is not "completely disinterested" in attempting a ballet, he prefers sticking with what he knows best. "I like working with my own people," he asserts. "I know them, they know me, they're trained in a certain way and together we make things happen. I'm a little leery of working with ballet dancers, even though I've worked with some very good ones. It's a different way of moving. One of the big differences is that they're trained to be very lifted, not pushed to the ground like we are."
   Miriam Mahdaviani first tried to choreograph a few years ago, when she created a piece for students at the School of American Ballet, NYCB's affiliated school. "I used very classical music by Edvard Grieg, and it was basically an experiment in structure, in making steps. I got lots of good feedback, and proved to myself I could choreograph."
   Since then she has choreographed a couple small ballets that were presented during the summer at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (Mass.), working with members of NYCB and concentrating primarily on adagio work. "One of the challenges of adiago work is choreographing for men," she explains, "Which is more difficult for me at this point."
   This time around, Mahdaviani is trying something quite different from the works she's done before. "I want to challenge myself all the time," she says. "I've chosen David Diamond's 'Rounds for String Orchestra,' and I'm using 12 dancers. The middle section is a beautiful, lush string adagio, but the first and last movements are quick, jazzy and syncopated, and that's new for me. I'm very excited and, surprisingly, not at all nervous. Maybe that's because dancing is still No. 1 with me. Choreography is something I do in my free time, something that makes me happy."

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