Rituals And Rhythms

SHOW: DANCING

TIME: FOUR MONDAYS STARTING MAY 3, 9 P.M. EDT; PBS

THE BOTTOM LINE: Multiculturalism with a vengeance dominates an ambitious survey of the body in motion.

If all art aspires to the condition of music, as Walter Pater wrote, then all movement and gesture surely aspire to the condition of dance. The infant in its crib, rhythmically waving arms and legs, is, in a sense, a baby Balanchine. A shaman of Nigeria's Yoruba tribe summoning ancestral spirits to the beat of throbbing drums and Mikhail Baryshnikov executing a triple tour en l'air are both paradigms of poetry in action.