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8/13/2019 Russian Ballet 00 Terr

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l&nceNY PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIES

793.3 TerryThe Russian ballet 3 3333 05753 4691MY


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THE RUSSIANBALLET'By ELLEN TERRYWith Drawings byPAMELA COLMAN SMITH


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THE RUSSIANBALLETELLEN TERRYWith 'Drawings by

y,

^nm^ ]TS^ ^Utjfi^p X;;^PAMELA COLMAN SMITHLondon : SIDGWICK & JACKSON, Ltd.


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First issued in February, 1913// rights reserved


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REFERENCE _,.-_.8 T - -S733

L I ST of ILLUSTRATIONSTITLE-PAGE : Border and Design Page vSCHEHERAZADE 3HEADPIECE : Les Sylphides 5SPECTRE DE LA ROSE 7PAVILLON D'ARMIDE uTAILPIECE: Le Carnaval 12TAILPIECE: Spectre de la Rose 17LE CARNAVAL 19LE CARNAVAL .... 21LE CARNAVAL 23LES SYLPHIDES 25LES SYLPHIDES 27LES SYLPHIDES J'jii-'V-./ VV*':jXv' ^9LE CARNAVAL iX j :.:.-: 31LE CARNAVAL 77

> I ft V JTAILPIECE: Le Carnaval ......'. 34LE CARNAVAL 35SPECTRE DE LA ROSE . 37SPECTRE DE LA ROSE 39SCHEHERAZADE . . ^ 4 iSCHEHERAZADE 4J

VII


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LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS (continued)TAILPIECE : Scheherazade /V 44SCHEHERAZADE 4jTAMAR 47PRINCE IGOR 49LES BOUFFONS ( Pavilion d'Armide ) 51NARCISSE 55


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LfHY Uh IMtuf

THE RUSSIANBALLETIntroductory

I >HE Russian ballet, at least that sectionof it which M. de Diaghiliev, patronand grand seigneur rather than

agent, has taken all over Europe during thelast few years, and more recently to America,is now more than the darling of its ownnation, a naturally ballet-loving nation. Ithas become an international possession. InEngland the Russian dancers have perhapsbeen acclaimed with more whole-heartedfervour than elsewhere, because before theircoming the land was barren. In France andItaly they had ballets of their own. Theyhave a standard by which they can measurethe visitors from Petersburg. But Englishaudiences, like children presented with a new


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Introductorytoy, first shyly wondered at the noveltyof the agile strangers, and then fell intotransports of enthusiasm.

Uncritical enthusiasm is an amiable attitudeof the English towards art and artists oncethey have been gained over. And this en-thusiasm has a way of persisting. TheEnglish public may be slow, said a musicianwho had taken a long time to win theirsuffrages, but they are damnably faithful ''If the fashion in Russian ballet should ageelsewhere I feel sure it will not in England,the last country to adopt it. So these notesby an enthusiast have a good chance of beingseasonable for many seasons. Yes, I claimto be an enthusiast, although, perhaps, thefact that I am not an English enthusiast butone who is half Irish and half Scots makesme more canny than some of my fellow-admirers. I have never opened my mouthand swallowed the new ballet and all itsworks without thinking. These are, all thesame, impressions rather than criticisms. And


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SCHEHERAZADE


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Introductorythe impressions are not intended as an ex-planation of Miss Pamela Colman Smith'spictures any more than her pictures areintended to be an explanation of my im-pressions. Her pictures surely speak forthemselves. And like the clerk, I need onlycry Amen to her eloquent drawings.


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LKS SYLPHIDES

Dancing in General

WHAT is dancing? The Russianshave done much to show us thatit is something more than sauterie,although they can sauter with the best. Asan actress I salute dancers with the rever-ence of a man for his ancestors. The danceris certainly the parent of my own art, but hehas other children. All arts, of which thespecial attribute is movement, descend fromthe dancer. The Greek word chorus means dance, and the Greek choruses wereoriginally dances. It can be proved thatdancing movements formed the first metresof true poetry. Why do we speak of feet if not because the feet of the body used tomark the rhythm of inspired utterance ?

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Religious DancingIT seems strange that the Dance should havealmost everywhere degenerated into some-thing base and trivial, while its children,Music and Poetry, in spite of lapses, shouldhave preserved their dignity and beauty. Itseems even more strange when we rememberthat dancing had a religious origin. Amongthe Jews, as among other peoples, dancingwas constantly associated with the ceremoniesof faith. In Christian churches the choir wasoriginally designed as a place in which thechanting of hymns and canticles might beconveniently accompanied by rhythmic move-ments. On feast days the honour of leadingthe dance was reserved ior the bishop. Thisis why he was known in those days by thename of prcesul, that is, lie who dances first.A bishop as premier danseur We canhardly believe it now, yet why should we not,seeing that the movements of priest and serverat mass have the nature of a solemn dance ?And there are places in France and Spainwhere liturgical dances still exist. The most

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SPECTRE DE LA ROSE


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Religious Trancingnotable is the dance executed before the altarat Seville in Holy Week. I am afraid thatthe one that used to take place in the choirof St. Leonard's at Limoges, where, at theend of each psalm, the people sang, instead ofthe Gloria Patri, San Marceau, pray for usand we will dance for you, is now extinct.

The Russian RevivalALL who regard dancing seriously, andthere is nothing which should be re-garded more seriously than an art which isto give pleasure, must be glad that they havelived in a century which has witnessed a veryfine and sincere endeavour to restore the danceto some of its primal nobility. There is muchin the results of this endeavour to criticise, afew things to deplore, but in any refusal torecognize the magnitude of what has beenaccomplished, there is probably some piquethat it has been the nation which Europe stillviews as barbarously ingenuous in matters ofart which has reformed the ballet on suchrefined and spiritual lines.


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The Russian RevivalI dislike the word reformed, however.Reformations are generally tiresome. Trans-

formations are far better St. Francis trans-formed, Luther reformed ; and the Russiansare with St. Francis rather than with LutherTo appreciate the change which has come overthe Russian Ballet we ought to know a littleabout its constitution. It is and has alwaysbeen subsidized by the State. The RussianGovernment supports schools of ballet, wherefrom the age of eight children are given a longand arduous training in the science of dancing,and from which they are drafted into theImperial Ballets at Petersburg, Moscow andWarsaw. A dancer's first appearance is gener-ally made at the age of sixteen, and at thirty-six his or her career is over. The dancers arethen retired on a pension amounting to about,150 a year. It is not my intention to givedetails of the training. They are written inmany books by experts. But I should like tosay at this point that one of the leading char-acteristics of the Russian system is the attentiongiven to male dancing.


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Male DancersHAD the male dancers ever been excludedfrom the Imperial ballet its fate wouldhave been very different. The men are trainedon the ballon system, not on that which isknown as the parterre, and it is ballondancing which is one of the most beautifulfeatures of the Russian ballet. After we havewatched interminable exercises ingeniouslyperformed sur les pointes, with what reliefhave we seen Nijinsky, perhaps the greatest ballon dancer who has ever existed, boundon to the stage, rise high in the air, descendslowly and with such art that when he touchesthe ground he can use it again for a still higherflight.The presence of men in the ballet has aneffect beyond the pleasure afforded by the

virile agility of their steps. It does away withthe necessity for those feminine travesties ofmen, known in our pantomimes as principalboys, who introduce an element into balletwhich at its best makes a disturbing demandon our capacity for illusion, and at its worst

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PAVILLON D'ARMIDE


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Male Dancersis a little degrading. What has made theword ballet a sort of synonym for vice if itis not the idea that it provides an opportunityfor women to attract admirers not so muchon account of their dancing as for the sake oftheir physical charm ? I think that a mixedballet has the effect of concentrating attentionon the art of the dance rather than on theseductiveness of the dancers. And the freeand noble plastic of the male dancers in theRussian ballet has influenced the plastic of thewomen, making it far less sexual and far morebeautiful.

LE CARNAVAL


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Sur les PointesI FRANKLY confess that I have a dislike toordinary dancing on the toes. It may bebecause in my youth it had degenerated intosomething so stilted, distorted and unrhyth-mical that it conflicted with all my ideas ofbeauty. And when the Russians give some oftheir older ballets, such as Giselle,'' whichbears the mark of Italian influence it was, Ithink, arranged by an Italian maitre cle ballet-I feel that all the improvements that theRussians have made in this so-called classicaldancing cannot uproot my prejudice, althoughthey can, and do, modify it. The Russianballerinas accomplish the feat of beingfluentontheir toes. They do not hammer out steps-it is a false notion of rhythm that there is ahammer-stroke on every strong beat but takea collection of steps, as a singer takes a collec-tion of notes, and calmly and gracefully phrasethem, in the manner of a bird beating the airwith its wings, rather than that of a blacksmithhammering on his anvil. Still I doubt whetherthe Russians would have conquered Europehad they come to us merely as revivers ofclassical dancing before it became mechanicaland ugly. They owe this revival to a greatextent to Tschaikowsky.

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How far a Native Ballet?TSCHAIKOWSKY was patriotic; he wrotemusic for the Imperial Theatre ballets,and was the first man of any position in Russiato protest against the importation of Italiandancers and Italian methods. Undoubtedlyhe gave good counsel in advising a return tothe French style of classical dancing, the stylewhich was at its best under Louis XIV. Butif the Russians had been content to stop at animitation of ballet as it was under the GrandMonarque they would still be giving us onlya dead perfection of steps. There is a dead-ness about all Renaissance things, whether inarchitecture or dancing. What always sur-prises us about the Russian ballet is its life.This vitality came sweeping on to the stagewith Russian maitres de ballet such as Fokine,who used tradition, used the technical per-fection of classical dancing, but would not bea slave to them ; with Russian composers suchas Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Glazonoff,Liadoff, Arensky, Stravinsky and Tscherepnin,the conductor of the ballet

;with Russian

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How far a Native Ballet ?*Jartists such as Alexandra Benois and LeonBakst ; with Russian dancers such as Nijinsky.Is this ballet, then, distinguished Irom all otherballets by being a native ballet ? When we see Tamar or Scheherazade or the dances from Prince Igor we may answer, Yes. Butwhat about Les Sylphides, Spectre de laRose or Le Carnaval r Are they typicallyRussian ? I think they rather transport us intoa country which has no nationality and nobarriers, the kingdom of dreams. The Russianballet has transformed itself in a little over adecade because its guiding minds have beenmore than national. The musicians, artists,dancers and ballet masters have dependedmore on invention than on reality. Manystories of widely different character have beendrawn on for the new ballets, but all havebeen treated with an imagination which isneither the property of a nation nor theresult of patriotism.

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Personality and NijinskyTHE Russians pride themselves on nothaving a star system. Every dancerhas a chance of distinction. A good idea,but personality will out, and genius cannotbe effaced. I am only the centre-piece ofa great mosaic, said Nijinsky once, but inhis case it is a very big only. Certainlythe perfection of the ensemble, the well-ordered movements and groups of Fokine,assist this wonderful young god of the dance.When Anna Pavlova, whom I still regard asthe best of the women Russian dancers, wastorn from her original setting, many admirersof her exquisite art, in which all the essentialsof the dance, noble gesture, beautiful line,lightness, elevation, that order of movementwhich we call rhythm, and perfect time, areto be found, congratulated themselves, Nowwe shall get more of her. We got more-and less.

Nijinsky, in the years when Pavlova wasstill in the ballet, was allowed to have talent.Lately we have all begun to use the word16


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Personality and Nijinsky genius. Where does the difference be-tween the things talent and genius lie if notin the huge personality of the genius ? 1 heyused to say of HenryIrving, .who expressedhimself in a multiplicityof parts, that he was al-ways the same Irving.Certainly he was al-ways faithful to himselfwhatever he assumed.This is a sign of thepresence of genius, notof its absence. In onesense we always havethe same Nijinsky, asMiss Pamela ColmanSmith has very happilyshown in her drawingsof him. Yet in an-other sense we neverhave the same Nijinsky. SPECTRE DE LA ROSE


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Nijinsky s DistinctionWE must not belittle him by merelyadmiring him for his miraculouslyagile leaps and jumps. As I said at the start,dancing is not only sauterie. There was pro-bably no sauterie at all in the dancing of theancients. I am told that Nijinsky was muchaffected by the dancing of Isadora Duncanwhen, some years ago, she appeared inPetersburg, and I can well believe it, forthere was manifested in her at her best whatwas probably the supreme object of religiousdancing and all ancient dancing was re-ligious the training of the body to the pointof making it docile to the rhythm of the soul.There are many young men in the Russianballet who dance excellently with their bodies,even if they cannot leap as high as Nijinsky,but what really separates him from them isthe fact that he dances not only with hisbody, but with his soul. Unfortunately thisexpression is often used lightly to meanmerely with enthusiasm. But it can beused in a

graver sense,and it is in that sense

that I use it.


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Nijinsky always a DancerO free and yet so disciplined

' saidsomeone of Nijinsky's dancing. It was

a very good criticism. But I like even betterthese words from a French appreciation byM. Charles Meryel : We should not beginby praising him for his prodigious physicalability for leaving the ground. Let usthink first of his power of evoking, throughthe means of a human body in movement,a sort of beautiful dream, of his power ofsubjugating his material appearance so thathe becomes a Visitation divine and almostimmaterial. I remember in this connectionsomething that was said to me by ChristopherSt. John after Les Sylphides : This givesus a conception of what our glorified bodiesafter the Resurrection will be like, the samebodies, but spiritualized and agile Ithought, This is too much and laughedat an excess of enthusiasm But the Frenchwriter and the English one were both ex-pressing the same idea.Whatever his role, the young Russiandancer projects an interior emotion which has

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LE CARNAVAL


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Nijinsky always a Dancerin it all the force of spontaneity, but is at thesame time conscious and considered. As anactress, that has always been my ideal ofexpression. But actors express emotions ; itis generally their duty to realize, in fact, torecall a man. Nijinsky never recalls humanexperience, never suggests the passions ofmankind. He is always the dancer. Nowthe miming of ordinary ballet-dancers hasoften in the past seemed to be more than alittle ridiculous. Love and joy and pleasure,pain and hate and death how could theybe simulated by pirouettings, posings andposturings ? Did I reject them as absurdlyunconvincing because I did not understandthe language of choreography ? I think Iwas alienated because I had never heard thelanguage spoken well. I am sure now thatit can be infinitely expressive, but the betterit is spoken by the dancer's body the less itwill resemble the expression of mortals. Icould never call Nijinsky a good actor. Ican, and do, call him a great dancer.

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LE CARNAVAL


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The Trance PoemsIT has been said that the Russian balletmakes a vivid and brutal appeal to thesenses, and certainly there is some truth inthis as regards the ballets of which the artistBakst is the guiding spirit. The old sayingthat you cannot see the wood for the treesmay be borrowed to express a criticism. Youcannot see colour for the colours in someBakst ballets. Yet even Bakst sometimeshelps to aid that impression of a visitationdivine which Nijinsky in his own personproduces. You will see that Miss PamelaColman Smith has given what some may thinka disproportionate amount of space to herstudies of Les Sylphides, Le Carnaval,and Le Spectre de la Rose. I think shewas, perhaps unconsciously, more stronglyattracted by these three dance poems (fordance poems they should be called ratherthan ballets) because of their greater wealthin the immaterial.

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LES SYLPH1DES


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Les Sylphides .SOME of the Russian ballets take a materialstory, and treat it in terms of the dance.But what story is there in Les Sylphides ?Even the programme, seldom at a loss for asynopsis, has never tried to tell us what itis all about. We hear preludes and waltzes,nocturnes and mazurkas by Chopin, and hearthem orchestrated audaciously, but for themost part successfully, by distinguished Russiancomposers. We remember that when weheard these lovely Chopin pieces on the piano,interpreted by a Paderewski or a Pachmann,we had our mental dreams ; we saw things,but not with our eyes. When the curtainrose on Les Sylphides we were asked tomake our imagination abdicate its rights, toput away the films of that little individualcinematograph which we had made withclosed eyes. The demand may have seemedimpertinent to those who love the interiorvisions given by musical sounds better thanthe most beautiful spectacle that the theatrehas ever

presented.But Les

Sylphides'

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LES SYLPHIDES


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Les Sylphides r

had not progressed far before we ceased tobe worried by the antagonism between dreamsand stage pictures. The grace of those im-material white figures, Victorian just so faras Chopin is Victorian, became one with thegrace of the music. Perhaps the rhythm ofthe music has never been better perceivedthan through these well-ordered movementsdesigned by Fokine. The appearance ofNijinsky as a kind of dream Alfred de Mussetin a romantic fair wig, and dressed in blackand white, among the impalpable Sylphideswas both inexplicable and inevitable. Whenhe danced he seemed almost to play Chopinwith his feet, so perfect was his time. Hissteps seemed to be the symmetry of the music-in fact its rhythm, for the rhythm of musicis symmetry in motion. And when he merelywalked about with outstretched arm, he re-called Ruskin's allusion to man in erect andthoughtful motion, to the great humannoblesse of walking on feet. But it is timewe cried place aux dames

' :

Miss Pamela28


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LES SYLPHIDESColman Smith has well transfixed the bound-ing motion of Nijinska (sister to the centrepiece of the mosaic ) in the Mazurka ; andthe names of Karsavina, Schollar, Will andKovalewska excite happy memories of thisromance of

style. 29


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CarnavalT E CARNAVAL, 11 the second of the1 j dance poems which have inspired MissPamela Colman Smith, is equally romantic,but not in the pensive, twilight manner of Les Sylphides, with its vague suggestion of

mysterious grief. Everything in Carnaval 'is joyous and insouciant - - except perhapspoor Bolm as Pierrot, the unhappy dupeof Nijinsky - Arlecchino's teasing pranks.Bakst's scene, with its plain blue curtains andtwo absurd uncomfortable Victorian sofas,prepares us for the Russian interpretationof Schumann's music, before the peg-toptrousered and crinolined corps de ballet havemade their appearance. Until I saw l.eCarnaval, although I had realised that theart of the Russians was not narrow or local,and that they could dance in several languages,I fear I had not credited them with humour.The true comic spirit (which makes us smile,not laugh in the manner so offensive to Mr.Bernard Shaw) rules this delicious episode,which is a setting of Schumann's music in the30


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LE CARNAVAL


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voww/LE CARNAVAL


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The Corps de BalletI NOTICED in Carnaval

the individualwork done by each individual of the corpsde ballet^ yet always done in such a way asto contribute to the harmonious effect of thewhole. The Pierrot (Bolm), the Harlequin(Nijinsky), the Columbine (Karsavina), playedthe leading parts incomparably, but that wasnot surprising. It was far more surprisingto see in every member of the ballet thetalent of a star. They were not there justto wear their 1860 costumes well and toform themselves into mechanical groups.The entire corps vibrated with life, did theirfull share in the dancing and miming. Theynever appeared to be waiting for an oppor-tunity for distinction ; they were contentto distinguish themselves.

LE CARNAVAL


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LE CARNAVAL


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Le Spectre de la RoseWHAT would a dramatist make ofGauthier's little idyll of the visionof the Rose ? What would an actor andactress make of it if it could be dramatised ?I am afraid to answer these questions.Fortunately they need not be answered, asno dramatist now will be fool enough torush in where dancers have trodden on suchlight feet. ( The beautiful is light. Alldivine things run on light feet. ) A younggirl returns from a ball. She sinks intoa chair and, kissing the rose in her hand,which reminds her of the evening's innocentpleasure, she falls asleep. She dreams thatthe rose comes to life and invites her todance with it. She dances in her dream.(Does she see the rose, I wonder, or is itinvisible to her while visible to us ? ) Sheknows a joy in which there is no fatigue,a love in which there is no threat to hervirginity. The phantom rose disappears.She wakes. The real rose is at her feetwhere the dream rose had lain for a moment.She picks it up and kisses it again, poor littlefaded and finite sign of a fresh infinite thingwhich has shown itself for a moment andpassed out of earth's tiny room.

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SPECTRE DE LA ROSE


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ParadoxIT is one of those paradoxes, of which theRussian ballet is rich in examples, thatthe music of this fragile little poem shouldbe Weber's Invitation a la Valse, robustlyorchestrated by Berlioz. I can imagine howsickly and pale specially written music mighthave been The healthy, strong melody, thesound, marked rhythm help to create thatsense of the impossible which is the abidingimpression of the phantom of the rose. Howthis music pulsates Its deep expectant breath-ing increases one's sensation that we are alldreaming dancers and audience too. TamarKarsavina, who in other roles shows a nervousforce, a tragic power, a strange and luringgrace which account even better than herdancing for her triumphant prominence, is sogentle, so modest, so suppliant in the Spectrede la Rose, that she becomes the incarnationof snow-white youth, dreaming of a heavenlylover. And Nijinsky becomes the spirit ofthat dream. I feel sorry for that young girl,who

perhapswill wake next day in that queer38


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SPECTRE DE LA ROSE


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A ParadoxBakst bedroom, and think of the partner whogave her the rose, not of the Rose itself, whocame to her as virginal as the thought whichsummoned him. I don't like the idea of theremembrance of an ordinary flirtation at a ballwalking in at the door of that room, out ofwhose window the mystical figure of the Roseflew forth into the night, which was, I amsure, day to him

Brutal ScheherazadeTHE Russian dancers may reasonably pridethemselves on their versatility. In theirseven-leagued ballet shoes they travel all overthe world, and beyond. They bound easilyfrom ancient Greece to a Caucasian camp,from the East of a thousand-and-one nightsto a legendary country invented for theirplayground. It really requires astonishingmental activity to follow them with pleasurefrom Le Spectre de la Rose to Scheher-azade. A symphonic poem of Richard4o


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SCHEHERAZADEStrauss after a plain-song hymn, or Wagnerafter Mozart, could not be a greater shock tothe system. Everything in Scheherazade suggests violence and horror. Bakst's palacewas built for dreadful deeds ; no one, I amsure, could ever feel safe in it. Its colourmakes it vibrate on its foundations, if indeedit has any foundations. There are bad dreamsas well as good ones, and the dream quality,on which I have insisted, so far, as the specialG 41


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Brutal Scheherazadebeauty of these Russian ballets and mimedpoems, is present in Scheherazade. Thestrange thing is that this nightmare, in whichsensuality and cruelty are the only emotionsevoked, has a paradoxical vein of delicacyrunning through it. There is somethingalmost childlike in the wiles by which theSultan's wives, when their lord's back is turned,induce the Master Eunuch to liberate theslaves for their pleasure. The infantile joy-ousness with which the dark-skinned youthsrush from their silver and gold cages on theirloves and on their impending doom has anelement of pity. The whirligig dance whichfollows expresses exactly the happiness, whichis short, sharp and sudden, but over whichdestiny hangs, and for which there is nomercy. And all the time in this riot ofcolour, this orgy of animation, we neverlose sight of the negro who is the chosen ofthe Sultan's favourite, the negro who half anhour ago in another world was the phantomRose His arms, which but now were


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SCHEHERAZADE


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Brutal Scheherazadewaving invisible garlands in the serene air,are ready to coil round their prey in a ser-pentine embrace. The lips which gave theinnocent kiss of naive youth are now twistedin the spasms of desire. Nijinsky in Sche-herazade is not the incarnation of evil, butits spirit. . . . His ghastly pallor is terrible.Really he seems to turn white under hisblack skin.

SCHEHERAZADE


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SCHEHERAZADE


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I xor /t/t/t >nr //amar ' pAMAR

is another pleasant little ballet1 of barbarity, in which Karsavina, asone of those avid, fatal heroines, in the

interpretation of whose serpentine passionsshe is always fine, lures lovers to her hightower, and, in the manner of the ChineseEmpress, makes death the penalty of an hourof her love. The execution is summary,the unfortunate lover being hurled outof the window by muscular members ofTamar's suite. In Tamar Adolph Bolm,who was I think the first Russian male dancerto appear in England, makes a magnificententrance. Miss Pamela Colman Smith'sdrawing gives a very vivid impression of theeffect

produced bythe first appearance on

the scene of the Lover and his companions.Here is a very good example of the amazinginfluence that the colour and shape of meregarments can have on the imagination. Thosesilent, black-coated, black-hatted men, theirfaces mufHed in concealing scarves, seem tohave come from far, from very far. I feelthat their horses below are in a sweat, thatthey have been riding furiously at the summonsof a force which their fresh and ardent youthcould not resist Poor frenzied man Whatis his secret? Why has he come here to see lovethrough a veil ofblood blood which is hisown ?

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TAMAR


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^Prince IgorAT the head of the Polovtsien warriors inthe dances from Borodin's opera PrinceIgor Bolm has to dance as well as to mime,and very splendidly and fiercely he danceswith his bow. This Prince Igor balletlasts only a few minutes, but in thoseminutes are crowded enough energy, excite-ment, lightning swift successions of differentmovements, true healthy barbarity (not thebarbarity of decadence), and splendid musicto take away all words, all thoughts, but Wonderful' But those Prince Igordances ought never to have been given with-out their accompanying songs. It has beenthe custom

latelyto leave out the

singing,one of those omissions that matter.NOTE : An omission of mine that matters is that I haverecalled Prince Igor without mentioning the name ofSophia Feodorova, who holds her own in astounding featsof agility, as in fiery spirit with the adolescents in whoseevolutions she participates. The girl is a wonder at thisman's work

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H PRINCE IGOR


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Pavilion d ArmideIN

this ballet, in the style of the Frenchballets of the reign of Louis XIV., there

is less distinction, I think, than in the othersfrom which Miss Pamela Colman Smith hasderived her pictures. The costumes andscenery are designed by Benois, but anyone with a knowledge of the theatre and aRacinet at hand could have done the samesort of thing. And yet as I write this Iknow I should make the reservation of that life which the Russians know how tobreathe into everything. What I mean is thatBenois gives us no new creation. Karsavina'sbird-like grace in her eighteenth- century guiseis captivating (oh, that this talented littledancer had more music in her, and did notdance always a fraction orl the beat ), andNijinsky as a wholly unnecessary slave inwhite satin gives a wonderful exhibition ofdancing in the style of the original Ballonwho danced at the opera in Paris at the endof the seventeenth century, and gave his nameto the kind of classical dancing which con-sists in elevation.

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LES BOUFFONSNOTE: Bolm as the lover looks very like one of LouisXI V.'s sons, and mimes perfectly. I like the pas de trois (the music of this ballet by Tscherepnin is fascinating), butI liked it better when it was originally given at the Coliseumas an extract, and danced by Kosloff, Karsavina and Baldina.Our spirited, bounding Nijinska has not got the eighteenth-century style. Oh, I must not forget those dear Bouffons Their little dance alone makes Pavilion d'Armide worthwhile.


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NarcisseTHE last drawing in this book is of Nijinskyas Narcisse, and if Narcisse had been a. passeul by Nijinsky I am sure that there wouldhave been more to praise in it. For once, themosaic was all wrong, and so the centre piececould not be all right. I have read enthusiasticaccounts of L'Apres-midi d'un Faune, whichNijinsky himself arranged, making Debussy'smusic the vehicle for a display of Greek poses,and from Nijinsky's personal performance in Narcisse I believe it to be possible that hehas succeeded in doing, in L'Apres-midi d'unFaune, what Bakst failed to do in Narcisse.When, at the end of the ballet, that colossalstage narcissus was jerked up from the stagepool, and the limelight was turned on it, Iregretfully saw in that light a limitation in theRussian art. They could not interpret thetranquil repose, the immanent beauty of Greekideas. The whole treatment of the exquisitestory of the youth who fell in love with hisown beauty, and was drowned seeking to comenear its reflection, was heavy-handed, even a

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NARCISSE


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Narcisselittle barbarous and ugly. And all the gravemovements imprisoned in stone and marbleby the sculptors of ancient Greece, all thejoyous silhouettes on Greek vases, seemed toremain remote, and secure from the conquestof the devouring Russian, restlessly seekingmaterial for his ballets in all nations and alltimes. I had a sudden seizure of distrust; it wasas though the disdain of the Greek had sappedthe foundations of my belief in the justness ofthe praises lavished on the new dance ; butthen memories of gestures, colours, boundingmovements, freedom of expression given byperfection of technique, came crowding pell-mell into my mind. The frown on a coldmarble forehead could not extinguish myjoy in the flame of life which burns soardently in the work of the Russian ballet.ELLEN TERRY.

BRADBURY, AGNEW AND CO., LTD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBK1DGE.

7 8 GO 4Y t . r . Y:.*K Bustle LIBRARY

ClROULATJOrt Df**; WONT < UliftAfiy 121 6*1 flGiii


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