Dance

An Evening of Classical Ballet at the Loeb Ex, April 8, 9 and 10 at 7:30

At long last, some really fine student ballet dancers at Harvard have come out of the studio into the limelight. Onstage at the Ex this weekend, Joanne Hochberg, Lois Rosenberg and Francine Figie prove, in three short and beautifully executed pieces, that ballet is no drawing-room accomplishment. This pared-down movement breaks through any porcelain figurines of cliche. There are no imposed theatrics in the performance; costumes are kept to a bare minimum; lights illuminate, not ornament.

The dancing is spectacle enough. The three pieces, each the essence of a different style of ballet, are all choreographed with imagination and danced with most impressive technique. The second work, a series of Tchaikovsky Divertissements, though a virtuoso exercise, lacks the excitement of the other two pieces: "Songs," choreographed by Carol Jordans of the Cambridge School of Ballet to Mendelsshon's "Songs Without Words," and "Pas de Trois," choreographed by Hochberg to the allegro movement of Mozart's "Clarinet Quintet in A." In Jordan's work, the trio of dancers evokes Mendelssohn's past. Rosenberg's sprite, Hochberg's strength, and Figie's smoothness create the moods of childhood, maturity and old age. The crowning glory of the evening, however, is Hochberg's piece. The synchronized flow of her line visually realizes the pure movement of the Mozart.

These are classic heights.