LONDON Disapproves

Radio Record, 31 July 1936, Page 7

LONDON Disapproves

\Breaking | With Tradition — A Heart-Rending Business

It. sounded rather frightening-:q mixture of Pavlova and Melba and Aimee Macphersota. Instead, the person who greeted me in the Hotel St. George lounge had a little girl’s face and ‘a scarlet ribbon in her hair, tied',in a not-too-careful bow on ‘top. Which shows how little you can rely on names. (One of the nicest people I know in Sydney ‘is saddled with the name of Winkl«hottom ) « LA MERI.

La Meri isa dancer, a very good dancer, and she is now twinkling an amazing pair of feet at the Grand Opera House in Wellingtim. She’s keenly interested in the evolution of the dances. "It gives me a positive delight," she said, "to discover any affinity between the. various types of choreography. I’ve found a kinship between the dances of the natives of the Pacific, and now I’m anxious to get my clutches Ong your ar. ...e.

MAOLIS Aa ChLscover whether their = dances have anything in common with the dances of the Hawaiians and the Tahi.tians. Studyingz racial characteristics. through the medium of dancing is one of my mosyt lasting joys." Madame is am Ameri-can-well, 99 jper cent. American, She sys. Her mother and fagher were Americans, hes grandparents haileq from Wales, Scotland and Spain. "Biat I was

brought up on; the Mexican Border, éimd there you eat, drink, think and sleep Spanish. Nev ‘brtheless, I’m an American-don’t forget that!" . We talket¥ about the amazing revival of ballet in Lon-don-a revivail which, La Meri says, has made London the centre of the world of ballet.. "Italy is the home of ballet in the histori tal sense, but London, since the Russian ballet died with the eclipse of St. Petersburg, has become the centre: of the} Araditional ballet

"But England is very conservative. The Londoner loves ‘Les Sylphides’ and ‘L’Oiseau de Feu,’ and the other ballets that sprang to fame in the hey-day of Diaghileff, but the newer forms of ballet are a positive anathema to him. The Vic-Wells ballet company put on a fine ballet called ‘Job’-it completely broke with the old traditions-but London showed its disapproval in no uncertain way.

"The part of Satan in ‘Job’ was played by a young Australian, Robert Helpmann-he’s

been to New Zealand, hasn’t he? In my opinion he was .-the best dancer in the company. "New York is far. more open-minded. A German woman who demonstrated the new and vigorous style of German dancing in London was ‘definitely © cold-shoulder-ed. In New York the same dancer was received with enthusiasm. Incidentally, this vigorous . type of dancine shows

the beginnings of a new school. Ballet languished wfaen it reached the stage where’ the men were scarcely discernible from the women-the public didn’t want a display of effeminacy. But with the introduction of new vigour it hag revived wonderfully. Ballet dancing means long hours of perspiration without much mental effort. Look at the finest male ballet dancer in the world, Nijinsky. He could dance for hours-a rhythmic poem of delight-and yet, when he was called upon to create dances and arrange his own choreography he ww a miserable failure, (Continued on page 58.)

La Meri And Her Audiences (Continued from page 7.)

but I gave it up, as it didn’t give me much scope. I then turned to the freer interpretation of dancing-folk dancing (ethnological is the right word, but it sounds too much like something in a museum!) and choreography with a psychological. slant. "Audiences? Well, they differ the world: over, but I have been immensely surprised at the appreciation of the Melbourne people. I was scheduled to give eight concerts there-instead, I stayed for 22! That’s why I’m over in New Zealand before I complete my tour of Australia. My long stay in Melbourne upset the schedule completely, with the result that bookings in other towns had to go by the board. I'll fit in the rest of my tour after my four weeks’ season in this country. "T found the Melbourne people much more appreciative of serious things than I had been taught to believe. I expected them to pass by the subtle points of the dance; instead they applauded gestures and movements that had quite escaped London audiences. I have a dance based: on the famous Florentine work, ‘Adoration of the Madonna.’ I worked the dance out my- . self. London didn’t like it-Melbourne applauded enthusiastically, and one critic there gave the finest criticism of the dance that I have had anywhere in the world. "Theatre-goers in Paris are hypercritical. They come along prepared to dislike you intensely, and if you give them a good show they feel you have almost spoiled the evening for them. Australians are different. They come along prepared to like you-and. they are willing to show it if they do. I had been told to give them nothing subtle-but they enjoyed the sensitiveness of Scriabin every bit as much as the more easily-understood Chopin." La Merj feels, as do most dancers, that there is room for many types of dancing. As she said,. some like salt in their stew, others don’t, but there’s nothing wrong with either taste. "I’m in New Zealand for four weeks, and, as it’s my first visit, I hope I'll manage to see something of the countryside. Really, you are so far away from everything that I’m rather astonished that I’m here now! But I’m going to enjoy myself."