The Russian Ballet.
By A. E. Johnson. With illustrations
by Rene Bull. (Constable and Co. 21s.
stories of
most of the ballets that have been produced in London during the last two years by M. de Diaghilew are accurately described by Mr. Johnson, and his book may, for this reason, serve as an expensive " souvenir " for the visitor to Covent Garden or Drury Lane. But Mr. Johnson has not enough knowledge of the history of his subject to be able to attempt any serious appreciation of the aesthetics of dancing. He apparently imagines, for instance, that Noverre, the great French maitre de ballet of the eighteenth century, who created the ballet d'action, was in the habit of sacrificing the dramatic value of his stories for the purpose of exhibiting the dancers' skill. As a matter of fact it is notorious that Noverre's whole energy was devoted to insisting that every single motion of the dancer must be relevant to the dramatic design of the ballet. It may be added that Mr. Johnson is a somewhat severe and unperceptive critic of the latest of the Russian productions.
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