The Great Leap Forward

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Since its founding, the Harkness Ballet alone has commissioned more music scores than any U.S. orchestra except the New York Philharmonic. One sign of dance's expanding horizon is the interest of artists in exploring its possibilities. Painters Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Frank Stella have collaborated with Merce Cunningham; Underground Film Maker Ed Emshwiller is filming dancers in what may be a dance-dominated "total cinema."

Even more telling, perhaps, is the fact that the audiences flocking to dance performances these days are getting more youthful all the time. Raised on TV and movies, a visually oriented younger generation finds something in the spectacle of the dance that turns on the mind's eye. Following a recent performance in Manhattan of John Butler's Ceremony, two flower children stopped the choreographer on the street. "You Butler?" said one. "Saw your ballet. You tell it like it is, man." Says Butler: "It was the best compliment I've ever been paid."