RUSSIAN BALLET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1939, Page 2

RUSSIAN BALLET

OPERA HOUSE TONIGHT. Lovers of the ballet will be offered a rare treat at the Opera House tonight when the Covent Garden Russian Ballet will open its season of two nights. The ballet is not just a company of brilliant dancers assembled for an occasion, but a perfect team. The great creator of modern, ballet, Fokine, has prepared and rehearsed the company in the present repertoire for its provincial tour of the Dominion. Ballet, an art which has conquered the world, is acclaimed more enthusiastically today than ever before. One of the prima ballerinas. Raissa Kousnetzova, is a young dancer who has rapidly achieved a reputation. She is a dancer of exceptional beauty, the possessor of a deep musical understanding, and 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 Grigorieva’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 including several pas de deux from the ballet repertoire and a number of traditional, folk and national dances are to be presented. The visit of the ballet has been awaited in Masterton with a great interest as reports from other centres where the ballet has played have been of such a nature as to stamp the performance as one of the outstanding theatrical attractions of the season in New Zealand.