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Alexandra Tomalonis
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'EAST MEETS EAST'

Alexandra Tomalonis
Special to The Washington Post
November 26, 1992; Page b12

For much of this century, Western art has exchanged meaning for form, philosophy for personality, and spirituality for commerce. We value novelty and are suspicious of tradition. In contrast, a program of Eastern dance, poetry and music Friday night at the elegant new Japan Cultural Center drew on ancient forms and ideas -- harmony and the transcendency of nature -- and proved them timeless The program, called "East Meets East," was a result of the collaboration of artists and diplomats of Japan, Korea and Indonesia. It was presented by the Asia Society Washington Center in cooperation with the embassies of the three countries, and was conceived and directed by the extraordinary Japanese dancer Shizumi.

Centered on nature themes, the program's three sections -- Flower, Moon and Water, and Sun -- showed that Eastern dance is inseparable from spirituality. The variety of forms and styles was extraordinary. Some dances were based on legends, some on poems, some on traditional rituals.

Shizumi's flower dance, for example, was a broadly acted comedy about a crotchety old drunk of a demon who turns himself into a hermaphrodite after becoming intoxicated by sake and a sacred flower. Chu Me Yi's scarf dance, inspired by a 17th century Korean poem called "After the Rain," used the scarf as a symbol of hope in simple, beautiful choreography that seemed contemporary. The Indonesian "The God Surya (Sun) Dance," danced by the program's co-director, I.G.A. Ngurah Supartha, and M. Rr. Suestiningtyas, was a richly costumed and highly stylized legend about how the Sun fell in love with a maiden.

The program's most ambitious work was a collaborative performance, involving dancers and musicians from all three countries, in the Moon and Water section. Because all the dancers performed the same steps and gestures, differences of style were as evident as similarity of intent. Sometimes, dance can be the universal language. It's rare that intercultural programs can be entertaining, instructional and aesthetically satisfying, but this one was