Review of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at New York's City Center in Quartet, a dance for five, and the Hamburg Ballet at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in John Neumeier's Midsummer night's dream and Legend of Joseph. Also reviewed is Babble: first impressions of the white man, the collaborative work of two black choreographers, Fred Holland and Ishmael Houston-Jones presented at the Bessie Schönberg Theater, New York.