still perfect after all these years

Playhouse Theatre, Run ended HHHHH Dance Pastforward, Whiteoak Dance Project It's doubtful whether most of those who took their seats for the opening night of White Oak Dance Project's Pastforward really knew what they were letting themselves in for. They knew, if they had absorbed the surrounding publicity, that this was a tribute to America's post-modern dance movement of the 1960s and 1970s. And they hoped that White Oak founder Mikhail Baryshnikov would give a glimpse of his former glory.

But how could they have known that the 53-year-old ballet legend would recreate this period so faithfully that they would be shifting uncomfortably in their seats at what, at times, looked for all the world like the shock of the new? Even to the most hardened dance fan the deafening silences and sparse choreography that typifies this radical period can be hard going.

Perhaps it's not so surprising that what seemed radical then seems radical now. The dance world has not changed so much. What is surprising is that Baryshnikov and his company of sensitive, able dancers have managed to present this sometimes difficult work in such gloriously palatable form.

First Baryshnikov's still-heavily accented tones fill the space. Then, unfurling on a vast backdrop, images of the post-moderns as they were then - Trisha Brown, all quirkily jerky movement; Yvonne Rainer, serious, introspective but deeply absorbing in her 1966 signature piece Trio A; and Rev Al Carmines of the NY Judson Church where the renegades held their first open performances, bored and bewildered on the first night and besotted by the third. But this is more than multimedia Polyfilla. It is fascinating, entertaining and at times deeply funny.

Where PastForward really triumphs though is in its policy of pitting works from the original period against those newly commissioned. And so we have the deeply moving, oddly fresh sight of Steve Paxton's 1967 Satisfyin' Lover where a procession of ordinary people (in this case recruits from Edinburgh's Dance Base) do nothing more than walk in slow, deliberate steps across the stage. Contrast this with Lucinda Childs' joyous 2000 work Concerto where Baryshnikov and dancers tear up the stage with what has become her signature - simple steps layered over and over into dazzling, mathematically complex floor patterns - and we begin to see how far the post-modern ethos has travelled.

Of course this is not how it was then. The White Oak dancers are technically proficient in a way it is unlikely the Judsonites were: they were as anti-training as they were anti-establishment. But it is this spit and polish that makes Pastforward sing. Simone Forti's simple, repetitive Chair/Pillow is too slick and perfect to be authentic. But it is a sheer joy to watch.

And those who came to see Baryshnikov? They are far from disappointed. In Steve Paxton's 1964 Flat he looks like a dream even when he's just walking in circles. And as he spins across stage in Lucinda Childs Concerto - his line still achingly perfect after all these years - he quite unwittingly breaks one key tenet. The post- moderns were against the star system and here Baryshnikov adheres to that by giving no dancer (not even himself) billing over another. But just try looking anywhere else on the stage when the former ballet star is in full flow. Baryshnikov is, quite indisputably, star of his own show.::::::::::::::spr19p13simon::::::::::::::

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