DANCING
Les Etoiles de la Danse. (Adelphi.)
E'rorus DE LA DANSE, however brilliant, without ballet, without decor, without orchestra, are stars fallen out of their firmament. They have to be self-sufficient ; they have to draw out their thread of solo over the whole texture, to fill all the gaps, dance through all the subsidiary episodes. They make only one appearance because they never cease to be on the stage. We greatly admire their technical accomplishment, but we greatly miss a work of art. These remarks apply only to the two pairs of dancers who perform potted versions of full-length ballets,-chiefly by Lifar • not at all to the young dancer Ana Nevada, who with her pianist, Rafael Arroyo, contributes Suite Espagnole, nearly a third of the programme, and is her own self- sufficing Choreographer in a self-contained little galaxy of Spanish dances.
Renee Teanmaire and Colette Marchand both belong to the brilliant group of young dancers at the Opera. They are strongly con- trasted in type and temperament, Renee Jeanmaire being a vivacious soubrette, and Colette Marchand a lyrical dancer of very fine quality, and beautiful line. They are partnered respectively by Skouratoff, potentially one of the finest romantic dancers of today, with a magnificent line and powerful technique, and Perrault, an elegant and very expressive dancer. Skouratoff's gymnastic dance as Acteon in Aubade almost reconciled one to the version which Poulenc so much disapproves, as falsifying the intention of his music. Clearly Jeanmaire is too parisienne to have danced the Diana imagined by Poulenc, but in the version given her personal allure is irresistible.
The tabloid version of Romeo et lunette, necessitated by the absence of a corps-de-ballet, makes nonsense of the choreography, but was so beautifully danced by Marchand and Perrault that one surrendered to their charm. The impression they gave of liquid, disembodied movement, when the lovers rise from their dead bodies and celebrate their spiritual reunion, was very convincing. La Peri and Pygmalion. though very well danced, could not stand the test of separation from the ballet, and such a succession of Lifar choreo- graphies, deprived of their trappings, reveals only too clearly how mannered and fundamentally inexpressive they are. Even the splendid plastic moments in which they abound do not spring from the necessities of the subject, and never from the music. Why must these four Etoiles confine themselves to condensations of existing ballets ? No solo instrumentalist would fill a recital programme with concerto solos. And why should dance recitals be the monopoly of " expressionistic " dancers ? What a delightful task for a choreographer, with material such as this, to compose dance duos or trios or quartettes with the piano (only the piano must not be a mere accompaniment and the pianist must be an artist), using the dancers as instruments, as he might use cello, violin or flute. No plot would be necessary, though of course it need not be excluded.
The most successful part of the programme, for the reason I gave at the beginning, is the Suite Espagnole of Ana Nevada and Rafael Arroyo. Ana Nevada was born in Oran eighteen years ago, and studied the violin almost from babyhood. But she studied dancing, too, in that very Spanish town, and when she won the gold medal for dancing at Brussels her career as a professional musician was exchanged for that of a dancer. She is indeed a wonderful dancer who communicates her delight to the audience. She follows all the subtleties of rhythm and tune so wonderfully rendered by Arroyo on the piano. They are as one in the delicacy and elasticity of tempo and rhythm which one meets so seldom even in famous performers. Arroyo's playing of Spanish music is indeed of the utmost brilliance, and since Argentina, with whom I do not of course compare her, I have not heard such eloquent castanet- playing as Ana Nevada's. I do not Much care for the use of pointes in the brilliant Impression de Bolero, composed for her by Rafael Arroyo ; and I regret her rosy make-up. Off the stage she is pale and very beautiful. It is a pity that this lovely pallor is
not allowed to operate on the stage. BERYL DE ZOETE.
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