DANCE REVIEW : Ballet Folklorico Creates a Fiesta

SAN DIEGO —  An enterprising travel agent should have set up shop in the lobby when the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico performed at Symphony Hall this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It’s a sure bet some people in the audience would have immediately booked flights to Chiapas, Jalisco and other regions south of the border, whose dances the Mexico City-based company presented with verve.

The illusion of being at a fiesta was heightened by the live music provided for many of the numbers and by the beautiful costumes worn by the dancers.

This weekend’s program featured the U.S. premiere of “The Olmecs,” inspired by a culture that existed in Mexico 3,000 years ago. A dancer costumed as a tiger leaped into the center of a circle of some 30 other dancers and was “caught” in a ritual depicting the tiger hunt.

Although Ballet Folklorico founder-choreographer Amalia Hernandez is known for her work drawing on Mexico’s pre-Columbian past, “The Olmecs” lacked the life force of the folk dances. It fell short in costuming as well. The dancers’ jewel-green unitards were supposed to make them resemble jade figurines. Rather than suggesting the glowing richness of jade, however, the shiny unitards looked glitzy.

Neither “The Olmecs” nor the other historical dance on the program, “The Mayas,” conveyed a sense of the sacred. That was left to the troupe’s famous “Deer Dance,” based on a ritual performed by the Yaquis, Mexico’s only remaining aboriginal tribe. Lucas Zarate did magnificent leaps and side kicks as the deer pursued by two hunters.

The Ballet Folklorico excelled in its exuberant interpretations of Mexican folk dances. Although Hernandez has been criticized for sentimentalizing authentic material, these pieces were simply a joy to watch--a feast of bright, swirling costumes and virtuoso dancing.

The highly disciplined dancers were equally adept at the light-footed barefoot steps in dances from Michoacan and--in “The Tarima from Tixtla” and other dances--at booted, stomping footwork reminiscent of flamenco, though generally performed with a more fluid torso than in the Spanish dance.

In “Festival at Tlacoltalpan,” several dancers were on two raised wooden platforms that amplified the staccato of their rapidly moving feet. Around them an entire “village” of couples--the stage aswirl with the women’s lacy white dresses--danced to salsa-flavored music reflecting Caribbean influences on Mexico’s culture. Based on a festival that takes place every Feb. 2, the dance climaxed with the entrance of larger-than-life-size puppets, some at least 12 feet tall, representing a clown, an angel, a devil and other characters. What a vibrant alternative to Groundhog Day!

It’s a tribute to Hernandez’s deft choreography and the dancers’ skill that although many of the dances brought two dozen or more people on stage at once--often dancing rapidly, with big, extended arms movements--they moved with absolute precision. When the curtain first went up, the stage at Symphony Hall looked a bit small for dance. But by the end of the evening, the stage seemed to have doubled in size.

A suite of dances from Zacatecas honored the Mexican Revolution. The women, who were skirt-swishingly feminine in most of the other numbers, showed a tougher side here, bandoleers across their proudly lifted chests. The highlight of this dance was a bravura performance by an unidentified rope dancer, who kept his lariat going (with only one brief slip on Friday) for at least 10 minutes, jumping through it and even drawing it around himself and a female partner.

A 10-piece mariachi orchestra set the festive tone for dances from Jalisco, the crowd-pleasing finale that included the jarabe tapatio --the Mexican hat dance. The male dancers performed some kicks that were worthy of the Moulin Rouge.

The most ambitious among the folk dances was the “Ballet de las Americas.” Performed at festivals in central Mexico, this is a group of dances drawn from numerous countries and regions that have contributed to Mexican culture, including the United States.