RUSSIAN BALLET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 June 1939, Page 2

RUSSIAN BALLET

SEASON AT MASTERTON. The Covent Garden Russian Ballet is not just a company of brilliant dancers assembled for an occasion, but a perfect team, a sensitive instrument that has been played on by Balanchine, Nijinsky, Massine and the great creator of modern ballet, Fokine, who has prepared and rehearsed the company in the present repertoire for the provincial tour of New Zealand. Maurice Ralph, who is presenting the tour, has just finished a most successful itinerary managing for Richard Crooks, the celebrated concert tenor. Ballet, “an art that has conquered the world," is acclaimed more rapturously today than ever before. One of the prima ballerinas, Raissa Kousnetzova, is a young dancer who has rapidly achieved a front rank reputation;, and no wonder. She has exceptional beauty, a deep musical understanding and a great dramatic ability. Her interpretation of Zobeide, glamorous “Arabian Nights” figure from “Scheherazade,” alone places her in the forefront of contemporary dancers, but in addition to such a feat of mime, her work in the three symphonic ballets is brilliant, a true interpretation of the spirit of the music. The detail in Grigoreiva’s work, her make-up and the subleties of her approach to a role suggest an artist of much greater maturity and experience; yet she is a young dancer in a company of youth. Two varied and interesting programmes of divertissements, including several pas de deux'from the ballet repertoire and a number of tradi - tional, folk, and national dances are to be presented. The season at the Masterton Opera House is for two nights, Friday and Saturday, June 23 and 24. The box plans are at W. G. Perry’s.