By Kathy Valin

Contemporary Dance theater presents the Ririe-Woodbury Company at the Aronoff.

JOAN WOODBURY and co-artistic director Shirley Ririe founded Salt Lake City's RIRIE-WOODBURY COMPANY in 1964. As in the Paul Simon lyric, you might well ask, "Aren't you the woman who was recently given a Fulbright?" Only you would have had to ask decades ago: As a student at the University of Wisconsin, Woodbury actually earned the first Fulbright Scholar in dance. She studied in Germany with Mary Wigman.

Since then, she's choreographed, taught and toured throughout the world. Though recently retired as a professor at the University of Utah, she is justifiably proud of her six member company, with whom she tours and teaches but no longer dances.

"Well, when we started," she remembers, "people, unless they are our age, don't even understand. Because we started with a small company. We didn't know what was going to happen, that it would develop as it has -- but we did that early dancing for free.

"We met at night, rehearsed, performed, went on small tours around Utah and Nevada and California. Nobody cared if they got paid. Now we are a company that has a contract of 38-45 weeks and a history. It's amazing."

Presented Friday and Saturday at the Aronoff's Jarson-Kaplan Theater by Contemporary Dance Theater, the company will perform a world premiere of "Metal Garden" by Sean Curran about New York nightlife; in addition to "Wien" by former Martha Graham dancer Pascal Rioult to Ravel's "La Valse"; Stephen Koester's "This Ain't No Tango"; and "Let's Dance" by Doug Varone. Tickets: 513-241-7469.

Next weekend the CINCINNATI BALLET offers COPPELIA. Ballet Master Raymond Lukens has set Kirk Peterson's version here. "When Kirk set out to do Coppelia, he kept it in the traditional line, following the libretto to the letter. One of his teachers, Lydia Haller, was a member of the Paris Opera Ballet," Lukens notes, "and she in turn studied with Carlotta Zambelli, so the style and technique of the 1870s has been authentically preserved."

As a dancer, Lukens toured extensively. Early acting lessons in New York City served him so well that he has a special facility in mime. In the studio today, he carefully shows the Cincinnati dancers how to use their acting skills to communicate the story of the ballet, and he also constantly reminds them to keep their arms exact and free of more modern influences.

"The first Franz was a woman, because of the Franco-Prussian war," he explains, giving a nugget of Coppelia's history. "Of course, the men's section is now done by men." However, Lukens says the women's technique is still challenging, with much jumping. "Over the years with an emphasis on pointe work, this period detail had been lost," he says. It's also very challenging for the modern ballerina who plays Swanilda (Franz's real-life girlfriend).

"She's got to totally lose it in the sense that she is not always the composed ballerina type. She's got to be turned in, and hunched and doing funny gestures. I'm sure that Lucille Ball must have studied Coppelia," he laughs. "There's just so much slapstick and fun in the ballet." Tickets: 513-241-7479.

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Two Companies, Four Temperaments (March 15, 2001)
Roots of Rhythm Remain (March 8, 2001)
Mesmerizing (February 15, 2001)
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