BALLET
Ballets de Paris de Roland Petit. (Stoll.)
ROLAND PETIT seems more and more to be inclining towards musical comedy dancing, for of the three new works presented at his premiere on Monday night, only Le Loup comes within the realm of Ballet. This is a pity, for Le Loup (theme by Jean Anouilh and Georges Neveux) shows much of the originality and ability to capture atmosphere, which first gained prestige for Roland Petit when, soon after the war, he came to London with the Champs Elysees Ballet. Le Loup is a fine piece of work with beautiful sets by Carzou. The corps-de-ballet seems to have a high standard, but has rather too little to do, as the work really revolves around the two principal characters of The Girl and The Wolf. The latter role is danced by Petit himself, full of feeling and pathos, and the ballet introduces a lovely dancer, Violette Verdy as the Girl. Mlle Verdy is a great . acquisition: she has beautiful feet which she uses with fine precision and fastidiousness, a. tender and thoughtful manner, and a grace of movement which is refreshingly free of mannerisms. It will be a pleasure to see her in other roles.
Of Clue Bijou and Deuil en 24 Hewes there is little to say excepting that the idea for the former is a good one which is wasted through being superficially and carelessly worked out. It would appear that Petit has been either too indolent or too hasty in composing these works; almost as if he thought they would get by on the strength of Colette Marchand's recently acquired film fame and on the pretty designs of Andre Beaurepaire and Clave respectively. We know from past experience that these ballets are not worthy of Roland Petit, who has too much talent and theatre sense to throw away on
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