Word: leap
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Folklorico's 55 dancers came to the company only after training in the disciplines of classic ballet, whereupon they went on to unlearn many of its basics. Their movements forsake the glide-and-leap patterns of ballet in favor of a staccato stomping in which the heel, rather than the toe, becomes the pivot for the action. Unlike Russia's Moiseyev folk ballet, whose dancers' athletic leaps are relatively close to the virtuoso tradition of formal dance, the Folklorico's characteristic moments find the troupe bouncing in position like so many bright-colored jumping beans...
Peking's exhortations were designed to rally fervor for China's latest economic venture. The project bears a striking resemblance to the Great Leap Forward of a decade ago, probably Mao Tse-tung's most ambitious scheme for China, and his most disastrous failure...
Although China has scarcely recovered from the Great Leap Forward and the more recent ravages of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the rhetoric today-"walking on two legs," "flying leap," "new leap"-is virtually identical with the admonitions of the earlier fiasco. As was the case then, agriculture will have to bear the main burden...
...leap orders China's 74,000-odd communes to forget about any aid from Peking. They have been told that henceforth they themselves-not the government-must remunerate schoolteachers and medical personnel working in the countryside. Commune members are to make their own simple farm tools, freeing industry for more sophisticated production. Moreover, Peking is pushing a frugality theme to such a degree that celebrations for the New Year, China's biggest and happiest holiday, were woefully crimped last month...
What seems to distinguish the new drive from the old Great Leap, however, is its flexibility. There has been some advance planning, and there appear to be no rigid output targets. In fact, Peking is admonishing local officials to "leave enough leeway." Though not too much, of course. The goal of the latest campaign, as Shanghai radio explained it recently, is "a fruit that can be picked by jumping and reaching up, not a fruit that can be taken by stretching out one's arm from a lying or sitting position...