NEW BALLET BY FOKINE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 2, 25 September 1937, Page 10

NEW BALLET BY FOKINE

A new ballet by Fokine^ "Les Elements,"; danced to musie from, Baeh, was given its "world premiere ' " at the Coliseum, London, -recently. This new work is immediately exeiting. It has no ''story," but" seeks rather( • "to xeproduco " in plastic form the music of Bach." Aided by. an impressive baroque setting, ' .imaginative lighting, and costumes that range from'the neoclassic -to the bizan-e,- the • movements of the dance may overweight the music at times, but they are " always admirably designed. The' dpening is impressive. Gauzes suggesting elemental mists'.rise ,from a iormal landscape framed by pillars and fronted by heavy cliandeliers Mysterious figures gather, on a raised mid-distance platform, super-human, graceful, and hereulean, the nuales skirted and plumed rather like Albanians. Then a tropp of nymphs or naiads leap from- the rocks to the lower stage, tinsel-slippered with "fluttering draperies, and dance some lovely measures. Thus . the waters, the flowers, and the -spirits of rair and firemeet and'mingle, and suggesfc the co.ntrapuntal nature of tlie music admirably. Set pieces oceur, in which the ' danccrs completo-'lableaux that are the' toy theatre in cxcelsis. Tho. dancers forego their" bloeked shoes and, tap. out charming patterns or evolve delightful mazes. The . ballet is a distinguished, wofk. Fokine retains all his o'ld power to compose danees that brilliantly exploit the ballet's proper limitations.