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Meditation from Thais
Music: Jules Massenet
Choreography: Frederick Ashton
Costume Design: Anthony Dowell
Lighting: Peter Leonard
Performers: Jarina Carvalho, Rasta Thomas

St. Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet
Music: Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Arna Bontemps, Countee Cullen
Orchestration, Additional Music: Joseph E. Fields
Choreography and New Concept: Michael Smuin
Set Design: Tony Walton
Costume Design: Willa Kim
Lighting Design: Jules Fisher/Peggy Eisenhauer
Performers:
Della: Akua Parker; Biglow Brown: Kip Sturm; Little Augie: Duncan Cooper; Lila: Kellye A. Saunders; Butterfly: Naimah Willoughby; Barney: Taurean Green; Death: Ramon Thielen; Death's Acolyte; Christiane Cristo-Ezewoko.

Dance Theatre of Harlem gets such consistently rave reviews that I feel the piker to have reservations, based on the February 1 matinee at Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. The company's energy and good will are trump cards, but last year and this the vessel through which these obvious professional qualities flow leave me remembering earlier times. If you ever saw the company dance the Bayou version of Giselle with Virginia Johnson in the title role, you will understand my frame of reference, along with the engaging all-male ballet by Robert North titled Troy Game.

That their ardent stage manner is fostered by Arthur Mitchell, soon to turn 70, is no surprise. The January 21 evening hearing him at San Francisco's PALM (Performing Arts Library and Museum) testified to his total immersion in the company, to his loyalty and understanding of George Balanchine and certainly to his role pioneering the profile of African Americans in classical ballet.

To be sure there were African Americans in ballet before him, notably the late Janet Collins, engaged by The Metropolitan Opera as a principal dancer. Raven Wilkinson joined Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo even though she was unable to dance with the company in the then still-segregated Southern states. But Mr. Mitchell had the advantage of attending the School of Performing Arts in New York City. Further, he caught the eye of Lincoln Kirstein who arranged a scholarship at School of American Ballet for him. Observed by Balanchine, Mitchell joined the company in 1955 premiering,deliberately unannounced, as Tanaquil Le Clerq's partner in the final movement of the Balanchine- Hershey Kay opus, Western Symphony. From that day forward Mitchell was backed and fostered by Balanchine and Kirstein, until Mitchell started Dance Theatre of Harlem where the two historic collaborators served on Mitchell's board. Mitchell remarked proudly, "It's the only board that Balanchine ever served on."

I digressed to mention this necessary background to DTH's progressive emphasis on the theater side of dance. St. Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet is certainly a more skillful than last season's Blood Wedding. But it scarcely compares to Robbins' On The Town which the company danced in last summer's Lincoln Center Festival. The key is, I think, economy. Michael Smuin danced that ballet while with American Ballet Theatre. Aside from skillful adaptation of ballroom styles, Smuin has woven a simplistic tale with extra motions to complete the wonderful tunes which are backdrop for this melodramatic scenario. Two males vie for the same chick; the cast off chick of one takes her revenge.

Before returning to St. Louis Woman, let me mention Concerto Barocco and the Thais pas de deux. All three ballets on the program suffered because of taped music, allowing the dancers little aural space to exercise rubato, an inevitable enhancement to anything danced.

Barocco's eight-woman corps de ballet were remarkably matched in size, small, port de bras honed to a uniform level. In the principal casts listed, corps de ballet members appeared consistently as a secondary lead; in this cast Sonny Robinson partnered Rocher. Her formative training in France makes for a distinct stage presence worthy of principal status.

Dionne Figgins, from the corps, matched Rocher in size, if more sober in execution. Both warmed to their task, particularly in the third movement; there the thrusts and releves are of such joyous exhilaration that everyone began to smile. Sonny Robinson, also from the corps, except for one or two moments, lent solid support in the second movement. I noticed in the first movement, where the upward knee thrusts are accented by the backward thrust port de bras, neither principal provided the extra emphasis of shoulder and diaphragm which gives the sequence a special tossed off look. The lack of live music prevented an extended quality in some of the loveliest moments in the second movement.

Mr. Mitchell's practice of providing opportunity for the corps, based on size and challenge, is wholly admirable. In several instances, it was clear this practice fosters the dancers' development, placing them opposite a seasoned professional for challenge and support. As in Concerto Barocco, he used this policy casting Jarina Carvalho with Rasta Thomas in Sir Frederick Ashton's memorable pas de deux, The Meditation from Thais.

Rasta Thomas, the frequent medal winner who has guested widely and enjoyed soloist positions in a number of companies, has joined Dance Theatre of Harlem as a principal dancer. He shares the role of Little Augie in St. Louis Woman with Ikolo Griffin and Duncan Cooper. At this matinee, however, he danced Anthony Dowell's role in Thais with corps member Jarina Carvalho in the title role. The casting was unfortunate; Carvalho seemed simply too overwhelmed or inexperienced to take center stage with confidence or authority. Thomas was required to be subdued and meditative; with the wonderful turns his variation permitted, he handled it all with his customary aplomb. Thomas' skill and sympathy as a partner,however, could not frame Carvalho advantageously. The languorous sensuality of Ashton's pas de deux was absent.

That said, back to St. Louis Woman, updated to the Forties, with Willa Kim's bright primary slashes of color on the costumes and lively sets by Tony Walton. The best one was with imaginative lighting behind earth- toned images of horses, giving a motion of the race and track.

As setting, this tale of love claimed, love thwarted and revenged, uses the race track and its characters in their leisure moments at The Rocking Horse Club, a nearby tavern. Smuin has added an allegorical figure of Death and an acolyte as embellishment to the men's whites, the women's turbans, and love's complications. To this add bravura assignments and a special pas de deux for Ramon Thielen and Christiane Cristo-Ezewoko. Duncan Cooper as Little Augie with Akua Parker as Della Green provided the necessary sizzling attraction to raise the hackles of green-costumed Kip Sturm as Biglow Brown. His character was further accented by green light after Augie and Green have made out. Parker is a stellar example of a corps member being inserted into a major role and quite ready to grasp it.

Kellye A. Saunders was excellent as Lila, a lover done wrong, a nice girl with more passion than cool. One of the ballet's better moments came between Lila and Della; the latter extends sympathy and counsels Lila against going after Biglow Brown. Lila does, however, but with a pistol; Ramon Thielen, as Death, lurked nearby.

Through it all, the corps de ballet danced ballroom adaptations with gusto. The use of wonderfully familiar ballads, "Come Rain or Come Shine," "St. Louis Woman," "I Had Myself a True Love," gave the ballet a stop and start quality, provoking a similar feeling to the dances. If the score had moved seamlessly,the dancers might seem more comfortable. Dance Theatre of Harlem's obvious energy deserves that contribution to its lustre.