The Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas

Gwen Heart

BALLET: Paris had been trying earnestly to regain its lost glory after being the cradle of the Diaghilev Ballet for a long time. It was dominating the Paris Opera that was lacking its own identity until a Frenchman, Rene Blum and a Russian, Col. W de Basil came to its rescue.

They were the most unlikely partners with the Frenchman being polite, cultured, gentle and courteous while the Russian who was a Colonel of the Cossacks, was gruff, unpredictable and difficult to work with.

So how did they survive?. Simply because Blum had a profound taste for the arts and the ability to revolutionise the importance of ballet while De Basil was a hard-fisted administrator ruthless on business matters.

After Diaghilev’s death, Blum became the director of the Ballets de 1’Opera-de Monte Carlo. The pair worked tirelessly with several ballets that flopped at the beginning especially the ones mounted in Paris and London. When Serge Grigoriev joined, things changed.

He was followed by Balanchine who ended his stint in 1932 to start his own company. Blum too left the Ballets de Monte Carlo and the company changed its name to Col. W Basil’s Ballet. Following these changes, Blum took charge of his own small company which was still very powerful. He toured the United States.

Tragedy struck the innocent Blum in 1941. While living in a flat in paris, Blum was arrested by the Germans because of his Jewish faith and deported to the concentration camp at the notorious Auchwitz where he died.

These incidents were the advent to the coming of The Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas.

Inauguration

In the 1930s, Ballets Russes was inaugurated by Col. de Basil and the late Blum and they did much to revitalise Western Ballet at a time when it would have fallen apart. This resulted in various companies bridging the gap between the great Diaghilevera and the proliferation of ballet as seen today. They provided the dancers for ballet which otherwise may have ceased to exist. They were the life savers of Western ballet.

And as these spectacular events were taking place, its creator Blum was languishing in a dark concentration camp unaware that his efforts were skyrocketing with great results. It was later reported, when Blum was found dead, the same night, Balanchine was mounting his Raymonda which may have been a silent tribute to him.

A wealthy Chilean who had passion for ballet formed a ballet that was later to become great independent ballet companies. This was at a time the Original Ballet Russe was in turmoil. The Chilean happened to be the Marquis de Cuevas whose colourful personality matched his burning desire for classical ballet.

He was able to set aside a great deal of money that was at his disposal when he married the grand-daughter of the billionaire-American John D. Rockerfeller. His wife who had done a spell in ballet was more than pleased when the Marquis told his desire to promote this wonderful art.

In 1944 he debuted an impressario with the formation of the Ballet International. He was able to commission ten top most choreographers to produce and mount ballets for the company. Among many were Bronsilav, Nijanska, Massine, Edward Caton as well as Andre Eglevsky.

He was determined to outshine the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and the American Ballet Theatre who were already in competition in New York. However, the Marquis whose gimmicks were outrageous in his repertoire, failed because of his over ambition.

The Marquis was not worried when the company suffered heavy losses because what he sought was to establish his company. With this in mind, he engaged the Nouveau Ballet de Monte Carlo three years later. This resulted in combined repertoires of the two companies debuting under a new name of Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo.

First ballet

In July 1947, the company mounted its first ballet with such established dancers like Rosella Hightower, Marjorie Tallchief, George Skibine and Andre Eglevsky. Spiritually the company was based in Paris though it did not have a permanent home. But it made the Marquis very happy because the company achieved the established character he was after. Finally it became known as the Grand ballet du Marquis de Cuevas.

He was on the road of success when choreographers such as Willima Dollar and John Taras time apart created great ballets for the company. Among them was Tara’s spectacular version of Piege de Lumiere in 1952. This was followed by many of the world’s best choreographers joining the company.

They were Balanchine, Harald Lander, Nijinska, (Nijinsky’s sister) Lifar, Massine, Lichine, Skibine, Ana Ricarda, Vladimir Skouratov, Janina Charrat and John Cranko. The irony was that all these ‘greats’ were leaving their companies to join the Marquis.

Being a down-to-earth man where his passion was concerned, the Marquis as the owner and artistic director of the company did things personally what administrators would have assigned to others. He was seen backstage fixing a button onto a costume of one of the dancers, discussing make-up problems and hair styling before the curtains went up.

Death

When death came to him in 1961, he had mounted well over 60 ballets and they were all successful. Most of his productions were full length ballets including The Sleeping Beauty which was mounted just before he died.

It was during this time that a sensational drama took place at the Le Bourget airport in Paris when the defecting Rudolf Nureyev made a spectacular leap into the arms of Paris Police and was granted political asylum in France.

After hitting the international tabloids, Nupeyev straight away headed to The Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cueves to launch his brilliant career that made him the dancer of the last century, thanks to the Marquis.

After his death, his widow Margaret carried on the ensemble but when it became Ballet International de la Marquse de Cuvas, she disbanded it finally in June 1962. Nureyev had left for London by now and joined the Royal Ballet with partnership of Margot Fonteyn.

No male dancer had generated such public interest because of his personality and technique.

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