Horseplay at Hartford

Eight years ago there were two Harvard freshmen who used to stay up nights to moon over ballet. One was short, one was tall but both were rich. Edward M. M. Warburg was Banker Felix Warburg's son. Lincoln Kirstein's father ran Filene's department store in Boston. At Harvard Warburg and Kirstein started a Society for Contemporary Art. After graduation their violent interest in Modern Art continued. Last winter they finally fulfilled their youthful ambition by founding the School of American Ballet.

In Hartford last week, at its first public exhibition, the Warburg-Kirstein School presented Alma Mater, a rip-roaring burlesque for which Edward Warburg wrote the scenario and Kay Swift, his comely cousin-by-marriage, the music.* Harvardman Warburg picked Yale as the scene for his collegiate horseplay. Against a backdrop depicting Portal 6 7/8A of the Yale Bowl cavort John Held Jr. characters in John Held Jr. costumes. Girls appear in short leopard-skin jackets, decorated with chrysanthemums and blue satin ribbons, while Kay Swift's music blends bits of "Boola-Boola" with off-stage cheers.

Warburg's Villain is a typical college "drunk" who wears a coonskin coat and tries to make love to the heroine. But she is infatuated with a footballer (Charles Laskey) who, badly banged up after a game, is carried in on the shoulders of adoring young Yalemen. Left alone with the heroine he tackles her at the knees, rolls her over, suddenly becomes exhausted and limp.

At this point, for no sensible reason, a flapper bride (Heidi Vosseller) comes on wearing a turtleneck sweater, carrying an armful of lilies. Ushers in Prince Alberts appear with flowers in whiskey bottles. The mock marriage is immediately followed by the appearance of a large litter of Princeton children. The one scholar, a janitor with a Phi Beta Kappa key, attempts to sweep up the football hero only to be carried contemptuously offstage on the hero's rugged back. Anticlimax occurs when a Salvation Army lassie snatches off her spectacles, exhibits dancing tights and a rare pair of bright red garters.

Alma Mater had a worthy performance. All the dancers made sure, swift pictures, designed by George Balanchine, the crack Russian choreographer whom the young sponsors imported. But critical members of the Hartford audience agreed that Edward Warburg and Lincoln Kirstein needed more time to perfect their dream of a perfect ballet. Undistinguished dancers can frolic in a burlesque like Alma Mater. But earlier in the same evening a more conventional and exacting Mozartiana made it apparent that a year is not long enough to build up a technic comparable to that of the long-trained Russians.

*Kay Swift married Banker James Paul Warburg, son of the late Paul Moritz Warburg. Last week she was in Reno suing for divorce. Under the name of ''Paul James" her husband wrote the lyrics for many of her popular tunes. Their best collaboration was for Fine & Dandy which starred Funnyman Joe Cook.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.