GENEE AND OTHERS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1710, 29 March 1913, Page 11

GENEE AND OTHERS.

POT-I'OUEEI 'OF THE BALLET.

[B* Imogen.] . . The news that Adeline Gence is 'coming to Australia to dance, cannot fail to raise hopos in the minds, of many New Zoalanders that she may make her way across tie Tasman Sea to these shores, a,nd then indeed New Zealanders may by all accounts prepare themsolves to see dancing that is full of exquisite graco and poetry.' ~ 1 Gence is frequently compared to Tagli- - oni, of whom it is said,-she is tho artistic descendant, as well as of Grisi,' Salle, Camargo,' and the premieres danseuses of '-the'past.Even in appearance she resembles Taglioni, who always yore skirts down to her .ankles, and who, strange to say, when she was vory young was very ill-shaped—almost' a hunchback. It is said of her ,that her carefully-trained traditional style has nothing in common with the modern representatives of theatrical dancing such asLoie Fuller, Isaulora Duncan', -Carmencita, and Ruth St. Denis, who. have introduced a more na-; tural and; spontaneous style, but, however that may .be,'those .who have once .seen Genee dance have never forgotten it. Pull of poetry, she floats before the be-, holder a vision of amazing grace—of unforgettable delight. ' ' Through myths, through all the, histories of past Civilisations, and peoples, and religions, dancing has come down to us in spite' itf the efforts that have been made from time to time to crush it/and it will probably exist as long as man liim- ' eelf exists.'. Some writers have gone so far as to say that progress in the dance means progress in 1 civilisation, and that ■ to show the advance made by an nation in this art is to record its approach to re : finement. The Hebrews, the Greeks, the Aztecs, and.the French are nations who have been renowned for the beauty of their, dances, and all were, or are, races ; of undeniably high attainmeni/in the arts of civilisation; we, the British people, however, are not a shining example of grace and beauty in dancing, in spite of /our wonderful cvilisation. j Old as the World. And what a history-: dancing has behind it! Grope.as we may into the : mists •of antiquity, we find that it has been before us.. , Egyptian monuments are crowded' with figures of dancers in ever-recurring' postures, and • we know that .dances were with them, a necessary' part-.of religious'celebrations and also of mundane events. Every _ country, everyi age has been subject to its power, and, according to Darwin and Hudson, even the animals and the birds have their dances. . Kingdoms have been lost for the smile -of a favourite • dancing woman,, nations ' have been, plunged into a carnage of war

ior tsi Vhim,\ras.4 fh». best 1 mysteries of . ancient religions . have been; centred in her person. All the emotions of'which the heart js'capable have been, expressed through the medium of an art that "has' been thundered at again and again by the great heads of , the Church —and yet it had its'origin in religious observances! Life is full of ironies. , It seems rather 'curious to think that the'first ballet was invented, or at least As said to 'have laesn _ invented, many thousands of years ago in China., At any jate it Ms'had a most'eventful history iince'" then, and has taken many, steps forward as well as backward. In the days of the Roman Empire the qualifications of a fine dancer and ballet-master as set forth by Lucian demanded that to "grace', elegance-and refinement a 'ballet master should add all that is great and valuablo in knowledge. -Poetry _ was necessary to ornament, music to animate, geometry to regulate, and philosophy to guide 'his compositions.. Rhetoric was required to enable him to move and express the passions,-painting to delineate attitudes, and sculpture to :form his figures. i .*. All times should-be present ■to his "'mind, but most profoundly should he study the emotions of -the soul in order to paint its operations:by the movements of the body." .. \. ;

The :Ballet, in the Days of Its Glory. That ideal wo know has long since been departed from, though 111 the reigns of Louis XIII, XIV, and XV tho ballet is said to have -reached tho zenith of its. beauty'. - Great composers wrote for it, and dances were composed by Rameau, Lully, Corelli, Gluck, Weber, and others equally noted. Even Beethoven wrote a ballet,.' "Prometheus." They were most gorgeous, intricate, and elaborate affairs, stories being written for them, political opinions being expressed in them, and even abstract ideas being represented by their actions. The'first appearance of TComen in tho ballet did not take place until the end of tho seventeenth century, only men taking 'part in: it, strango as it may now appear. So much, was their charm appreciated that tliey have never since been omitted. Mile. Camargo was tho first to introduce into the ballet tho conventional short stiff skirt, .when she performed in Hero and Leander. ' * In all the arts there seems to come a, time in their history when the informing soul has taken ifs departure, and only, the lifeless conventional husk is left. Perfect in mechanism it may be and in technique, but all that fiavc it power to touch the heart,. the imagination has vanished. And so it Ims been with dancing, or at any rate with stage dancing, leaving it the least prized of all the arts.

The Russian Dancers. . Within tho last fifteen j-ears, however, a new.; spirit slias made. itself felt, and onca more the" absolute joy of'life, its spontaneity, and tho perfect union of movement and melody nave taken possession of the technique of the art. Pioneers of this revival are Loie I'uller, who invented the extraordinary serpentine dance,

Isadora Duncan, who held that the body could bo made to express by its own actions and gestures all the emotions that tho most complicated or passionato music could convoy. Maud Allan, and,* above all, tho Russian dancers. Once again tho exquisite graeo pictured in Greek sculptures and vaso paintings is to be seen among the noted dancers of Europe and America. In the English papers one has read much of the Russian dancers, .of their breeziness, the joy and. utter abandon of their dancing, their wild and apparently untutored grace. Over Michael Mordkin -and Anna Pavlova all London rayed, for it seemed as though the Golden Age had come again. They were tllo embodied spirit of dancing. The latest revelation, however, was that of the Russian Imperial ballet,-who danced at Covent Garden, dominated by Nijinsky, who is called the greatest male dancer of his age. When a Russian ballet is danced, tho,. best thing of-its kind that the world has to. offer is put before the audience, it is said. In it the story is as-.imp°rtant as "the dancing, and that is one reason possibly why it so completely enthralls everyone. The music also so supplements the idea that the absence, of words on_ the part of the performers is hardl.v noticed. Extraordinary vital force, combined with marked musical and dramatic sense, almost hypnotises the audienoe, and their miming capacity is of the highest order. One can only hope that some kind fate will one day grille these dancers to our shores,'so that we may not altogether miss tlie developments that are going on on the other side of the world in this ever fascinating, ever art.