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Show Ballets Shine in "Showcase" By Mark Woodworth Utah Ballet displays fine new trophies in its "Showcase" at Kingsbury Hall through Saturday. Satur-day. Young dancers have designed de-signed five ballets with enthusiasm, enthu-siasm, almost naive idealism, and have succeeded in divergent diver-gent and interesting ways. The works as a whole are polished pieces, enterprising and astonishingly aston-ishingly good. The dancers have profited considerably from their exposure ex-posure to the Bolshoi Ballet in San Francisco this summer. Russian elements of style, as well as certain lifts, attitudes, and carriage of the arms, add a Firebird quality to movements move-ments in all of these ballets. Carolyn Anderson's "Nocturne" "Noc-turne" is ethereal, dream-lovely. Three couples "play" on blue space as upon a harp with strings of ice,, etching sequential sequen-tial movements fluidly in line and time. The end is a little like dying unbearably bittersweet. bitter-sweet. Miss Anderson, simply, has exquisite taste, and we are moved. Morton Gould's "Spirituals" is a striking choice of music . for Rocky Spoelstra's ballet of the same name. Starkly modernistic, mod-ernistic, yet simplistic in its stereotype of evil and good, it shows a bit of happiness charming malevolent forces, bringing a smile even to "Religion" "Re-ligion" (strongly danced by Ken Mitchell who does a difficult diffi-cult split-leap, among other things). There are no "greys" about being good, say the black-and-white togs you is or you isn't. And oddly enough I am charmed by the work's shortnin' bread bias: a cliche brightly done. A folk ballet in the' grand manner, "The Handkerchief-is Handkerchief-is Phil Keeler's best work. Filled with lovely things' (the long-stemmed Janice James does the impossible; stays and stays on toe; kicks the back of her head with a beautiful foot), this ballet is rich to excess in ideas and details flying by in the tumultuous swirl of Kod-aly's Kod-aly's music. Scarves fluttering from heaven heav-en like doves provide the focus for the first section, then rugged rug-ged Slavic male dancers sweep across the stage carrying living liv-ing statuary. Things get a bit hectic (there are enough people on stage for a new Hungarian Revolution), but there are lingering passages pas-sages in which Miss James trembles in an ecstasy of joy I can do anything, she says, why not be divinely happy? Mr. Keeler has magically also found the essence of star-dancers Barbara Hamblin, Diane Cuatto and Nila Speck a rare feat for so young a choreographer. Sandra Allen's curiosity is a Greek myth done in Italian Renaissance setting to Russian music with a Portuguese title: "Esperanca." But it's only Pandora and box, and it's very long. Vicki Hutten staves off boredom by her radiance, spirit spir-it and excellence as a dancer-actress. dancer-actress. Ben Lokey sparkles as a spectacularly stylish buffoon. Susan Israel's "Tittle-Tattle" plays wonderful tricks upon a Gershwin Concerto. Ballet is fun, you see, when dancers are skilled (James and Speck again shine, Cara Wheeler and Mary Ellen Davis are laff-riots, as it were), and when the choreographer choreo-grapher is blessed with wit and imagination (Mrs. Israel is quite terrific). "Showcase" is a good stiff shot in the heart for dancers and patrons alike. Its innovations innova-tions are admirable, its gifts to the company repertoire could be valuable. i |