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| Wednesday, 9 June 2004 |
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Wonderful world of ballet by Derrick Schokman Like all forms of theatre, ballet has produced some great performers. Dancers who have become legends, dancers famous for their technical virtuosity, dancers renowned for their histrionic ability, and dancers who have had a significant impact on the art. Nijinsky was a legend. Originally of the Kirov Ballet Company in Russia, he caused a sensation in Paris, London and Europe in the early 20th century as a member of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He was a brilliant dancer and artist of genius, and the first male megastar of ballet since the death of August Vestris in 1842, after which male dancing had been in total decline in the West. His exotic presence and phenomenal virtuosity excited the glittering social and intellectual elite to new heights of rapture. He soon came to be known as "the God of the Dance," possessing a combination of physical power and the ability to absorb a role so completely that he became the character he was portraying. Nijinsky's repertoire included Le Dieu Bleu, Scheherazade, Le Pavillon, d' Armide, Carnaval, Prince Igor, Little Hump-backed Horse, Cleopatre, Les Sylphides and The spectre de la Rose among others. He was a megastar idolised by audiences, known by name even by those who did not go to the ballet, and is still a household world in the wonderful world of ballet. Defections There is some irony in the fact that the repressive Soviet system drove three of the Kirov company's greatest artists into exile in the West, where their quest for new roles and new horizons made them role models for so many young dancers in the free world. The first to defect was Rudolf Nureyer in 1961. Not since Nijinsky stunned the Western world has a male dancer had the same impact as Nureyer, who joined the Royal Ballet in Britain as its "Permanent Guest Star." This began the famous partnership between Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, who complemented one another so marvellously on the stage. He with his virile masculinity and she with her purity and grace. Both of them superb examples of the classical style. It was not unusual to see fans sleeping in the streets on the night prior to one of their performances at Covent Garden, so as to be sure of collecting their tickets from the box office in the morning. The partnership of Nureyev and Fonteyn extended beyond balletomania. It had achieved the kind of public recognition reserved for film stars such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. Apart from his brilliant and beautiful dancing no other person - not even Nijinsky - has done so much to raise the standard of male dancing as Nureyev. Nureyev was not content to limit his repertoire to classical roles. He was ready to take on every form of theatrical dancing from the title role in Glen Tetly's Pierrot Lumaire to Paul Taylor's Aureole, and from Jerome Robbins' Dancing at a Gathering to Nijinsky's own styled L'Apres-midi dun Faure. Partnerships Natalia Makarova defected in the 1970s and joined the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Mikhail Baryshnikov who followed some time later joined her at ABT. They danced together in Gselle and took New York by storm. The pas deux from Don Quixote, a virtuoso showpiece, was an equal success. This partnership, which was to be repeated frequently, was not only brilliant in itself, but also served to introduce Baryshnikov to American audiences. Baryshnikov danced mainly with ABT, but he appeared in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet. He also performed in Munich and Hamburg, and was invited to Denmark, London and Australia. Another great partnership which developed was between Anthony Dowell and Antoinette Sibley of the Royal Ballet. Dowell was one of the greatest premier danseur noble trained and produced by the Royal Ballet System. He danced in many ballets of the regular repertoire, including The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Daphnis and Chlloe and Symphonic Variations, and also several important roles created for him in new ballets. Matched with Antoinette Sibley in a new ballet Dream by Frederick Ashton (1962), this pairing initiated this great partnership over the next two decades. Popularly known as the Anthony - Antoinette duo they are said to have complemented one another perfectly, "not as temperamental opposites like Nureyev and Fonteyn, but almost as two halves of one body, a geminian couple whose pure academic style and unforced technical ease was a joy to see." Histrionic One of Dowell's dancing partners in the Royal Ballet was Merle Park. She was one of the world's most glamorous ballerinas, who was able to combine technical virtuosity with theatrical expressiveness. She was able to project the epitome of sophistication and glamour of fascinating desirable women. Outstanding examples of this facility were three memorable performances in Jack Cartier's Lulu, as Countess Larisch in Macmillan's Mayerling and Isadora Duncan, free style American Dancer in Isadora. Plotless I began this article with Serge Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes, and will end it with the work of his last and greatest choreographer George Balanchine, who finally settled in the USA and founded the School of American Ballet, from which the New York Ballet evolved. Ballantine cast aside the conventional narrative ballets and concentrated more on plotless ballets, selecting a variety of scores from Mozart to Tchaikovsky, Hindemith to Stravinsky, upon which he based his neo-classical abstract choreography. He took the basic classical steps and presented them in another way, producing a new type of dancer with great stamina, fast, athletic and ready to experiment, which he believed was both physically and temperamentally ideal for the young dancers of America. Pre-eminent among these new type Balanchine dancers was Suzanne Farrel, the perfect specimen of the ideal instrument for his style, a role model for all dancers of a younger generation who saw her. Among the neo-classic, plotless ballets she danced were the Brahms-Schoenburg, Quartet, Jewels, Symphony in C, Tzigane and the Vienna Waltzes. **** Back **** |
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