Reinvention and Revival of the Fittest

With the L.A. Music Center cutting back to just four days of concert dance for the entire year, big ballet belonged exclusively to the Orange County Performing Arts Center in 1998--and, fortunately, its season reflected intelligence along with a sense of adventure. Meanwhile, Center Theatre Group stepped into the Music Center vacuum with several dance-theater events at the Ahmanson that ended up among the year’s most memorable offerings.

Other reasons to celebrate: A second season of “Feet Speak” contemporary mixed bills brought renewed distinction to Occidental College. California Plaza continued to showcase a wide range of local creativity, and the Getty Center sustained a strong curatorial focus in its dance programming that such rudderless series as Dance Kaleidoscope and Summer Nights at the Ford could well emulate.

Below: highlights from one dance fan’s journals:

1. “Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk”: Ahmanson Theatre, March. A benchmark in the history of tap-dancing and the American musical, this Tony-winning Savion Glover-George C. Wolfe project turned Glover’s updated, assaultive dance style into percussive movement theater: an expressive language always exciting in itself and able to depict the whole spectrum of the African American experience. Even without Glover’s presence, it had unbeatable moment-by-moment dance power.

2. Ballet Preljocaj: Royce Hall, UCLA, September. Also the Irvine Barclay Theatre, October. Whether reinterpreting “Romeo and Juliet” as apocalyptic class struggle or reconceiving Diaghilev classics as feminist parables, French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj matched the political edge of his work with an engulfing physicality. And nobody created a stronger sense of imminent danger on the stage.

3. Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company: Royce Hall, UCLA, May. After years of theme- and text-driven pieces that left dance merely marginal, Jones placed the art front and center in “We Set Out Early . . . Visibility Was Poor,” a mercurial creative odyssey marked by rich movement invention and an original use of music. As a dividend, the solo “Etude” found Jones dancing superbly.

4. Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project: Wiltern Theatre, February. Dancing an evening of solos at age 50, Baryshnikov could still astonish technically, could still plunge into movement as if in search of its essence. No dancer since Fred Astaire has aged as gracefully, without artistic compromise. And when he danced to his own amplified heartbeat, Baryshnikov became a living metaphor.

5. Momix: Alex Theatre, March. More than just a deliriously clever tribute to the national pastime, Moses Pendleton’s full-evening “Baseball” portrayed the game as an artifact of our crumbling civilization, reminding us of how ephemeral our pleasures, and civilizations, can be. A broadly accessible, high-concept vehicle perfectly suited to the throwaway virtuosity of the Momix ensemble.

6. Jose Limon Dance Company: Luckman Complex, Cal State L.A., May. Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the company tackled two large-scale masterworks: “Missa Brevis” (1958) and “The Winged” (1966), renewing Limon’s vision more than a quarter-century after his death. Indeed, “The Winged” emerged better than ever, due to a newly commissioned score replacing the makeshift original.

7. American Repertory Dance Company: Schoenberg Hall, UCLA, March. Mounting a program of nine “Legendary California Choreographers,” directors Bonnie Oda Homsey and Janet Eilber confirmed the zeal for enlightened revivals that’s made their company increasingly prominent. Not everything worked equally well, but the event as a whole reflected high ambition and even higher artistry.

8. National Ballet of Cuba: Orange County Performing Arts Center, January. After a 16-year absence, the company returned to the Southland with a cartoonish retelling of “Cinderella,” limited in choreographic interest but boasting an effervescent, little-known score by Johann Strauss II. Even better, the new generation of Cuban principals turned out to be superbly trained, with warmth and charm to burn.

9. “Fosse: A Celebration in Song and Dance”: Ahmanson Theatre, October. Bob Fosse used to say that he had only 10 steps as a choreographer, and this lavish career compendium sometimes seemed as much an expose as a tribute--displaying the limits and evasions of his talent. But, oh, the dancing: You’re never again likely to see his style projected with such loving care and meticulous attention to detail.

10. Ten unforgettable performances: For classical finesse--Altynai Asylmuratova in Roland Petit’s “Chaplin Dances” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in June. For depth of feeling--Patrice Laserre of Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse in George Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son” at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in February.

For limitless intensity--Oguri in both “In Between the Heartbeat” at the Japan America Theatre in May and “thestreamofconsciousness” at La Boca in September. For modernistic wit and a profound sense of connection--Simone Forti in “Logomotion” at Highways in February.

For conceptual daring and brilliant technique--Jamal Story in “Catharsis” at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in August. For versatility and daunting stamina--Claudia De Smet as Preljocaj’s Juliet, Angel of the Annunciation and other icons.

For comic subtlety--Zhang Xiaobo as the Hebei Opera’s Monkey King at the Alex Theatre in February. For slinky, drop-dead star power--Desmond Richardson in “Fosse.”

For ensemble virtuosity--Balletto di Toscana in Mauro Bigonzetti’s “Mediterranea” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in April. For ensemble fortitude--Collage Dance Theatre amid the icy pools and fountains of the California Plaza Watercourt in Heidi Duckler’s “Liquid Assets” in September.

Performance of the year? The sublime movement poetry of Marcel Marceau at the Wiltern Theatre in February.