PARIS It was dedicated to the dance - the spectacular show filled with flamenco ruffles, rehearsal sweats and Spanish fringing - that John Galliano sent out for Dior on Monday. But above all, this joyous show, with its vivacious color and splatter of cultural references worn as lightly as the volatile fabrics, was a celebration of haute couture. "The passion!" said Galliano backstage as Jack Nicholson and his daughter Lorraine, saucer-eyed at her first fashion show, congratulated the designer. Galliano tapped his Spanish roots and said he was inspired by a trip to India and its exotic, erotic dances to explore the sensuality of movement from African ceremonial through Martha Graham. Throw in a hint of Degas as flowers unfurled among peach frills; and a touch of hip-hop as gaudy sweat tops introduced bright patterns. Galliano created an aura of energy and seduction, even in his own person as he dressed like a toreador in a gym to take his bow.
As models came out, chewing on matches, their ruffle skirts paired with brilliantly colored brassieres, corsets or leather vests, there were images of Carmen returning to her cigar factory after a night of delirious dancing. So spellbound was the audience that even the tardy arrival of Elizabeth Hurley, with beau Arun Nayar, hardly made a stir.
Yet this was not the familiar Galliano circus. He resisted the temptation to hire a tango couple to perform. The show was about beautiful clothes, well-judged in their mix of sport - as in a satin track top or woolly leg warmers - with slender flapper dresses. They trailed a perfume of the jazz age along with Isadora Duncan scarves and silk fringe. A trilby hat, fishnet hose and parachute strings controlling fan-pleated dresses suggested as many dance rhythms as the cancan, Latino and castanet-clicking soundtrack. This was also a waltz around couture techniques that made even cubist blocks of flounces seem easy and natural.
Center front sat Anastasia Volochkova, prima ballerina with the Bolshoi, and she summed up the romantic expressiveness of the Dior show. "It's not only this collection; Galliano is a dancer himself in his soul," she said.
i 
the fluo yellow-green tutu 
lovely!
