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Spanish civilization has, of course, been a dominant force in Mexican life and consequently, in the Mexican dance. Three other influences, though of infinitely lesser impact, must also -be noted, the French, the Negro and more recently the American. The French influence, which was introduced in the middle-nineteenth century, was of brief duration and since the forms of national aesthetic expression had already crystallized, effected few changes. These appear mostly in the furniture and architecture of urban homes of the middle and upper classes and in the literature produced by these same groups. In the dance, modifications are shown in costuming and in the introduction of French soldiers in some of the religious war dances and carnival dances.

The article presents information on various books published during 1945. Only in Spain was the world conflict, whose first major phase has lately ended so inconclusively, sharply defined. In the Spanish struggle the moral as well as the political issues were still clear and absolute. The facts and feelings are captured in the book entitled "Smouldering Freedom," by Isabel de Palencia. The book is a heart-breaking reminder that the terror which preceded the world holocaust has not abated with it. Varian Fry gives an account of his activities in France in his book "Surrender on Demand."

This article presents information on Diego Rivera's mural in the dining-room of the Hotel del Prado in Mexico. The archbishop of Mexico refused to bless the hotel on its opening ceremony as the mural contains the inscription "Dios no existe," which means that god does not exist. There has been widespread criticism of the mural. The Del Prado mural is Diego's first serious large-scale painting in some time. Entitled "Sunday in the Alameda"--the Alameda is an ancient park facing the hotel, and the scene of many historical events--it depicts Mexican history.

Reviews the play "Pillar of Fire," directed by Anthony Tudor, performed by Nora Kaye.

This article discusses the place of humor in modern dance. Tac used the gentle yeast of humor as leavening and got more than one rise out of audience. It proved that the modern dance can be a lively art and that the formal gesture of rise and revolt is not necessary to bring dance to the masses. Agnes de Mille and Sybil Shearer led the laughter in a devastating take-off of the pain-loving school of the modern dance. The ballets "The Curse of the Silk Chemise" and "Picket-Line Priscilla" were as close as the show got to social comment. Lotte Goslar's tragi-comic "Little Heap of Money" was clowning of the highest order where pain and laughter are etched into identical grooves.

This article presents information about the U.S.' native ballets. "Filling Station," with choreography by Lew Christensen and music by Virgil Thomson, uses a service station as background for a cellophane fantasy. The material is completely American, the manner very French. "Billy the Kid," brilliantly choreographed to an interesting score consists of a series of variations on a single theme-Billy is quick on the trigger, and when he shoots he gets his man. Though incidents follow a chronological order, there is no attempt at character development. The result is a gay ballad dealing with a likable bad man of the eighties.

In the article, the author presents his views on the dance performances in the latest program by choreographer Martha Graham. "Deaths and Entrances," is the grueling exposition of female frustration. What is exhibited ultimately in this composition, as in "Salem Shot," a new and lengthy solo, is the narcissistic enjoyment of individual suffering. To turn to lighter subjects, "Punch and Judy," an earlier composition, has many agreeable moments, most of which are provided by Erick Hawkins's dancing. He alone of the entire company seems to derive pleasure from physical movement, which, all theories aside, is still the stuff of which the dance is properly made.

Carmen Amaya's art is flamenco--that ecstatic, tragic music and dance of the Andalusian gipsies. Composed of Eastern and indigenous Spanish elements, its strange resolution of tenderness and harshness, passion and subtlety is expressed in a tonal scale ranging from deep guttural notes to a thin, high-pitched wail. At once traditional and improvised, it is Dionysian in contrast to the Apollonian classic dance of Spain. Despite her fierce, positive gesture, she has no volition. In a series of performances at the Shubert Theater some weeks ago, Argentinita presented her varied and extensive program of Spanish dances. And she has now, with great fidelity and artistry, added several Latin American numbers to her repertoire.

The article critically appraises the book "Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographic Sequence," by Barbara Morgan. In attempting to record dances in photographs, Morgan has undertaken an apparently impossible task. yet she has achieved a measure of success. In a series of some 140 photographs, most of which are mediocre, a few excellent, and a handful brilliant, she has presented what she considers the focal points of sixteen of Martha Graham's most important dances. By a wise selection of successive fractional seconds Morgan actually evokes, for people who already know them, many of the dances photographed. The very weaknesses of Martha Graham's style render her dances peculiarly photogenic.

The article presents information on the book "The ," by Harold Courlander and George Herzog. The West Africans whose folk tales are retold in this book by Courlander and Herzog may have a limited vocabulary for generalized thinking, but the process itself is vigorous and its expression vivid. Ideas are expressed in direct images, in powerful parables. Image and concept coincide so neatly that the meaning of incident is inherent in the incident itself. The stories are noteworthy examples of wisdom, irony and craftsmanship.

This article presents information on the artistic brilliance of Josephine Pr´mice, a Haitian singer and dancer. She recently appeared in a program along with Hadassah and Pearl Primus at the Times Hall Theater. Her work has been compared with that of Carmen Amaya. It is opined that Prémice's gestures has an effortless authority which hits the audience straight and is as immediately invigorating as a blood transfusion. The carnival and voodoo songs which form the basis of her performance combine the sophistication and naivete which characterize Prémice herself.

Katherine Dunham is an anthropologist-dancer who went to Hollywood, but her current program at the Martin Beck Theater suggests the sequence in reverse. Her "tropical revue" is high-toned hot-stuff and it goes over big with an audience that gets a kick out of sex brought into the parlor by a dancer who is obviously a lady. For her dances Dunham has used primitive and folk material from the Pacific, the Caribbean and North and South America. Now there are three ways in which such material can be presented in the theater.

This article presents the author's opinion on the Ballet Theater. The Theater, now appearing at the Forty-fourth Street Theater, provides entertainment that is particularly appealing these days, for it negates the outside world by gracefully ignoring its existence and has nothing whatever to do with issues of vital concern. If the Ballet Theater and the other two companies which composed the original Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo should merge again into a single unit next season, the Ballet Theater would have much to contribute to the enterprise.

The book "The City of Women," by Ruth Landes is a tourist account by an anthropologist of a field trip to Brazil and is devoted in the main to "candomblé," one of a number of fascinating African survivals in the Western Hemisphere. West Africans brought this religious cult from their homeland when they were shipped as slaves to Brazil, and their descendants are keeping it alive today in a modified form. The book contains no reference to the highly developed West African culture that so deeply conditions current Afro-Brazilian attitudes and beliefs.

The article presents information about two books "No Peace for Asia," by Harold R. Isaacs and "The Future of Freedom in the Orient," by Ralph Coniston. "No Peace for Asia" is a vigorous dissection, of the nationalist rivalries which now lead toward destruction, and the most vivid survey which has yet appeared of power politics in the post-war Asiatic spheres of Great Britain and the U.S. He castigates the British despoiling of India through the decades, which has left the country under-industrialized, poverty-stricken, 88 per cent illiterate, and politically divided.