Russian Diary
Red Curtain Up. By Beryl Grey. (Seeker and Warburg, 30s.)
FEW ballerinas would write a complete and spontaneous account of a touring visit abroad— to most of them that would seem a publicity- making trick best left to their press agents. But in this instance the ballerina is Beryl Grey, and the country Russia; and the conjunction fully justifies this engaging travel-diary. Miss Grey was the first Western ballerina invited there under the Soviet regime, and she writes out of a close but fair scrutiny of her visit. The details about hotels, food, travel, the street crowds, weather—all these we know from earlier travellers to Russia; in this account they form part of the shadowy decor of the author's glittering adventure. That adventure, of dancing Swan Lake and Giselle in the Russian versions in four different cities (Moscow, Kiev, Tiflis, Leningrad), is her main concern. Her secondary purpose is to give a coherent view of the Russian system of producing ballet.
The writing has an easy simplicity; she tells of her reactions on first entering the Bolshoi Theatre, meeting the company, starting rehearsals, prepar- ing for the gruelling ordeal of the first perfor- mance. Her misfortune was to be taken ill, so that her inaugural performance was put off from a Friday the thirteenth to a Sunday. Day after
day she is immersed in rehearsals, stupen- dous parties, gruesome air journeys, funny hotels; full of admiration for the dancers, teachers and regisseurs who give their advice and encourage- ment. Her comments on the organisation and the actual physical atmosphere of the Bolshoi Theatre and School have as clear a note of truth as the restrained record of how she danced her per- formances. Most of these facts are already known here through official propaganda, but Miss Grey's experience reaffirms that the Russians do this sort of thing better than any other people; and have indeed been doing so for more than a century and a half. The deeper question, of why ballet of this superlative kind exists only in Russia, does not impinge on the author's awareness : she is content to witness, and take part in, some of its splendid
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