Maybe we do have a Junior Company in England after all

I have written quite a lot about the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company and why I think it is a good idea. In Ernst Meisner’s Work with the Dutch National Ballet 2 Dec 2014, Ernst Meisner, Artistic Co-ordinator of the Junior Company explains how it came into being. He gave more details on his work with the company in The Junior Company 3 Dec 2014.

I last saw the Junior Company in Ballet Bubbles on 14 Feb 2016. Before the show Ernst gave a little talk about the company and he stressed that it provides opportunities not just for outstanding young dancers but promising stage and costume designers, lighting engineers and technical staff too.   I wrote a little more about those opportunities in Opportunities Not Just for Dancers 26 May 2016.

I was reminded of Ernst speech and his earlier interviews when I checked out the website of the New English Ballet Theatre. The reason I did that is that the London Ballet Circle has been invited to attend the company's choreographic lab Taking Chances at the Rambert Studios on 15 Oct 2016. On checking through the website I noticed that Ernst is one of its choreographers as indeed is Wayne Eagling who was the Dutch National Ballet's Artistic Director before he returned to London to direct the English National Ballet.

On the About page I listened to the above video and read under "Who we are":

"We are a modern ballet company with a mission to present exciting new work to the widest possible audience. We are committed to the continual reinvention of classical ballet and giving artists the creative space to explore its boundaries. What makes us different is how we work with talented young people from a variety of disciplines. We have a company of exceptional dancers, but we also seek out choreographers, musicians, designers and visual artists. As a new company, we have the creative freedom to drive ballet forward, showcasing the strength, athleticism and agility of the next generation."

 I was even more fascinated by "Who inspires us":

"We have bold ambitions as a company, drawing inspiration from the likes of Sergei Diaghilev and George Balanchine. A pioneer in every sense, Diaghilev founded the Ballet Russes, a company which brought together the best young Russian dancers of the day, including Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky. Determined to create groundbreaking work, Diaghilev also commissioned some of the most famous composers of the 20th century, from Stravinsky and Ravel to Strauss and Prokofiev. This spirit of collaboration also extended to artists and he worked with Picasso and Matisse among others.
We set out to emulate Diaghilev’s all-embracing approach to the creation of new work, building a company in the style of the Ballet Russes for the 21st century."

That inspires me too.  I shall be at the choreographic lab on 15 Oct 2016 and I shall follow the company with great interest.

The Red Shoes

Publicity Photo for the Red Shoes

 Author Ballerinailina

Source Wikipedia

Creative commons licence

If you are already a balletomane or film buff you will know all about The Red Shoes choreographed by Sir Robert Helpmann and featuring Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tchérina and Léonide Massine. If you are not a balletomane you will perhaps begin to understand the condition if you watch the film. You have the chance now and for the next 6 days to watch it on BBC iPlayer. You can also download a short talk on the film by Deborah Bull.

Although the film carries a notice that it is a work of fiction and that any resemblance with individuals living or dead is purely coincidental the parallels between the film character Boris Lermontov and the impresario Sergei Daghilev are overwhelming. Diaghilev introduced the British public as well as much of the rest of the world to the Russian imperial ballet. However, he did much more than that. He surrounded himself with brilliant young artists and composers as  well as dancers from around the world and employed them to create the most dazzling productions. Ballet is not just choreography and dancing. It is the synthesis of many arts - drama, music, painting et cetera - the product of something that is so much greater than its component parts. That is what attracted me to ballet nearly 60 years ago and it is also why I just can't see enough of the stuff.

In her talk Deborah Bull lists so many reasons why one should dislike the film such as the outrageous attitude to women and its outlandish clichés and yet she loves the film as I do. One of the reasons she gives is its authenticity and she mentions a missed step by Moira Shearer which only a dancer would recognize. Certainly that point eluded me until Deborah Bull mentioned it but then I am not a dancer in the way that she is. But I also recognize authenticity in the film from the perspective of the humble theatre goer. Ballet is life for us just as it is for the dancers.

Red Shoes was made 6 months before I was born which makes it a very old film. It contains shots of the old fruit market and the stone staircase up to the amphitheatre and the upper and lower slips that I remember well. The accents are clipped.  Yet this film remains fresh. It is one of the most beautiful that I have ever seen. My favourite by a country mile.

Post Script

Deborah Bull talked about authenticity from a dancer's perspective and I alluded far more vaguely to authenticity from the audience's perspective without giving an example. I have just thought of one. Shortly after Pavlova died the theatre in which she was due to perform presented the ballet as scheduled but instead of her a spotlight traced her steps around the stage. For those who were there it must have been one of the most poignant moments of their lives. The gesture was repeated in The Red Shoes after the heroine still in costume and wearing the red shoes threw herself in front of a train.

Hommage au Faune

On Thursday I watched Boston Ballet's performance of Afternoon of a Faun (see "Boston Ballet: 'High as a flag on the Fourth of July!'"). As you can see from my review, they danced it well. 

That ballet means a lot to me because it was the first ballet I ever saw,  But it is also an important work in the history of dance. It was one of the first (if not the first) works to be centred on the male principal rather than the ballerina. Hardly surprising as it was choreographed and first danced by Vaslav Nijinsky.  Amazingly, there survives the following clip of Nijinsky as the Faun in 1912.

It is also important as one of the first (if not the first) of Diaghilev's brilliant fusions of art, choreography, literature and music. 

The sets were the work of Leon Bakst.   It was an exhibition of Bakst's work at the V & A that led me to the the Ballet Russes and hence to ballet. The music was by Claude Debussy upon the inspiration of the poem by  Stéphane Mallarmé:

"L’APRÈS-MIDI D’VN FAVNE

LE FAVNE
Ces nymphes, je les veux perpétuer.
Si clair,
Leur incarnat léger qu’il voltige dans l’air
Assoupi de sommeils touffus.
Aimai-je un rêve ?
Mon doute, amas de nuit ancienne, s’achève
En maint rameau subtil, qui, demeuré les vrais
Bois mêmes, prouve, hélas ! que bien seul je m’offrais
Pour triomphe la faute idéale de roses.
Réfléchissons..
ou si les femmes dont tu gloses
Figurent un souhait de tes sens fabuleux !
Faune, l’illusion s’échappe des yeux bleus
Et froids, comme une source en pleurs, de la plus chaste :
Mais, l’autre tout soupirs, dis-tu qu’elle contraste
Comme brise du jour chaude dans ta toison !
Que non ! par l’immobile et lasse pâmoison
Suffoquant de chaleurs le matin frais s’il lutte,
Ne murmure point d’eau que ne verse ma flûte
Au bosquet arrosé d’accords ; et le seul vent
Hors des deux tuyaux prompt à s’exhaler avant
Qu’il disperse le son dans une pluie aride,
C’est, à l’horizon pas remué d’une ride,
Le visible et serein souffle artificiel
De l’inspiration, qui regagne le ciel.
O bords siciliens d’un calme marécage
Qu’à l’envi des soleils ma vanité saccage,
Tacite sous les fleurs d’étincelles,
CONTEZ
» Que je coupais ici les creux roseaux domptés
» Par le talent ; quand, sur l’or glauque de lointaines
» Verdures dédiant leur vigne à des fontaines,
» Ondoie une blancheur animale au repos :
» Et qu’au prélude lent où naissent les pipeaux,
» Ce vol de cygnes, non ! de naïades se sauve
» Ou plonge.. »
Inerte, tout brûle dans l’heure fauve
Sans marquer par quel art ensemble détala
Trop d’hymen souhaité de qui cherche le la :
Alors m’éveillerai-je à la ferveur première,
Droit et seul, sous un flot antique de lumière,
Lys ! et l’un de vous tous pour l’ingénuité.
Autre que ce doux rien par leur lèvre ébruité,
Le baiser, qui tout bas des perfides assure,
Mon sein, vierge de preuve, atteste une morsure
Mystérieuse, due à quelque auguste dent ;
Mais, bast ! arcane tel élut pour confident
Le jonc vaste et jumeau dont sous l’azur on joue :
Qui, détournant à soi le trouble de la joue
Rêve, dans un solo long que nous amusions
La beauté d’alentour par des confusions
Fausses entre elle-même et notre chant crédule ;
Et de faire aussi haut que l’amour se module
Évanouir du songe ordinaire de dos
Ou de flanc pur suivis avec mes regards clos,
Une sonore, vaine et monotone ligne.
Tâche donc, instrument des fuites, ô maligne
Syrinx, de refleurir aux lacs où tu m’attends !
Moi, de ma rumeur fier, je vais parler longtemps
Des déesses ; et, par d’idolâtres peintures,
A leur ombre enlever encore des ceintures :
Ainsi, quand des raisins j’ai sucé la clarté,
Pour bannir un regret par ma feinte écarté,
Rieur, j’élève au ciel d’été la grappe vide
Et, soufflant dans ses peaux lumineuses, avide
D’ivresse, jusqu’au soir je regarde au travers.

O nymphes, regonflons des SOUVENIRS divers.
» Mon œil, trouant les joncs, dardait chaque encolure
» Immortelle, qui noie en l’onde sa brûlure
» Avec un cri de rage au ciel de la forêt ;
» Et le splendide bain de cheveux disparaît
» Dans les clartés et les frissons, ô pierreries !
» J’accours ; quand, à mes pieds, s’entrejoignent (meurtries
» De la langueur goûtée à ce mal d’être deux)
» Des dormeuses parmi leurs seuls bras hasardeux ;
» Je les ravis, sans les désenlacer, et vole
» A ce massif, haï par l’ombrage frivole,
» De roses tarissant tout parfum au soleil,
» Où notre ébat au jour consumé soit pareil.
Je t’adore, courroux des vierges, ô délice
Farouche du sacré fardeau nu qui se glisse,
Pour fuir ma lèvre en feu buvant, comme un éclair
Tressaille ! la frayeur secrète de la chair :
Des pieds de l’inhumaine au cœur de la timide
Que délaisse à la fois une innocence, humide
De larmes folles ou de moins tristes vapeurs.
» Mon crime, c’est d’avoir, gai de vaincre ces peurs
» Traîtresses, divisé la touffe échevelée
» De baisers que les dieux gardaient si bien mêlée ;
» Car, à peine j’allais cacher un rire ardent
» Sous les replis heureux d’une seule (gardant
» Par un doigt simple, afin que sa candeur de plume
» Se teignît à l’émoi de sa sœur qui s’allume,
» La petite, naïve et ne rougissant pas :)
» Que de mes bras, défaits par de vagues trépas,
» Cette proie, à jamais ingrate, se délivre
» Sans pitié du sanglot dont j’étais encore ivre.
Tant pis ! vers le bonheur d’autres m’entraîneront
Par leur tresse nouée aux cornes de mon front :
Tu sais, ma passion, que, pourpre et déjà mûre,
Chaque grenade éclate et d’abeilles murmure ;
Et notre sang, épris de qui le va saisir,
Coule pour tout l’essaim éternel du désir.
A l’heure où ce bois d’or et de cendres se teinte.
Une fête s’exalte en la feuillée éteinte :
Etna ! c’est parmi toi visité de Vénus
Sur ta lave posant ses talons ingénus,
Quand tonne un somme triste ou s’épuise la flamme.
Je tiens la reine !
O sûr châtiment..
Non, mais l’âme
De paroles vacante et ce corps alourdi
Tard succombent au fier silence de midi :
Sans plus il faut dormir en l’oubli du blasphème,
Sur le sable altéré gisant et comme j’aime
Ouvrir ma bouche à l’astre efficace des vins !
Couple, adieu ; je vais voir l’ombre que tu devins."

This poem is virtually untranslatable but here is one valiant attempt by Roger Fry.

To appreciate the ballet as it is performed today here is the Joffrey Ballet with Rudolf Nureyev as the Faun.