(bright instrumental music) - It's a celebration where the spirit and the energy of the arts is all around you.

And it's, again, kind of on your own terms.

You're comfortable, you're immersed in it.

And it changes you.

So I think the festival, for the people who live in South Carolina, has exceeded every promise we had for it and more.

Let the dancers dance, the choir sing, the children play, the acrobats in the trees perform.

I hereby declare that Spoleto Festival USA has begun.

(upbeat music) (audience applauds) - This year, the Spoleto Festival USA will celebrate its 25th anniversary season.

Hello, I'm Beryl Dakers.

And I was fortunate enough to be here at that very first Spoleto Festival USA back in 1977.

Yes, that's a very young Beryl, much like the festival, filled with excitement and anticipation.

But I'm even more delighted to be here now, as we reminisce and celebrate the phenomenal artistic achievement that this 25th year anniversary celebration represents.

(calm music) (dramatic music) The Spoleto Festival of two worlds made its American debut on May 25th, 1977 with a lavish production of the opera "The Queen of Spades."

That same year Menotti presented his highly acclaimed "The Consul."

- [Actress] This piece takes its toll on me emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually, in every way.

(singing in foreign language) - Then came "The Medium".

(singing in foreign language) Samuel Barbers famed "Vanessa", with libretto by Menotti.

(singing in foreign language) Perhaps because it is the chosen milieu of festival founder, Gian Carlo Menotti, opera has always occupied a pretty prominent position.

And in many ways, the success of the major opera served as a barometer to the overall festival success.

In the early years, many of Menotti's own works were presented due in large part, probably, to their accessibility, but in no small measure to their innate charm.

♪ Have you ever been in Egypt ♪ Many years ago ♪ But why should that surprise you ♪ ♪ My dear don't speak - I think that Gian Carlo Menotti brought a contribution to the opera of the 20th century, and opera in general, that will be realized only with the time.

I mean, people know Ahmul, and "The Console", and Amelia and the ball, and all that.

But there are a lot of other operas which are just now starting to be produced.

And I think people realize that his contribution is much bigger than they actually think.

♪ Don't be afraid Desideria - [Beryl] "The Saint of Bleecker Street" won for the composer, a Pulitzer Prize.

A vivid dramatic work, it is one Menotti himself terms, a fitting presentation for his 75th year.

- First of all, I like it best musically, because it has long melodic lines.

And it is very lyrical.

It's very dramatic.

It has great dramatic tension.

There is murder.

There is love.

There is mysticism.

There is pageant.

I don't think the audience has time to get bored during the Saint.

But it's very near to me actually, because it mirrors the inner conflict that I had all through my life between faith, and skepticism.

Half of me believes, and half of me doesn't believe.

And that is actually the theme of the Saint.

- I mean, for a sighted person, it's so unnatural to, to feel up somebody's face to get the image from it.

And I didn't realize, I mean I honestly didn't realize, everybody I've talked to said it's a very powerful, almost erotic sort of thing.

And for me, it's not like that at all.

Usually my hands are ice cold, poor thing.

And just to try to literally close my eyes mentally and try to get the right impressions from what I'm touching, from her face, what are her eyes like?

What is her nose, her lips, her cheeks, her ear, whatever?

So it's another exercise in concentration for me.

- I also think we must give this moment to the composer as well.

Because the music has such a fantastic climax to it.

It just builds and builds and builds.

And it's so exciting, and gorgeous, and thrilling that finally, when he's, we're just taken away, we're swept away with this intense music and emotion of what's happening between us.

I think that has a good deal to do with it.

- [Beryl] In addition to revivals of his existing work, Menotti created new operas for his festival.

He also produced his own version of other works.

The maestro set about bringing to Spoleto works seldom, if ever, performed in this country.

Talented director, Giulio Chazalettes, teamed with designer Ulisse Santicchi, and produced crowd pleasing magic.

(speaking in foreign language) - He has, Offenbach wanted to, to not ridicule, to paraphrase the great Umburini, who was the great bass of the time, and who sang somewhat in that fashion.

(singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) - [Beryl] Six operas have born the innovative stamp of French co-directors Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, among them, "Salome".

- I've done a great deal of Strauss.

And I love to sing Richard Strauss.

I just love his music.

My one frustration is I wish somebody would hire me to do something funny.

- [Beryl] Veteran Metropolitan Opera star, Mignon Dunn, would return to Spoleto the very next year, this time as Jezibaba in "Rusalka".

- [Mignon] Jezibaba's only real hatred is, she really does not like humans too well because of their, they're not as honest as animals.

- [Beryl] Menotti and Argiris boldly presented "Parsifal", Spoleto's first five hour opera complete with a dinner intermission.

- The European public is more pretentious.

The European public is more stupid, because they think that they know very well everything they don't.

The American public is not pretentious.

Perhaps they haven't seen in their lives 100 Parsifals, as perhaps in Berlin, or in Munich, or in Brussels, or in.

But, what amazes me with these people are that they go to see this Wagner piece, which is called "Parsifal", then talk about "Parsifal" like having, talking about a friend.

- [Beryl] That same year, presumably for the faint of heart, Menotti directed a sparkling version of Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro".

New twists make standard opera repertoire, not so standard fair.

- I hated that "Elektra".

It was German expressionism, experimentalism.

But everything was turned around and twisted.

I remember the scenery, which the whole stage was covered in venetian blinds.

This is ancient Greek now, okay, with venetian blinds.

Everything was exactly the opposite of what it should have been.

- [Beryl] Though she's not featured in this segment, Spoleto's "Der Rosenkavalier" presented a new challenge for none other than renowned soprano, Renata Scotto.

(singing in foreign language) - We're doing the Marschallin together.

She said, yes, yes.

So we're gonna do Marschallin together, and I'm going to become the Queen of England.

I said, no, you're not going to become the Queen of England, but you're going to sing the Marschallin.

She came the first time.

She did it with me.

That was (speaking in foreign language) She has such, nobody believed it.

Nobody believed it.

Everybody was telling me you're crazy.

You're crazy to ask Renata Scotto, or an Italian diva, to do one of the most Germanic things.

And I said, why not?

- But I said, but I never sang a German repertory.

And Marschallin, it's sort of a, a character that is so on command by the German singer.

Especially, you're going back in years where Shaskov was the Marschallin, and nobody else could touch that character.

But then, I always challenge myself.

So I said to maestro, why not?

(singing in foreign language) - In "Wozzeck", clearly there's an exploration of the anguish.

That is to some extent, one of the overriding emotions of the century.

I mean this is, it's the 19th century's century essential sentiment.

This is the century of anguish.

- [Beryl] Stripped to the bear essentials, the festival's "Wozzeck", the third Spoleto USA production for French co-directors Caurier and Leiser, was conducted by Steven Sloane.

- [Steven] I think people can identify a lot with the characters in this play.

But what we normally don't see with a "Wozzeck", is a production where the characters have been literally stripped down of all of the extraneous gestures and caricatures.

(singing in foreign language) - [Beryl] Set in Arabian peasant village, "Jenuta" has all the ingredients of a tragic opera, a pregnant, but unmarried heroin who experiences unrequited love is disfigured by her lover's jealous brother, jilted, and later suffers the death of her child at the hands of a loving stepmother.

By contrast, this "Giasone" is anything but tragic.

(singing in foreign language) - The writer and the composer give you such, such wonderful images and such funny lines.

It's like Neil Simon from the 17th century.

(singing in foreign language continues) - Well, it's quite interesting 'cause Keith Warner and I were both company members at English National Opera for about, we overlapped by, I think, 10 years.

And in that time we never ever worked together.

And then I came to The States last year to do Puccini, in Portland, Oregon, and Keith was directing.

And here we are again doing this.

So, it's I've had to come, we've had to come all this way to work with each other.

- The other thing about Puccini, is not just the tunes, which are fantastic of course, but the words that people sing, the librettos, the stories are so good.

That interests me even more because it's what it says about human beings, and the human condition and how we live.

And he very very often puts the most nasty thoughts to the most beautiful tunes.

And of course that's why he's such a great dramatist, 'cause of this fighting conflict between the music and the drama actually creates a whole level of dramatic irony, which I think eludes many other composers.

(singing in foreign language) - "Weill" is not the sort of theater musician that says be careful, I am lecturing you now on how you should lead your lives.

He's warning.

He's not being didactic.

He's setting up some problems, some thesis.

But he's not offering, particularly, answers or solutions.

It's up to us to work them out.

"Die Burgschaft" was Weill's last major opera.

He wrote it in 1932.

The Nazi regime closed it down very shortly after it opened.

And very soon after that Weill, being the most famous Jewish composer in Germany of his time, Jewish German, fled the country.

- [Beryl] Spoleto's second opera offering, "Iphigenie en Tauride", was first performed by the Paris Opera in 1779.

Andrea Trebnick performs the title role.

Steven Sloane conducts.

- Iphigenie en Tauride by Gluck, for me, is one of the greatest masterpieces ever brought to the music theater stage.

I think it is a great great work, a great tragedy.

(singing in foreign language) - I was trying not to do something which would call so much attention to itself, but rather something which would strip away to some kind of, trying to get at some kind of an essence of the piece.

Sondra Radvanovsky is amazing.

I've never worked with her before but I heard about her, 'cause she's a young artist at The Met.

(singing in foreign language) - [Beryl] For Radvanovsky, a recent graduate of The Met's Young Artist Development Program, this past year has provided a dazzling ascent, pairing her with some of the world's greatest conductors.

- [Sondra] I couldn't think of anything else that I would want.

I mean, it's a pretty great life to love what you do, and to get paid for doing what you love to do.

And you get to see the world, and meet great people, and work with wonderful people.

I mean, everybody in our cast, they're just fabulous people to work with.

They really, really are.

And I just hope I, knock on wood, keep doing the same thing that I'm doing.

- [Beryl] Arguably, the most talked about opera ever produced for the festival would be Ken Russell's unique take on "Madama Butterfly".

- I hated it because it was all wrong.

For instance, Madam Butterfly is supposed to be a geisha.

- Butterfly is more played as a prostitute than as a geisha, which are really two very different concepts.

A Geisha was someone who danced and entertained the men, but was not really a low class prostitute.

In this production, she is.

So it differs a lot.

- So that doesn't make sense.

In the second act, Butterfly is living in this bordello.

And she has her room decorated with American flags, and big Mickey Mouse dolls, and things like this.

But here she is in the middle of World War II, parading her American sympathies in front of the Japanese people.

They would tear her to pieces.

They wouldn't put up for this.

In no war do you put up with collaborators or sympathizers.

- It's the American dream, wasn't quite as nice as it appeared to be.

But then, of course, the irony of the piece is that, of course, the Japanese took over the American dream and exploited it to their own ends.

And now we're all trying to imitate the Japanese instead of the American.

- [Robert] See, none of this is logical.

Besides it was a very bad atomic bomb.

If it been a fun atomic bomb, I would've forgiven him.

But it wasn't.

- [Catherine] But you remembered it.

- I remembered it.

Everybody remembers that.

And there were some very pleasant performances along the way, I can't remember it all.

It's the nice pleasant things you forget.

It's the wonderfully good, or the wonderfully bad things that you remember.

(calm music) - The original Dock Street Theater is the oldest performing arts theater in the colonies.

It's most appropriate, then, that the majority of theatrical productions here at Spoleto are done at the Dock Street Theater.

It's quiet intimacy providing the best setting for drama, which was launched back in 1978, with a brand new production by none other than playwright, Tennessee Williams.

- Which is all of the show, a second galleon, who crusted with barnacles and the doubloons, an undersea tango palace, with instant come and go moons.

(audience applauding) - He is such a dear, dear man, as well as a great writer, and it's a privilege.

It's really a privilege to be able to do his work.

So take off the concealment, the paper towel Lily.

And turn out that out, Mrs. Conner.

Or I'm gonna be obliged to do my hip swivels out here to catch Ralph's car.

(high pitched squealing) - Oh, Gigi.

- I think you mean here, here.

Now, turn it down a bit.

- It is a comedy.

But it contains a poignance too.

- I guess we'd all just die to be in a Tennessee Williams play forever.

I think the play has a great potential.

I think the play can be one of his most beautiful plays.

Of course, when you're inside looking out, you see all the things that maybe you haven't done yet that can help the play.

And Tennessee has been writing like mad, and beautifully.

- [Beryl] Of course, not all of Williams' drama was reserved for the play.

- I'm speaking from Neptune's bowels, the sea's floor is nacreous, filmy, with milk in the wind, the light of an overcast morning.

I want to give warning.

- Getting drunk at the Sister at 10 o'clock in the morning, and reading poems full of unprintable words to blue haired matrons who just fanned themselves in horror and loved it.

That was wonderful.

- Well, I am, I don't think I'll deliver anymore of a lecture than that, but confine myself to my real profession, which is pouring wine.

(audience laughing) A little shaky there.

To your health, ladies and gentlemen.

(audience laughing) I wish it was enough to go round.

- [Beryl] Following on the heels of Creve Coeur, Arthur Miller's "The Price" was presented in 1979.

- You sure you don't want of water?

- Water, I don't need.

A little blood, I could use.

Boy, oh boy, oh boy.

That's some stairs.

Another couple of steps, you'd be in Heaven.

- [Esther] You all right now?

- Excuse me, officer.

I'm looking for a party.

The name is- - [Victor] Franz.

- [Gregory] That's it, Franz.

- That's me, Victor Franz.

There's something so compelling about being in Arthur Miller's plays.

I think, we were discussing this last night.

About the emotional life that gets into it, and his great sense of life, and his.

I don't know whether this is conscious or unconscious.

I mean, but I always feel in all of these plays, there's a kind of a catharsis that happens, a kind of a, an emotional release that the audience can have, and the actors obviously have.

- Miller himself told me in New York, this is the play he wrote that is closest to the belly.

He said, it's a play written from the belly.

He said everybody says to me, but Salesman is the great play.

On the country, Salesman he invented.

But he said, I know all of these four people.

I know every one of them.

- American Clock is basically about the United States in the '30s, and that means that it, I call it a mural.

Which means that it's not about any one individual.

But it's about really the country.

There was only two truly national events in the history of the United States, I think.

One was the Civil War.

And the other one was the depression.

And it affected, both of these things, affected pretty nearly everybody who was alive at the time.

- [Beryl] Miller himself was on hand in 1980 for the production of "The American Clock".

- See you again soon, Charlie, I heard.

Also, put me into Worthinton Pump.

1000 shares?

Oh, all right.

I really dig the way Arthur writes.

I also came from that background.

- By the time we got to 42nd Street, the depression was practically over.

And in a funny way, it was, in here.

- [Beryl] Subsequent plays have run the gamut, from pure Americana to pure avant garde.

(eclectic music) - [Reporter] The great modern painter, Juan Miro, is also from Barcelona.

And he designed these giant figures for another of La Claca's capers, Mori el Merma, Death to the Bogeyman.

You know, (speaking in foreign language) There's one in every language.

- [Reporter] Risk is what the theatrical experience is all about.

The members of The Handstand Theater, the other Australian theater company here at Spoleto.

The actors, in their production of "Secrets", are not exposed.

In fact, they're covered all in black.

None of the actors utters a word.

Theirs is a theater of visual imagery.

- [Elsa] Do you think your colored folk feel the same way about things?

- Why should it be any different for them, Miss Barlow?

- [Elsa] I was just wondering if they had as many reasons to be as contented as you.

- I was talking about simple gratitude, Miss Barlow.

Wouldn't you say contentment was a more complicated state of mind?

One that could very easily be disturbed?

But grateful, oh yes.

Our colored folk also have every reason to be.

Ask them.

Present a God fearing, God grateful man that I, that this character is, is that I stand a good chance of winning over this audience on my, to my side.

(laughs) I have been judged very severely in other places in this world, but here in the South, as also in South Africa, he is understood.

- South African playwright, Athol Fugard, raised the voices of the dissonant, while American, Martha Clark, raised eyebrows.

How do you feel about Miracolo and some of the other works?

In other words, how has the festival as a whole struck you?

- For me, this festival is the most important festival, because finally I have achieved what I've always wanted to achieve in Charleston.

I have achieved a festival in which there is no compromise toward the audience.

It's a very sophisticated festival.

Your main paper called it too arty.

But I don't think art is ever too arty.

And I think that, I hope that next year I can make it even more arty.

- [Beryl] Though it's hard to choose, my all time favorite would have to be The Gate Theater's production, "Solome".

(calm piano music) - There are two theories.

The first theory is that it's a, an opportunity to examine the internal texture of the play by presenting it at this incredibly slow pace.

It's very structured, formalized movement, and delivery of the lines by isolating the characters down to whiteface, black costumes, and this remarkable simplistic staging, or a monochrome staging of a play that's redolent of color and texture.

The other theory is that on the first day of rehearsal, I leaned across to Steven Berkoff and said, this read in 47 minutes.

What the 'hell are we gonna do?

And he said, we'll do it very slowly.

(all laughing) - [Beryl] Now, which do we accept?

- I take, both.

- Take either of them.

I mean- - Both are true.

- Back!

Daughter of Babylon.

- [Beryl] This flight of fantasy chronicles the adventures of two men stuck in a bathroom for 25 years.

- We were in the airport trying to leave, and one of the.

One of the cleaners bar the door while he was cleaning the other toilet.

And we were in the washroom area.

And we were briefly stuck there.

I threw a panic, and started wondering how long we'd been there.

Who would come to our funerals?

- I remember something.

- There's no time.

Throw me the key.

- [Beryl] "Mamba's Daughters" was written in 1929, premiered at the old Empire Theater in New York in 1939, and launched the theatrical career of the legendary Ethel Waters.

Sadly, it took 60 years and Spoleto for "Mamba's Daughters" to come home to Charleston.

♪ While my heart pining deep in these ♪ ♪ These loathsome waters (calm music) - We don't want people to check their minds at the door when they come to the Spoleto Festival.

We want them to keep open minds, and we want them to find out more about themselves, more about other things than they might have known before they arrived.

- [Beryl] Spoleto USA has presented an astounding 59 world premieres, and 46 American premieres since its inception.

Among the more challenging productions have been works that are loosely termed music theater.

These hybrids incorporate both music and drama, and sometimes dance as well, to achieve their artistic goals.

One of the earliest ventures was the Mabo Mines production "Dead End Kids", conceived and directed by JoAnne Akalaitis.

- [JoAnne] The play is called "Dead End Kids, a History of Nuclear Power".

♪ A hubba hubba hubba just get back ♪ ♪ Well a hubba hubba hubba let's shoot some breeze ♪ ♪ Say whatever happened to the Japanese ♪ ♪ A hubba hubba hubba ain't you heard ♪ ♪ A hubba hubba hubba got the word ♪ ♪ I got it from a guy who's in the know ♪ ♪ It was mighty smokey over Tokyo ♪ ♪ A friend of mine in a B-29 dropped another load for luck ♪ ♪ As he flew away he was heard to say ♪ ♪ A hubba hubba hubba yuk yuk ♪ Well I gotta go fishing that's okay ♪ ♪ We'll give you our permission and we'll say ♪ ♪ A hubba-hubba-hubba on my way ♪ ♪ And I'll dig you later in the USA ♪ - [Beryl] In 1986, Menotti's childhood memories of a one ring Italian circus found new life with the creation of Circus Flora, the story of the Baldini family, and the beginning of their American journey.

During the opening ceremonies crowds gasped, as Delilah Wallenda, granddaughter of the legendary Karl Wallenda, performed sans net, an amazing high wire walk from the roof of City Hall to the roof of the Post Office on the opposite corner.

This charming ensemble returned to Spoleto in 1988, 1991, and again in 1995.

Each time audiences were enthralled by the adventures of the plucky Baldini who survived pirates and the wild west as they made their way cross country.

- And so I make a big distinction between performance and spectacle when it comes to circus.

And Circus Flora definitely focuses on the performance.

- When we go into schools, we do work on educating people about the plight of the African elephant, or just about animal entertainers in general.

The relationships between people and animals is very important to me.

I couldn't have a more ideal situation, to have a show, a one ring circus that I really like.

Don't eat the microphone, honey.

- I'm extraordinarily proud of them all, and the amount of hard work and sacrifice.

This is not a high paying job.

You're not not doing this 'cause you're getting paid well.

You're doing it 'cause you love it.

(singing in foreign language) - [Beryl] Marking their third appearance at the Spoleto Festival USA, the Colla Marionettes presented Verdi's Aida.

(singing in foreign language) The year was 1989 when Laurie Anderson premiered her much anticipated opera, "Empty Places".

- Well I love Laurie Anderson.

The public did not really know what to make of her here.

I think she became a victim of her own success, because to me, Laurie Anderson was a wonderful small poet.

She told wonderful stories and poems.

She played her electric violin.

And it was all kind of strange, and spooky, and beautiful, and small.

But then as time went on, she developed these huge spectacles.

And the last time she was here, she did this piece about Moby Dick.

(eclectic new age music) - [Narrator] And so the great floodgate of the Wonder World surrounded.

And I passed through them.

- The show itself is run by computers.

We have so many computers there.

I personally, I don't trust them.

(violin music) - [Beryl] More than that I'm curious about why, if you have this distrust, or maybe disappointment with technology, why it remains such an integral part of your work?

- I use it.

I choose to use it.

And I don't wanna be used by it.

I don't wanna be its slave.

I wanna control it.

I'm a control freak.

I like to make things work for me.

- And it was enormous.

She had every technical thing on it.

It was like a spaceship on the stage.

(singing in foreign language) - [Beryl] "Praise House", the 1991 music theater piece based on the life of visionary artist, Minnie Evans, was developed by The Urban Bush Women.

- For me, I would say it's after we've done the baptismal scene with the umbrella, and we come in.

Because I've always wanted the baptismal scene.

We had to work very hard on getting that in, because there was so much more important things that we had to work in the play.

And I always felt that, after going through all that, Hannah had to have a cleansing.

She had to come out fresh.

And once we worked that in, for me, that's like.

It really centers me.

It really hits home for me.

Whenever I go, I see that, I know that.

Draw or die, I've been going through this all my life.

And now it's real for me.

This is what I really have to do.

And that always hits for me.

It's always like this is it.

- [Beryl] With musical score by Philip Glass, and visual design by Red Grooms, David Gordon brought to Spoleto, "The Mysteries and What's So Funny".

- What does all of this mean?

How do you put it all together?

How do you assess your life in the middle of your life, when a lot of things are turning to an unmentionable?

(calm music) - August.

(upbeat jazz music) Lightning at dawn.

- [Beryl] At the end of the official Spoleto opening ceremony, the audience was treated to a glimpse of "Lulu Noire".

Adapted from Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays, this jazz theater work, a new twist on another all Bomberg opera, received its world premier here at Spoleto.

The libretto and adaptation is by the prolific author and director, Lee Breuer.

The musical score and music direction provided by a acclaimed trumpeter, Jon Faddis.

- [Jon] My concept?

Well, hopefully it's something that pays tribute to the jazz tradition, composers like Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn, who are very much in the musical theater, as well as all of my trumpet influences, and musical influences like Dizzy Gillespie, Lewis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Coltrane.

- [Beryl] Just what is "Lulu Noir" about?

The plot is rather complicated.

It was when Wedekind wrote the original almost a century ago.

And now, compounded by Lee Breuer's modern interpretation, which features an American setting and an African American aesthetic.

Well, maybe we'd better get some help.

- And it's very much about our obsessions with sex, and lust, and desire.

It's particularly about this woman who causes the death and destruction of all the men in her life, including her own life.

♪ Down in the back ♪ He's in the darkroom ♪ I just want to talk to you ♪ Why didn't you talk to me ever again ♪ ♪ Teacher death I do thank you ♪ For inspiring me to sing this blues ♪ - [Beryl] It was the beat poet himself, a much mellowed Allen Ginsburg, who teamed with the returning minimalist composer, Philip Glass, to create 1990' smash hit, "Hydrogen Jukebox".

- These are my two heroes, especially Glass.

Yeah, that was one of my memorable moments.

Number one on my time machine list, I guess.

- [Beryl] What's the thesis of the work as a whole?

- [Allen] Maybe declining of empire, and human transcendence and equanimity beyond the fortunes of politics and history.

The old earthly fix that our souls are in, being born to see the light, and enjoy our play on Earth and depart.

So transitoriness of empire and mortal, our fathers and ourselves.

At the same time, acceptance of the situation, and relating to it in a generous way, sympathetically.

They saw the fall of America as a notion for the full of empire, and change- - Transformation.

- Transformation.

I guess.

- [Beryl] In the year 2000, composer Bright Sheng adapted an ancient Chinese legend to create "The Silver River".

(dramatic music) This creative effort united Sheng with award winning librettist David Henry Wang, of "M. Butterfly" fame, and innovative director Ong Keng Sen. Not quite an opera, and not quite a play, the result is an intriguing hybrid of musical theater.

- So in this, we have a actress, just talks like an actress in a play.

And then we have opera singer, a baritone Western opera singer.

And we have a Chinese opera singer, who just sings and talks as if he were in Chinese opera singer.

And then you have this pipa player, who just plays this role, muted, communicates through her playing, through her music.

- It is a love story.

It's definitely a love story.

But it is how we came to have night and day.

(erratic music) (calm music) - Spoleto dance.

Through the years the offerings have ranged from the undisputed masters of classical ballet, to the best in ethnic traditions, to the most daring and avant garde of the modern dance icons.

(calm music) - I think, most important in our art, when you can show your feelings and audience can understand you.

(dramatic music) - [Beryl] Painstakingly reconstructed from bits of film, "Panorama" was presented here at Spoleto for the first time since its premier in 1935.

Choreographed by Martha Graham herself, this was just one of four stellar works presented by her company at the festival.

Theater in dance is even more apparent at footprints with the Joe Goode Performance Group.

Movement, gesture, text, visuals, and spoken words combine to make "Convenience Boy" an experience to remember.

Duet, or pas de deux?

At Spoleto USA, it could be either.

(dramatic music) (light hearted music) - I guess it was classic, because it survived 35, 37 years actually.

But the, the dancing itself is like.

I mean, he's always looking for new ways of, steps that come up, and.

I mean he creates whole new vocabularies that you, you'll look at and you go, oh my God.

Where did this come from?

- [Beryl] Gillis, who is himself a choreographer, will also be featured in concert with his sister, renowned dancer/choreographer, Margie Gillis.

What happens when you dance with your sister?

Do you break loose, or?

- [Christopher] It's a different experience, because it's just the two of us.

I mean the Taylor company is Paul's choreography.

With my sister, a lot of it is actually mine.

It's really a lovely experience.

- [Reporter] The flamenco suits her.

Emotional and fiery are only two adjectives that describe Maria Benitez and her dance troop, The Estampa Flamenca.

- [Maria] A lot of it is a great deal of, it's a gust of raw energy.

It sort of socks you in the face.

And people are not sometimes quite ready to deal with that kind of thing.

It's too open, because you really do lay your soul bare.

- [Beryl] In startling contrast, Dana Reitz dances to the sounds of silence.

Headlining this year's Footprints in The Garden series, the newly formed, but highly acclaimed David Parson's company provided a contemporary program of both abstraction and conceptual appeal.

- I wanted to excite the audience with energy and, and alive, and easy on the theater, and just really getting into kinetic excitement.

(dramatic music) - [Beryl] "Zun", a theatrical movement work presented by Teatr Eksprsji, marked the American debut for this very energetic troop of actor/dancers.

Choreographed by Wojciech Misiuro, "Zun" pushed the limits, combining elements of dance, drama, sports, and pantomime to create an experience of sensations.

(high energy tribal beat music) - I know, and you know that two bodies can't occupy the same space at the same time, for instance.

So, okay.

I'm not even gonna try.

What I try and do is say, well why can't they?

Let me try.

And then we go ahead and try, and find out all of these things.

But underlying that attempt is the really deep belief that it is possible.

(light techno music) - Only purists or interest in purism.

Art has always been a mixed affair.

Art stems from ritual.

And ritual was the purpose of divining things.

I mean, you had the high priest, or the dancer that made the rains come.

And if the rains didn't come, it was disaster to the village.

So they immediately mixed their arts.

At the very beginning, the arts were mixed.

I mean, the dancers wore masks.

They wore abstract costumes.

They used their voices.

They shouted, they stamped, they did everything.

That's where art comes from.

And art still comes from that same source.

It is the divination of the mystique through the artist.

And the art doesn't care how you make the rains come, just make them come.

And that's the job of the artist.

- [Cyrus] "Phffft" came from an improvisation we did based on one of those karate movies.

And then the sound comes three seconds after.

Phffft, phffft, phffft.

And that developed, it was a three hour improvisation.

It developed into a vocalization based on the word phffft.

And so ultimately, at the end of that, we thought this would be a great thing for the company.

It's a sound of a movement.

And it can be many different things.

- We do acrobatic gymnastics, basically funny modern dance.

(audience laughing) We're having fun, and they can have fun.

And I think there's some stigmas, anti modern dance stigmas in this country, that have tended to make the modern dance audience urban and, above average economic category.

In the United States, you go to a small town, that doesn't, may not even have a theater.

And most of those people have never seen modern dance.

So they harbor some stereotypes about it.

They have this idea of male dancers as effeminate.

They have these ideas as modern dancers being something completely aloof and, and kind of- - [Dancer] Inaccessible.

- Inaccessible, kind of snobby.

And so we are just- - [Beryl] Or just plane weird.

- Or just plane weird.

- Or just plane weird.

- [Beryl] Innovative choreographer, Susan Marshall, last seen Spoleto when she collaborated with Philip Glass for the dance opera "Les Enfants Terribles", returns to the Sottile Theater with, "The Descent Beckons", a high energy romp of dance, text, and plastic dolls?

At Gaillard Auditorium, we happened upon the Miami City Ballet Company taking a class.

Conducting the class was none other than the artistic director, famed choreographer, and former New York City principal, Edward Villela.

- This is a passing art form.

It's body to body and mind to mind.

You don't learn it from a book, or a video, or a film.

It's an individual idea.

So, I had the wonder of standing in front of the two greatest choreographers in this century, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.

Now as a director, when both of these men are no longer available, it's up to us, our eyes, our minds, our memories, our passion about these works to return them to the stage the way these guys originally meant them to be.

And so that's, that's what drives me about it.

I think we all owe a debt to our art.

It's incumbent upon us to return that debt.

There's a time to take, and a time to give.

I had takings from the best.

And now it's time for me to give to these young people, because that period is gone.

They will not understand it, unless we who were there perpetuate it the way it was originally intended.

(upbeat jazz music) - Cofounded in 1956 by the late Robert Joffrey, and current artistic director, Gerald Arpino, the company is considered by many to be a national cultural treasure.

It is noted for versatility, and a challenging repertoire, which boasts not only original ballets, but recreations of classic masterpieces as well.

(dramatic music) - I, as an American, try to reflect in the choreography, in my own rhythms, in my own style, my time and place as an American who understands his rhythms of his own people.

There's an American spirit that comes from Bob and me that imbues the entire company.

Its purpose is larger than the Joffrey art.

Its purpose is to expand the whole goal of vision.

And when you come out, you're just lifted.

Your whole being is lifted.

- [Beryl] Admittedly, I'm a great fan of modern dance.

But to see Alicia Alonzo, well into her '70s, and hardly able to see, dance as though age were totally irrelevant, that's the capsule memory I will never forget.

(fast paced music) Doubtless, the moments of great poignancy are those that will remain embedded in my memory trove.

These are the moments the camera, perhaps, cannot do justice.

Moments like sitting on the stage with French Vietnamese choreographer, Ea Sola.

- When I leave Vietnam, it's just near the end.

But I don't know Vietnam with peace feeling.

So when I left Vietnam, year after year, even in Vietnam was kind of we can say peace.

Not in me.

The war continued in me.

(singing in foreign language) - [Beryl] I also remember just chatting with Arthur Mitchell, and the goose pimples I got watching The Dance Theater Of Harlem's "Firebird".

- I can come to the theater, and see that I can turn thousands of people on, then I know that I'm doing something right.

And if I can give a few moments of pleasure in people's lives, then I know that I'm doing something right.

And when I feel that I am getting young people to do something constructive with their lives, then I'm doing something right.

And when it comes to the arts and humanities, and whatever it may be, I'm okay.

(dramatic music) - [Lar] Actually, I call it a group of mythic constellations.

It doesn't relate specifically to shapes we know of.

But it derives from shapes that exist, and imagines these shapes.

I've sort of created a mythic galaxy, and explore some of the constellations spinning within that galaxy.

- [Dancer] Another hard part will be the feet.

It seems there have been a ballet company here.

And they dance with rosin on their shoes so that they won't slip.

So when we're dancing barefoot, tends to make our feet raw.

- The beginning of it is all very, very strong stop action.

In other words, it's pumped and sharp of breath, stopped movement as you can make, right from the very center of your gut.

And you have to hear your breath just screaming.

(imitates breath screaming) (fast paced erratic music) - [Beryl] It's a hard choice, but if I had to pick one favorite, it would probably be "One Simple Moment", a classic pas de deux performed by the Canadian Company Ballet, Eddy Toussaint.

Even today, it still touches my soul.

(classical music) (street dance hip hop music) From Charleston, I'm Beryl Dakers.