Limón Dance Company brings dance legacy to Prince Theater

One of my strongest early memories is of seeing the José Limón Dance Company perform his signature work, The Moor's Pavane, when I was 13. It was the original cast: Limón played Othello, with Lucas Hoving as Iago, plus Betty Jones and Pauline Koner as their wives, and I could hardly contain myself as these extraordinary artists embodied the all-too-human emotions of love, pride, betrayal, and murderous rage.

On March 9-13, as part of the Prince Theater's Next Move series, Philadelphians will have the opportunity to see The Moor's Pavane, plus two other classic compositions by the master, danced by Limón's own troupe.

Who else but Limón could so eloquently compress Shakespeare's play into a wordless, 20-minute modern-dance composition? And who else would think of setting the tragedy of Othello to the stately Renaissance dance form called the pavane? Like Alvin Ailey's Revelations, Limón's Moor remains as vibrant and powerful today as it did a half-century ago. It has been performed by companies the world over, including an infamous Canadian production starring Rudolf Nureyev.

In a recent telephone interview, Carla Maxwell, a longtime principal dancer with the troupe, who has been its artistic director since 1978, explained these choices. "I wanted to present a varied and balanced program . . . to show the public what José Limón has to offer, and the genius of his choreography."

While Moor has been performed regularly since it was created in 1949, the other two pieces on the bill are less familiar. In fact, Maxwell noted, Mazurkas, from 1958, was "a lost work that we recently revived." It evolved, she said, "out of José's admiration for the spirit of the Polish people" as they struggled to rebuild their nation after the destruction of World War II. Mazurkas, which Maxwell calls "a suite of little musical poems," is set to evocative music by Chopin. Its steps, while not intended to be authentic, convey the spirit of traditional Polish dances.

The Limón Dance Company, as it is now called, will also present The Winged, originally meant to be danced in silence, although the current version has a commissioned score by Jon Magnusson. The Winged is largely abstract, featuring dancers in body-hugging costumes with feathered headdresses. It is "a very imaginative work . . . not really about birds," Maxwell said, "but about you and me, and our desire to fly - in our dreams."

Only when she began teaching Limón's work, Maxwell said, did she realize how much he had considered the dancers' individual abilities and personalities when creating dances. As new casts tackled the repertoire, he changed some movements, but, Maxwell said, "the meaning was the same."

Maxwell said that when Limón died in 1972, "there was an overwhelming feeling that, if we disbanded, the work would disappear." So they kept going, directed first by veteran company member Ruth Currier, and then by Maxwell. "It's a huge task," she said. "I used to have nightmares about it." But now, she said, "it's a labor of love." And the company, celebrating its 70th anniversary, presents both the Limón repertoire and new works commissioned from other choreographers.

"We're looking forward, very much, to coming back to Philly," Maxwell said, "because it's such an appreciative audience." Personally, I can't wait.