Originally choreographed separately, Country Dances was then staged as the
opening half of a 1976 Joffrey Ballet/Tharp Dance collaboration entitled
Happily Ever After [see the solo dance now called Happily Ever After].
Subsequently documented in another program for television, "Making Country
Dances," by itself Country Dances showcases a quartet in the form of a lone
man and three women. It seesaws and hums with vitality duplicating the
similar liveliness of the authentic country fiddle airs that serve as
accompaniment. (Santo Loquasto's costuming has the look of both western duds
and Appalachian quilts.) Some of the witty and fluid dynamic moves involve
daring partnering--catches, lifts, double-work--which mostly, but not
exclusively, fall to the lone male dancer for support. Sometimes, however,
it's woman-partnering-woman and woman-partnering-man that keeps the
bright-toned work in constant flux. When strains of "hail! hail! the gang's
all here" surface in the "Alabama Jubilee" finale, the quartet zips through
its slippery but not frantic moves like a longstanding rural family whose
down-home traditions are as skillfully performed as they are second nature
to the performers. And, it's "hail, hail" to them all the way home.