Dance

...The classes concentrate on the basics of running, jumping, and leaping...

...Some show considerable proficiency and continue on to more complex and demanding levels Of performance...

...At times he has referred to his program as sandlot ballet but for the most part has simply concentrated on involving children and local teachers in the experience of dance as a participation activity...

...slowly the activities are contained and given choreographic ' shape so that they become recognizable routines...

...They shelter him and skillfully shuffle away...

...This year the program has expanded to include two schools in Chicago...

...It's a long step from elitist art to national television, and the National Dance Institute has been instrumental in closing the gap...

...When asked how he liked the ballet he commented, "I don't know: all they're doing is dancing so far...

...The design of the piece was simple, but the presentation was accomplished and showed a nice level of theatrical finish...

...During this time he has given lecture demonstrations for the public but has reserved his special energies for popularization among grade school youngsters...

...At the very least, dance will have been demystified for thousands of youngsters who will be able to find their ways into theaters as members of a receptive audience...

...The popular imagination obviously didn't quite know what to expect...

...DON McDONAGH...

...Perhaps the most sublime expression of its misunderstood "special" status was voiced by a commercial cartoon character fixedly watching a televised presentation...

...Long honored as ballet's leading creative talent, Balanchine in "Tango" showed his trained musician's skill as well...

...Throughout his long career of over thirty years d'Amboise, still active as a principal dancer and one of the original members of the New York City Ballet, has appeared in movies, network television, and on Broadway...

...There the system repeats the format established from its small beginnings as an informal exercise class held in a single Manhattan school over a decade ago...

...Earlier this year the Institute held its fourth annual gala in New York's Felt Forum and involved eight hundred children from local public, private, and parochial schools as well as dancing policemen and women, soloists and principals of New York City Ballet, SWAT Team members (d'Amboise's advanced students) and popular entertainers Judy Collins, Peter Gennaro, Chita Rivera, and Kevin Klein...

...The group danced with spritely cohesion and even more impressively repeated the finale at a doubled tempo...

...Others are content with their elementary exposure, and a small number show sufficient promise to think of a performing career...

...The talented young Darci Kistler was partnered smoothly by Christopher d'Amboise, the choreographer's son, who is also a member of New York City Ballet...

...For their numbers, d'Amboise and his teacher/ choreographers concentrate on familiar situations...

...They are well trained and have the security of their choreographed routines...

...While it has long been known that dance is excellent exercise, the program stresses the experience as a performing one to be shared with audiences rather than as a purely recreational activity...

...What the result of these efforts will be ultimately is un-linown...

...The eight sections all had original music and lyrics by Martin Charnin, Miss Collins, LeeNorris, Jacques and Christopher d'Amboise, and, surprisingly, the choreographer George Balanchine...

...Pinball Machine" Showed dancers being launched one by one into a maze of "bumpers" and "flippers" who bounced them imaginatively around until they tumbled into the final receiving trough...

...There are no enchanted princesses, enthralled princes or sorcerers, but rather incidents based on American history, contemporary fads, or legendary Western types such as the cowboy...

...As a teacher d'Amboise pushes his pupils as far as their abilities will take them and his own incredible energy and enthusiasm can inspire them...

...The History Lesson" was the largest of the presentations and consisted of a guided tour of folk types encountered by Huckleberry Finn and Jim on their raft drifting down the Mississippi...

...The plot line was immediately comprehensible, and the various groups made their entrances and exits with crisp precision...

...To show the continuum of dance progression to the professional level, various popular artists such as Miss Rivera and Mr...

...A Rubik Cube" featured boys and girls with colored square boxes on their heads forming and reforming until harmonious groups suddenly snapped into place...

...A specially effective piece was "Snap Dance" performed by third graders...

...Performance is a species of theater, and it is remarkable how disciplined the children are when called upon to demonstrate their newly acquired skills...

...The finale "Fat City" united the professionals, the children-all eight hundred of them-with a group of policemen and women who take dance classes and who showed considerable proficiency in a couple of cases...

...Despite the presence of professionals in the gala program, the children were the centerpiece of attention...

...Pirates, river folk, and cajuns all made their scheduled appearances during the imaginative journey...

...His own pas de deux "Pastorale," done for the Stravinsky festival of New York City Ballet in June, was given a preview performance...

...The group huddles protectively together as an adult figure moves mechanically and menacingly around them...

...To counter such entrenched miscomprehension, Jacques d'Amboise, principal dancer of New York City Ballet, embarked on a program of familiarization among school children through his National Dance Institute...

...d'Amboise and Karin von Aroldingen, also a principal dancer of New York City Ballet, presented George Balan-chine's "Five Pieces for Orchestra," an excerpt from his "Episodes," to the uncompromisingly modern music of Anton von Webern...

...The latter also danced an amusing show-style number with Janet Eilber, former member of the Martha Graham company, which dealt with the career of a shy young man who improbably grew up to be a daring gangster...

...Gennaro performed with groups of children as a backup...

...The students range in age from eight to thirteen, and it is remarkable how little self-consciousness is demonstrated by any of them...

...His robot-like demeanor causes a rippling frisson in one of them who seeks the protection of the crowd...

...With each passing year d'Amboise's charges have shown increasing sophistication and portions of this year's demonstration will be presented in an hour-long special by NBC television...

...No matter what the outcome of their exposure to dance, though, the children come away with a heightened experience of trained movement as an artistic expression...