The New York Times - November 16, 1986
Jennifer Dunning

Dance has been a motivating force in Mr. Lubovitch's life ever since -from the first dramatically emotional dances he created in 1968 for his company, to "A Brahms Symphony," an unabashedly lush pure-dance piece that was first performed in 1985. The work will be presented this week at City Center, where the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company opens on Tuesday and will perform through Sunday.

Mr. Lubovitch's newest work, "Blood," will receive its premiere on Tuesday at the City Center. "I tried to make the most horrible dance you could possibly make," Mr. Lubovitch said cheerfully of this "nihilistic satire." "Blood" alludes to the tumult of the Dadaist years and of our own times. It is set to a score by George Antheil for "Ballet Mecanique," a projected film collaboration with Fernand Leger that was never realized.

"Concerto Six Twenty-Two," created this year, is set to Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, which the composer wrote for a close friend. The dance itself is about friendship, and draws extra inspiration from Mr. Lubovitch's admiration for the dignity he has seen in those afflicted with acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

"There is a lot of passion and humanistic feeling in my dance," Mr. Lubovitch said. "It is considered old hat to do that kind of dance. But a lot of the new-fangled stuff doesn't appeal to me. I did 'Brahms' in protest against that kind of wallpaper choreography, with its repeating patterns and, even more, its icy tonality. I decided to dig right into the most passionate, hedonist dance I could do. And I dedicated it in my mind to Limon."

'Different Ways of Speaking'

As a new dancer intent from the start on doing his own choreography, Mr. Lubovitch studied ballet as well as ethnic and many modern-dance techniques. "They went together very well," he said. "Just different ways of speaking the same language, with different accents." But Limon affected him in a special way. "His way of doing things influenced me a lot," Mr. Lubovitch said. "And I was even more influenced by Limon the man and the moral underpinnings of his work. Dance seemed to be such a high-minded thing for him."

Mr. Lubovitch began performing in 1964. "When I started dancing, the accent seemed to be on meaningfulness," he said. "It was such an honor to dance at that time. But I think that meaning of dance got lost somewhere along the line."

His own work has changed. "In the beginning, my dance connoted very emotive states," he said. "After a time, I realized my work was about dance more than anything, and I started to work in a way that expressed dance as the main subject. No matter what the pretext - dance as trance, dance as friendship - saying something was not so important as allowing the dance to unfold through the vehicle of the pretext."

The point has frequently been made that Mr. Lubovitch seems to attract exceptionally fine dancers, and those dancers look as if they enjoy performing his work. "Dancers always look at performances to see if they'd like to do it," Mr. Lubovitch said with a smile. "I think the outcome of my work is that most dancers say 'Yes' when they see it. They see how physical and primal it is and that reminds them of why they're dancing."

"And dance is still the most important thing to me," Mr. Lubovitch said. "When it comes right down to it, if I get lost or paint myself into a corner, and wonder why I am doing something, I remember that I love dance. It's not a love for saying things, or wanting to be famous. I just love dance itself."

861116
NYT861122