BALLET
Sadler's Wells Theatie Ballet. (Sadler's Wells.)
NnvErrE DE VALOIS' seventeen-year-old ballet, The Rake's Progress, is being danced again at Sadler's Wells. That it wears so well is sufficient proof of its own particular excellence, and the company— in better form than at any time since the American tour—is giving it a pretty good performance. Alexander Grant, lent by Covent Garden, dances the Rake, but he is not eminently suited to the role and gives the impression most of the time that he is acting instead of living the part. Sheilah O'Reilly is very tender as the Betrayed Girl, but the best individual performances are those of David Poole as the Tailor and later the Sailor, and Stanley Holden as the Gentle- man with the Rope. Andree Howard's delightful Assembly Ball was also danced with much freshness. David Blair is now developing as an artist as well as a dancer ; he is beginning to handle leading roles with easy authority and has lost hil earlier and rather irritating mannerisms. His gay and whimsical Master of Ceremonies sets the mood for the ballet and controls the whole pattern as intended by
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