The Power and the Majesty (and the Lovely Crown).

In honor of her 10th anniversary as a choreographer Ivy Baldwin opened her new ''Bear Crown'' with a grand gesture. With the curtains still drawn at Dance Theater Workshop, the audience was greeted with several minutes of music modeled after Tchaikovsky's ''1812'' Overture, complete with a faint sound of cannon fire. In this clever use of an overture, rare in contemporary dance, Ms. Baldwin and the work's composer, Justin Jones, provide a moment of calm that separates a busy day from a night at the theater. They also set up a rush of anticipation that ''Bear Crown,'' seen on Wednesday night, never quite lives up to. In it Ms. Baldwin, inspired by a month's residency in Romania, focuses on ideas about power and majesty, and strips them away to reveal an underlying deterioration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]