It’s not hard to see why: if dancers could design heaven, it would look a lot like White Oak. Founded in 1990, the group was originally a vehicle for works by Mark Morris, one of Barysnikov’s favorite modern dance choreographers. Now the repertoire has expanded considerably, and the group’s structure has evolved into something resembling a ’60s dream. The eight company members – four men and four women – make decisions together, share some of the administrative chores and choose new dances by the choreographers who most fascinate them. Two or three times a year they spend several weeks rehearsing at White Oak, a Florida estate owned by Howard Gilman, a paper-company magnate who is a longtime friend of Baryshnikov’s. Thanks to Baryshnikov’s famous name, their performances invariably sell out; thanks to that healthy box office, they have no need to fund-raise. Most revolutionary of all is the company’s age range, which Baryshnikov describes as “From twenty something on up.” Way up. Half the group is over 40. “All these people worked their whole lives for somebody else,” says Baryshnikov. “Now they want to work for themselves.”
White Oak’s repertoire clearly reflects Baryshnikov’s longstanding passion for modern dance in all its variety. Soon after he arrived in the United States in 1974, he began experimenting with modern choreographers, and as artistic director of American Ballet Theatre from 1980 to 1989 he livened up a largely traditional repertoire with works by such adventurous moderns as Morris, David Gordon and Karole Armitage. Now that his days of standard pyrotechnics in white tights are over, he is free to romp full time in a range of styles. White Oak’s opening night at Lincoln Center will be a benefit for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and Baryshnikov will perform in Cunningham’s “Signals.” New York audiences will also see him in Morris’s “Mosaic and United,” a new work by the young German choreographer Joachim Schlomer and a glorious solo called “Pergolesi,” choreographed for him by Twyla Tharp. He will also unveil a new solo by Jerome Robbins, which the two have seen working on for a couple of years. Robbins, of course, works mostly in ballet; but the new piece – seen, unfinished, in rehearsal – eschews categories. Set to music from Bach’s cello suites, the dance emerges in a rush of colors as varied as Baryshnikov’s own gifts: it’s zealous, refined, playful and deeply theatrical.
What makes White Oak remarkable isn’t just Baryshnikov’s dancing, though his dancing remains absolutely astonishing, but the extraordinary talents of the rest of the ensemble. Such dancers as Kate Johnson, who came from the Paul Taylor company, and Kevin O’Day, who danced for years with Twyla Tharp, were stars who had fan clubs of their own. Even more important, each was an exemplar of a very particular style who had to be willing to adopt new ways of moving. “Nobody’s in their most comfortable shoes,” says Patricia Lent, who joined the company earlier this month after 10 years with Cunningham. “Everyone’s trying new things. They’re very, very conscientious. And if the choreographer is coming to rehearsal, they all get nervous.”
The styles aren’t all that are new to Lent. “On my second day Misha said he was going to run his “Signals’ Solo, and would I look at it,” says Lent. “My jaw dropped.” As a Cunningham dancer she knew “Signals” well, but in the hierarchy that rules most dance companies, a novice would hardly be expected to offer advice to the chief luminary. At White Oak, where everybody is bound to be a beginner some of the time, an artistic hierarchy would make no sense. “If you’re not in the piece, you don’t leave rehearsal, you watch and make notes and give comments,” says Lent. “You become the eyes.”
White Oak isn’t entirely leaderless – “Misha is the boss,” says Lent. But for Baryshnikov, after the pressures of maintaining a huge, temperamental ballet company, life in White Oak is a picnic. “All these big companies go from one gala to another gala,” he says. “They think only what to sell, and not what to dance. It takes so much attention away from what a company should do – dance and be creative and have a good time.” Standing in a corner of the rehearsal studio, bouncing gently in place as he waits for his cue, brushing back his hair with the gesture Tharp immortalized in her great ballet for him, “Push Comes to Shove,” he looks tense and excited and happy. One foot is bandaged, one knee is wrapped and there are lines on his face that didn’t exist a decade ago. But a moment into his rehearsal, it’s clear he remains the most important dancer of our time. White Oak will tour the East Coast and Midwest this spring and summer. For dance lovers, wherever this company is performing is the place to be.
