RENAISSANCE OF BALLET

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 297, 2 March 1945, Page 11

RENAISSANCE OF BALLET

English Dancers’ Success In. New York

(Special to

"The Listener" through the American Leégation,

Wellington)

‘JN the last three years of the peace between the wars, New Zealand received two visit from Colonel de Basil’s Monte Carfo Russian Ballet, and the art became the main topic of conversation for a large, excited group of people who had never seen the true Russian ballet before. Some of them soon permitted themselves to be known by the newly-found label of "balletomane," made sure of seeing each change of programme as many times as possible, got behind the scenes if they could, and acquired all the vocabulary of the ballet for use in coffee-houses, at parties, and anywhere else wheré the ballet was passionately discussed, That interest had survived among many followers even until this summer, when New Zealand is being toured by another ballet company, and the question, "Have you seen the ballet yet?" has again become a useful starting point. for conversation. ; . There is a good deal of interest srt Pogtetts! yy the ballet in general, and we have just received through the United States Office of War Information some news of the ballet in America, with particular reference to Anton Dolin, one of the leading dancers of the Colonel de Basil company, and Antony Tudor, an English choreographer now in New York, who is said to have a brother in ‘New Zealand. We print some of it here with the photographs that accompanied it.

TREMENDOUS ovation greeted an evening of ballet held at New York’s out-door Lewisohn Stadium, which featured Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin, stars of the Ballet Theatre of New York City. The 22,000 persons who crowded the stadium for this performance and the 4000 who could not be accommodated, were ample proof, according to The New York Times, that "America is ballet-conscious in a wideawake way." "A renaissance of ballet is happening in the United States," said the Times. "Cultural levels are noticeably rising, and the plain hunger for beautiful things is stronger than ever." The stars of the evening, Markova and Dolin, danced five numbers on the programme; they danced together the "Blue Bird" and the Grand Pas de Deux from Tchaikovski’s "Sleeping

Beauty" and the waltz from Chopin’s "Les Sylphides." Miss Markova danced the "Dying Swan" solo which Michel Fokine composed for Pavlova. The New York Philharmonic. Orchestra was conducted by Antal Dorati, musical director of the Ballet Theatre in New York. Dorati conducted for the de Basil Company in New Zealand. ‘Ballet for the People Dolin recently announced that he and Alicia Markova are leaving the Ballet Theatre for a time, to appear in a Broadway production in the autumn, as well as presenting some weeks of ballet in the summer at the Radio City Music Hall. Ballet can be brought to the people, he says, with no sacrifice of classical traditions. Born Patrick Healey-Kay in Sussex, England, Dolin early showed a fascination with any form of movement. His mother, an Irishwoman, wanted him to be, an

actor, but when he lost his part in a new play because his voice was breaking, he took the opportunity to study dancing seriously. The review of his first public appearance with a student group described him’as "light as a feather, as graceful as a fawn, and wing-footed as Mercury." One of Dolin’s outstanding achievements is held to be his adaptation of acrobatic dancing to the discipline of the classic ballet. His love of athletics led to one of his greatest triumphs as Le Beau Gdssé th "The Blue Train." Dolin pays great tribute to Markova, speaking particularly of her remarkable acting as the betrayed peasant girl in "Giselle" as well as of her superlative dancing, which changes its. form so markedly .between the first and second acts. Like the ballerinas of old, Markova

wears the soft shoe which makes for such lightness and grace, in contrast to the heavier shoes used by many dancers to-day. Like Dolin, Markova is capable of a variety of interpretations, ranging from the classics to the extreme modernism of her Juliet in Antony Tudor’s ballet "Romeo and Juliet." This English ballerina is also like Dolin in her capacity for a dramatic performance. Dolin Has a Theory Dolin, who likes to develop theories about the ballet, is convinced that ballet dancers of the future will all receive dramatic training. While some of them study pantomime to-day he believes that the use of the voice, the acting out of specific roles, will enrich their later interpretations in the dance, (continued on next page)

REVIVAL OF BALLET (continued from previous page) At 40 Anton Dolin is still the slender, black-haired youthful figure who first thrilled English audiences in 1923. In the years that have passed, he has had a ‘great variety of experiences, appearing oan films, composing the dance "Manhattan Serenade," producing modern ballets like "The Rhapsody in Blue," and writing two excellent books of reminiscence, He speaks Russian and French fluently, and he wonders what is happening to his home in Antibes. The Tudor Style Another English dancer and choreographer in whom New York is taking a good deal of interest is Antony Tudor, who was born within the City of London, and went into the ballet because he was "crazy about the theatre and wanted to travel." His brother, he said, left England to become a "forester" in New Zealand. When Antony ‘Tudor begins the construction of a new ballet, he is apt to start with the idea of a character. And then, because he is trained to think in terms of movement, he begins to move his body as it seems to him the character would move. He finds the theme of the ballet implicit in the meaning of the character. The next step is the search for music which seems to carry the theme. From then on, the choreography is not only a creative conception but also a succession of technical problems. Tudor’s ingenious and imaginative ballets have had much to do with the outstanding success of the Ballet Theatre in the United States, In his youth Tudor worked as a stenographer at a London market, which opened at six in the morning, giving him time to go to classes from three o’clock in the ‘afternoon on. He studied dancing for 18 months, and when he was 21, he joined the Rambert Ballet as sort of general office and _ publicity worker. Soon he was assisting in the production, teaching the beginners’ classes. As he says, he "made a little ballet" and it was put on. Then he made other little ballets, which are still being given by the Rambert company in London. Soon after, he went to the United States to help organise the Ballet Theatre. The war kept him there, and critics have consistently acclaimed the brilliance, wit and intelligence of his creations. Two of his best are "Romeo and Juliet," done to music by Delius, and "Dark Elegies," done to Gustav Mahler’s "Kindertotenlieder" (songs for dead children).