Ice Age, Stone Age

Bankers, poets, conductors and even femmes fatales have shown that careers need not be over at 60. Last week the fact was emphasized again by two elderly ladies who kicked up their heels with the enthusiasm of dancers a third their age. P: In the Hollywood Bowl Ruth St. Denis, grandmother of the modern dance, unveiled her first new production since 1934, The Ballet of Light, set to Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy. Surrounded by nine young men and women in short, Romanesque costumes, "Miss Ruth," 74, impersonated the spirit of light, moving majestically in yards of billowing silk, her hands articulate, her youthful-looking neck arched attractively, showing her years only when she attempted a fast step. An audience of 10,000 cheered Dancer St. Denis. Her dream for the future: a "ballet of the states," in which she would be the Statue of Liberty. P: At Massachusetts' famed Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Britain's Margaret Morris, 64, was appearing with her new dance group, the Celtic Ballet of Scotland. Paris-born Dancer Morris has few illu sions about her own barefoot dancing and choreographic style. Says she: "Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis are the Ice Age; I'm about the Stone Age." But her kilted troupe charmed the critics with Scottish folk dances done with a freshness rarely seen in the U.S., delighted audiences in a heathery number telling how Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to Skye, while warriors fell and their women grieved. At one point, while the group was demonstrating Margaret Morris' own exercise movements, the audience spotted a typical burlesque grind. As old as the Scottish hills, the grind used to be considered "too rude" in Scotland, explained Dancer Morris, but U.S. movies and musicals have made it "respectable." Altogether, fans found the Stone Age full of good fun and interesting dancing.

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