Once More the Ballet

Irish Jesuit Province

Once More the BalletReview by: Gabriel FallonThe Irish Monthly, Vol. 66, No. 785 (Nov., 1938), pp. 789-797Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20514431 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 01:57

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Irish Jesuit Province is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Irish Monthly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.182 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 01:57:35 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ijp

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20514431?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


789

Sitting at the Play.

Once More The Ballet.

By GABRIEL FALLON.

T HE beginning of September witnessed a crowded week of glorious ballet in the coming of the Vie-Wells Company to the Gaiety Theatre. Dublin rose magnificently to the

occasion, went to the ballet as never before, and from opening night on it was standing room only. One saw the same animated faces in the same old places as the week progressed. Programme notes

were diligently studied; Haskell's were bought, borrowed, hastily consulted; and, before the middle of the week, all available copies of that excellent Penguin edition, The Complete Guide to Appreciation, had left the booksellers' counters.

The Vie-Wells Company came whole and entire. This was no mere shreds and patches affair of poor, touring, tattered ballet. A selection of new ballets and of old, with choreographers, com poser-conductor, orchestra, de'cor, costumes, ballerina (one dare not pluralise the word), principal dancers and corps-dc-ballet (many of them ballerinas in the making) all under the inspired but eminently workmanlike direction of Ninette de Valois.

It is the honourable task of the Vie-Wells Company to supply London audiences for nine months of the year with ballet at cinema prices, and to be the workshop from which the hoped-for British National Ballet may triumphantly spring. Ballet is a beauty born from an unending drudgery of exercise. At the Vie-Wells, principals line up with the rest of the Company for " exercises " before rehearsals. No one ever reaches a stage



790 THE IRISHI MONTHLY

where these can be thrown aside: they are the fundamentals of ballet. Even the most accomplished in the company receive their share of criticism, for there is no absolute perfection im the art. (Once upon a time that was thought to be true of acting, but many of our young actors and actresses seem to know better.)

Ballet, as Mr. Haskell warns us, suffers from its tacit accept ance as something beautiful. And ballet, he tells us, depends in

a large measure upon its audiences. " There are two parties to every theatrieal manifestation; the perforners and their public: and it is ultimately the public who dictate the quality of the per formance." The great Pavlova, speaking of British audiences, once said: " The public here is so exceedingly generous that while it warms my heart it does not help me. To-night, I know that I did not dance the Dying Swan as well as usual, but the applause was exactly the same. I would have been pleased if it had been just a little less." Our much despised third A is an important A in ballet. Mr. ilaskell certainly thinks so. He also thinks, by the way, that " Lilian Bayliss created a theatre that is more truly national than any State institution, since it was born out of the sixpences of the masses." It is encouraging to learn that this fundamental of theatre at least survives in ballet.

But then ballet is itself of the very essence of theatre. And Punch and Judy, Harlequin, Walt Disney's grotesques, Marion ettes, the circus clown, are far more truly theatre than the pomps of Mr. Noel Coward or the frequently inane prolixity of Mr. Shaw. Even if one cannot completely accept Plato's belief that the dance is of all the arts the one that most influences the soul, few will cavil at Simonides for describing dancing as silent poetry.

Accepting the Noverre-Fokine doctrine that dancing in ballet is a means of expressing a dramatic idea, and glancing around at the chaotic conditions which have resulted from ignoring the fundamentals of theatre in the so-called " legitimate " theatre of



ONCE MORE THE; BALLET 791

to-day, one is tempted to turn to the ballet, as a wvatcher in dark ness turns to the source of a great light. A popular revival of ballet-and there are signs of it-may bring the theatre to its sen.ses; at least it may bring it to a sense of theatre.

Unfortunately, however, ballet at any time is influenced by the theatre it inhabits, and modem ballet is to some extent influ enced in its dramatic content and exterior construction by the theatre that surrounds it to-day. It is not easy perhaps to gauge to what extent. As Mr. Haskell reminds us, ballet suffers from its tacit acceptance as something beautiful. But just as there are good plays and bad plays there are good ballets and bad ballets. A play may suffer from triviality of theme : so may a ballet. A play's construction, its framework, may be clumsy, inept. A ballet's con struction may be just as unworkmanlike. Excellent acting mftay support a badly made play. A badly-made ballet may thrive on the delightful dancing it enshrines. Indeed, thanks to Carlo Blassi and the beauty of classical ballet (dancing) technique, there is a greater danger of a badly-made ballet winning its way to success than there is of a badly-made play doing likewise by virtue of good acting. After all, one can always read the play, and that helps, although it is by no means a complete judgment. So that when the Vie-Wells Company came to us at the Gaiety we were so refreshed at its fountain, of pure theatre, that it tended to disarm wvhat little judgment we possessed. Reflection has brought forward some criticism, which (remembering the pleasure we derived) is diffidently offered.

Le Roi Nu (Hans Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes) lacked construction. The choreography by Ninette de Valois

was, on the whole, good, but by no means approaching the de Valois best. The scenario was by Serge Lifar, and it would have been far, far better for this ballet if there had been more of Andersen and less of Lifar. The moral and the simplicity of the



792 THE IRISH MONTHLY

original story were completely lost, and the introduction of an additional character in the person of the Queen's lover was totally unnecessary. Nor did the metamorphosis of the two weavers to the three tailors help story, scenario, or choreography. The costumes and de'cor by Hedley Briggs were far too good for Lifar's scenario. And the dancing of Robert Helpmann and Pamela May as Emperor and Empress was a joyous memory in the midst of much regret. This ballet was patched, scrappy, did not hold together.

In Horoscope, choreographer, composer, and scenic artist have worked together almost as one mn to produce a ballet, which begins well, drags a little as it proceeds, provides some excellent opportunities for individual dancers and corps-de-ballet, but suffers from triviality of theme. Balletomanes will quarrel with us for this. A man who has the sun in Leo and the moon in Gemini, and a woman who has the moon in Gemini but the sun in Virgo, may offer a theme that is of vital interest to the mem bers of our Irish Astrological Society, but for non-members the theme is trivial, and a little too reminiscent of those themes of theatre which provide us with undramatic and unpoetic purga torios. It was a pity to see the magnificent collaboration of Constance Lambert, Frederick Ashton, and Sophie Fedorovitch turned to this end. The Fedorovitch decor was simply excellent in its excellent simplicity, and proved that our theatre designers have much to learn from their fellow-workers in ballet. The dancing of Margot Fonteyn as the Young Woman and Pamela

May as the Moon was a sheer delight. And Michael Soames, a young dancer in a difficult leading role, danced with distinct promise.

Les Patineurs, a delightful divertissement with choreography by Frederick Ashton, to Constant Lambert's arrangement of Meyerbeer music, furnished an excellent opportunity for display



ONCE MORE THE BALLET 798

ing the individual dancing capabilities of the Vic-Wells corps-de ballet which scintillated around the brilliant virtuosities of Mary Honer and Harold Turner.

Change of programme brought The Gods Go a-Begging, choreography by de Valois, to Handel (arranged by Beecham). The rather Corot-like decor by Hugh Stevenson was quite effec tive. Here again weakness of construction lay in the necessity for " black-out " and curtain-lowering to produce the final tableau. A short, well-constructed ballet needs to have muich of the construction of the well-made one-act play. Contrary to one expressed professional opinion, we feel that the most effective work in this ballet was the delightful pas-de-deux (Elizabeth Millar, William Chappell) as the Serving Maid and the Shepherd.

Remembering a wonderful Markova performance, we had looked forward to Le Lac Des Cygnes. Margot Fonteyn did

not disappoint us. She impressed us as a ballerina. Her adagio and pas-de-deue (with Robert Helpmann as Siegfried) were per haps the best movements of the performance. The corps-de ballet seemed ill at ease; its work was uneven, even ragged. And one of the most beautiful movements in Act II, the pas-de-quatre of the Cygnets, lacked the required unison. All the honours of this performance go to Helpmann and Margot Fonteyn.

Act III of Le Lac Des Cygnes again brought to the fore Robert Helpmann's excellent qualities as a romantic dancer, his command of gesture and of mime, and provided Mary Honer with opportunities which she availed of magnificently. Though not of ballerina build, she dominates her audience by the sheer brilliance of her technique.

Mr. Haskell describes Rendezvous as " dancing for the sake of dancing-almost ". Perhaps it is, but it is certainly one of Ashton's most delightful creations. A divertissement merely, it nevertheless helps to give one a distinct feeling for the geometry



794 THE IRISH MONTHLY

of ballet. It was delightfully danced by the Vic-Wells Company, and despite the presence in the cast of a ballerina and a brilliant male technician, the balance was evenly held, the team-work perfect. It afforded a splendid example of the delightful restraint which the discipline of ballet can bring to the dancer. It would have been only too easy for Margot Fonteyn to have overstepped the footlights, and Harold Turner might have thrust himself forward unduly and without difficulty. But both were content to remain part of the pattern, which is half the secret of their individual excellence, and the whole aim of that classical training recorded by Carlo Blassi.

Despite its evident popularity, we venture the opinion that Apparitions is by no means a good ballet. It is described as a ballet on romantic themes, with choreography by Frederick Ashton. A young poet is sitting in his study working on a sonnet entitled " L'Amour Supreme. " But its final form eludes him. Suddenly lights spring up in the windows and strange figures appear before his tired eyes-a dandified hussar, a monk of menacing aspect, and, finally, a woman in a ball-dress who looks at him alluringly.

He takes a dose of laudanum and falls into an uneasy sleep. Etc., etc. Tableaux I, II and III. A ballroom, a snow-clad plain, a cavern. Epilogue: Despair; the dreams are but a reflection of his own tragic life. He kills himself. " L'Amour Supreme " is achieved at last.

Risking much noisy contradiction we assert that the theme of this ballet, coupled with much of the working-out thereof, is unmitigated rot. Our opinion comes not from the fact that we are squeamish (which God forbid) but that we fear we possess something of a sense of humour. We consider, for instance, that quite an effective ballet might be made to spring from the subject matter of an E. A. Poe story, or better still, from the thirteenth century poem The Dance of the Three Dead and the




Three Living. But these Apparitions first faintly amused and then blatantly bored, just as surely as they robbed Ashton of

much of his choreographic skill. Long purple processions of meandering monks and wispy witches on snow-clad plains do amuse and bore some people. But far more important is the fact that they do not make for ballet. Balletomanes may thrill to the programme description of these inanities as " unholy cults " and " revelries that have a sinister quality ", but the truth is, of

course, that they are neither one nor the other. They are even less than the ridiculous trappings for which the declining output of the Romantic ballet was righteously condemned. Swept clean of its vampire cobwebs La Sylphide left us the beauty of Les Sylphides. But after Apparitions there is nothing.

Undoubtedly the best all-round performance of the Vic-Wells' visit was Checkmate, a ballet in a prologue and one scene, with

music by Arthur Bliss, de'cor and costume by McKnight Kauffer, choreography by Ninette de Valois. It was first produced at Sadler's Wells in 1937, and Dublin audiences had an opportunity of seeing the ballet danced by the original cast. The prologue shows two players at the start of a game of chess. They disclose themselves as Love and Death fighting for the lives of their sub jects. The scene then opens. It is a chess board on which the

Red Pieces are seen assembling. Enter the Black Pieces. Etc., etc. It is surprising how effective this simple ballet can be. Both costumes and choreography bore a close relation to the pieces and

moves of the game. The costumes in particular were excellently contrived, they were both suitable and practical and were made with an eye to the choreography and to chess. The choreography dragged a little, first of all in the assembling of the Red Pieces, and again in the menacing approach of the Black Queen. All the dancers seemed very much at home in this ballet. There was excellent team work, and an amazing piece of miming by Robert



796 THE IRISH MONTHL Y

Helpmann in the part of the Red King. Harold Turner's brilliant solo work as the Red Knight and his dramatic passages with June Brae as the Black Queen were magnificently executed. June Brae as the Black Queen was excellent in a role which must

be one of the most arduous in the Vie-Wells repertoire. This

performance of Checkmate was surely the triumph of the week.

The visit of the Vie-Wells ballet has convinced us more than ever before that we have an audience for ballet. That is perhaps

more important than it may seem. And the various experiments that courageous pioneers have carried out from time to time have

made it clear that, with a little more interest, encouragement and effort, we might even have ballet for an audience. It is quite a few years now since Miss de Valois came to open a school of

ballet at the Abbey. It is impossible to gauge what happenaed during the experiment, but when Miss de Valois returned to England she rated us soundly for our indolence and indifference. No doubt we thoroughly deserved it. Miss Sarah Payne, who has a school of ballet here, has actually dared to stage a Cuchulainn ballet, and by her courageous experiment has shown us the possi bility of achieving a ballet of our own. We have stories for ballet (think of The Children of Lir); we have musicians in plenty. We have as a race many of the essentials of ballet, natural grace, physical beauty, musical ear. But have we a temperament that will bend graciously to the long study, arduous labour and relent less discipline of the ballet school? Choreography, of course, is a difficulty, but it is a difficulty anywhere. Choreographers are few and far between, but it would be a comparatively easy matter to obtain the assistance of one, had we a mind to possess a ballet of our own.

But do we really want a ballet of our own? Or do we merely want to talk about our wanting a ballet? Did we deserve the




castigation meted out to us by Miss de Valois? Some of its resented it bitterly-the most guilty perhaps-but there is every evidence of the fact that it was well merited. Even in our theatre the usage seems to be, that to feel genius is to be genius, to trust to ournaturaltalentandtoleaveitatthat. Despiteschools of acting, voice drill seems to be a thing of the past. The producer who would expect his cast to line up for deep breathing exercises before rehearsals would be quickly and quietly disposed of. At no time within the writer's knowledge was the valuable art of mime preached or practised in the training of our actors. Few actors know the dramatic values of the stage they play on as the classical dancer knows them, or the dramatically effective posi tions of the body. Rarely does the producer know these things.

Matters are little better with the dramatist who, as a rule, seems to apply whatever talent he has to copying the indifferent technique of the fellow who got there before him. If he succeeds in having his play produced he is happy. Isn't it just possible that Miss de Valois saw all these things? Some critics have credited her work in ballet with having a distinct " Abbey influence ". It is hardly possible that they did so in order to please Miss de Valois, who, despite all her hard words for us, deserves our deepest gratitude for the pleasure she gave us in bringing her Vic-Wells Ballet to Dublin.



Documents

Once More the Ballet