BALLET
Jose Greco and His Company of Spanish Dancers. (Sadler's Wells.) THE Josd Greco Ballet continues to delight its audiences at Sadler's Wells, but on Monday night the latter seemed to agree with me that Carmen was a tactical error. It is an old cry, this protest against the lifting of a work out of the medium in which it was originally conceived and the fitting of it into another, but time and time again the cry is justified. The richness, in fact the whole essence, of the opera is lost and not replaced in this tightly compressed and pruned dance version of Carmen. The attempt was gallant, never artistically offensive and often beautiful pictorially, but it failed to move the audience as the dancers themselves seemed unmoved. Even Greco himself was unable to bring Carmen to life except in the brief passage leading to the stabbing of the heroine.
Thinking over Greco's achievements now that his season is about to enter its fourth and last week, his attempt at Carmen is all the more surprising. Not only has he shown his supreme quality as a performer but also, and nearly approaching the same high level, his sensibility as choreographer and artistic director. He has expressed his belief, in the beautiful Zorongo and La Petenera, that Spanish dancing need not be confined to traditional arrangements and ideas but may be used over a wjder field. Both of these works are little masterpieces, the first inspired by a poem of Lorca's, the second based on a Spanish legend, and the two set to music by the company's pianist Roger Machado. This is how it should be and why the choice of Carmen is a surprise. LILLIAN BROWSE.
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