Flower Opening

The latest step in Japan's Westernization is an entrechat. In Tokyo alone there are an estimated 600 ballet schools, where round-faced girls in soup-bowl haircuts and black leotards are stretching their bodies at exercise bars. On the sidelines most mothers nod approvingly, but some older Japanese nurse a suspicion that the strange movements will make the girls barren. Ballet movies are a sensation, and at least one of them (Red Shoes) started a teen-age craze .for carrying ballet slippers, whether the owners were studying ballet or not. Dozens of school companies present productions whenever they can, while three big TV stations offer regular ballet shows. It has all the appearance of a fad, for Japan's own ancient, formalized dance tradition is as different from West ern ballet as Kabuki is from burlesque. But underneath the surface is a foundation of serious interest.

Changing Muscles. Ballet first touched Japan in the '20s, made its mark with a tour by the late, swanlike Anna Pavlova, but Nippon stayed off its toes until after World War II. In 1946 the occupation forces blessed a performance of Swan Lake--all four acts of it--staged by a pickup Japanese troupe. It was headed by a tigerish young dancer named Masahide Komaki, who had studied ballet with Russian refugees. The production had a grand total of only 22 dancers (v. 64 for Sadler's Wells' Swan Lake today). Optimistically booked for one week, the show sold out for two; it hit Tokyo on the ballet button.

What followed has not been easy on Japanese muscles. For generations Japanese have knelt on tatami (matting), staggered under heavy loads, shuffled pigeon-toed to keep their wooden clogs from slipping off. Many Japanese have thick thighs, knotty calves and short legs. But sturdiness of limb renders the Japanese dancers strong on point, and their natural determination makes for well-disciplined performers. And some observers have noted that the new generation's proportions are closer to the long-legged Western ideal. The cultural hurdle has been even more imposing than the structural difficulties. Ballet plots, often obscure at their Occidental best, are even more obscure in Tokyo. Sample English-language ballet program notes of the Fourth Symphony (Tchaikovsky): "People of city and villages gathering for celebration of spring ... A GIRL and her hero are among them. Something bad worries a GIRL. Her YOUNG MAN buys for her a small gift--'Sea Diabol' in small bottle. Girl likes this present and looks at it carefully. Suddenly small bottle drops out of her hands and is broken. SOMEBODY-IN-GREY appears on the spot and leads a GIRL to a

BLACK FUTURE, while YOUNG MAN tries to get pieces of broken bottle . . ."

Fistic Assist. At 37, Dancer Komaki has made his troupe ("Le Ballet Komaki") the largest and best-disciplined in Japan, introduced some two dozen more or less standard Western ballets to the country, e.g., Nutcracker, Coppelia, Petrouchka, Lilac Garden, and himself partnered Visiting Star Nora Kaye.

Last week, while 2,600 spectators chewed on their sembei (rice crackers), the curtain rose on Tokyo's 1956 season with Komaki's production of Swan Lake. The settings were Nordic in an almond-eyed kind of way, with an Oriental fishing junk afloat in a futuristic fjord. But the dancing was more nearly up to Occidental snuff, with 19-year-old Masako Sunaga and 5 ft. 3 in. Naoto Seki prancing and soaring in nearly flawless technique as

Odette and the prince, while slim Toshiko Saiga showed her Paris training in her warm and free movements as Odile.

Will Japan ever wholly succumb to Western ballet and give up its traditional dancing? Not likely, thinks another recent visitor, Ballerina Alexandra Danilova. "Our dance is like flower, open out this way," she says, assisting her Russian accent by opening out her fists. Then, closing them again, she added: "Japanese dance is like flower, closing up this way."

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