BALLET
"Summer Interlude." (Sadler's Wells.) MICHAEL SomEs's ballet was warmly acclaimed when it was pre- sented at Sadler's Wells on Tuesday night. The audience was showing its appreciation of a dancer's first attempt at choreography ; but doubtless it was also expressing approval of Sadler's Wells's policy of experimentation, urging, at the same time, that it be still wider and bolder as finances permit. The importance of our junior ballet company cannot be over-estimated. Besides unselfishly pro- viding Covent Garden with some of its best dancers, it fulfils an even more important function—that of affording opportunities to young choreographers upon whom the senior company must eventually rely for fresh impetus.
Mr. Somes has wisely chosen a simple theme, which he treats with gaiety and sensitivity. It is good to see that his production is treated entirely in balletic terms. Without any startling originality —not to be expected in a first essay—he has staged a modest and charming little ballet of which he need not he ashamed. His mis- takes are those probably common to most newcomers in this field. Some of the arrangements are too long-drawn-out ; his cast is larger than the ballet demands, and he seems to find it unwieldy and in the pas de deux his lifts over-strain in their efforts to be effective. His curtain is a delightful touch, but throughout the ballet one wishes that he had drawn a sharper contrast betweeb the characters of titer Village Boy and the Bather, excellently danced by Pirmin Trecu and David Blair respectively.
Sophie Fedorovitche's set is good, but her costumes do not come up to the standard expected of This experienced artist. Beach costumes are, in reality, so fantastic nowadays that a designer has to go several steps further in order to make them sufficiently theatrical. Neither are the sixteenth-century Italian airs arranged by Respighi the happiest of choices ; many of them demand stately movements in rich and formal dresses at a time when the company is gaily romping in scanty beach attire. These defects, however, do not wholly detract from a pleasurable little ballet, which should find no difficulty in holding its place in the repertoire of the
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