Limón Dance Company Returns to Budapest

It is a unique phenomenon that a company should survive its founder and choreographer for three-and-a-half decades. Yet the Limón Dance Company has not only kept its founder's name, its repertoire still consists mainly of Limón's works - even though few of the troupe's current members knew its Mexican founder, who died in 1972.

 

The company first visited Budapest and Miskolc 19 years ago, and they returned nine years later. During the first visit, a number of well known dancers performed with the troupe, among them Carla Maxwell, Carlos Orta and Nina Watt. For the troupe's most recent performance, Maxwell appeared in the opening number: Dances for Isadora. Maxwell has been a member of the company for 43 years and artistic director for 30.

 

The Limón Company performed five times between March 22 and 24. The first performance included two classic works and one later work by Limón. Dances for Isadora is a piece that pays respect to Isadora Duncan (Limón considered her and Doris Humphrey the mothers of modern dance and Harald Kreutzberg the genre's father). The choreography consists of five solo pieces and displays fragments of Duncan's movements, figure and life. For an opening piece, it is rather slow and uninteresting, despite the fact that this is the newest choreography of the evening, created 37 years ago. Maxwell's performance is touching and radiates the glow of history.

 

One of the most famous Limón works, The Traitor, from 1954, mirrors - in the story of Judas Iscariot - the anti-communist "witch hunt" in the United States at the time. It is one of many pieces Limón created that reflect political events. In 1958, he paid tribute to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution with Dances.

 

Comparing the current performance of The Traitor with an original-cast film recording from 1955, it was striking to see the freshness of the new rendering. The original performance was performed in a surrealistic set designed by Paul Trautvetter and the action played out in front of a two-dimensional row of arches. The most recent performance was strong and dynamic, though lacking in dramatic force. The dancers made no facial expressions and their movements were square, like those of marionettes. Still, the performance showed that The Traitor has stood the test of time.

 

The closing piece of the evening, Suite from a Choreography Offering, was created in 1964. The suite version cuts the original one-hour piece down to half hour and it has been performed by the company at each of its three Hungarian visits. The piece is based on Johann Sebastian Bach's Das Musikalische Opfer and it is a tribute to Doris Humphrey, a mentor for Limón and his company. Reworked by Maxwell, the suite paraphrases 14 Limón choreographies. One cannot resist being affected by the sweeping impetus of the piece enhanced by Limón's moving musicality and sensitivity, but at the same time, the choreography feels outdated at various points. Still, utmost respect is due to the one-time innovator of modern dance and the current performers of his works, dancers whose efforts to maintain his heritage are indeed significant. It would be this critic's great wish to see the works of other American dancers performed in Hungary at this rate too.