AN INTERVIEW

Press, Volume L, Issue 14970, 18 May 1914, Page 8

AN INTERVIEW

(By Sin-U).)

Remembering tbe days of old, and jrint I picked up or tbe terpsichorcan wait when my musical post brought Bte mi daily contact with the gay butterflies of tho ballet, attached to a nr<*it opera house-these were the cay, when grand opera was not deemed complete without an entr'acte furnished in Oriental fashion by fleet-footed dan--cis- remembering these things, 1 set out in my conceit to seek an internew with Miss Maud Allan, who had arrived here on Saturday. No artist of -a'nk has over lifted himself above the mere _cchni..ue of his art without th* inborn driving force of enthusiasm You will find new confirmation <,f this, asioui as you watch Mi» Allan'- animated features, her sparkling eves, and mobile mouth, when in eloquent vorcls she meets the queries or her tormentor representing Ibe Press." and reveals the mental stages by means of which sho has achieved tbe final reaction of her ideals. ;'*«« rightly surmised," sho' said, that 1 wis a" musician, before those thoughts, no, not of creating, but of resurrecting the classic mole ot dancing engrossed my mind. All my earlier dreams had dwelt upon a prospective bri'liant musical career. Born in Canada. and taking to the piano in earl} youth I received a sound training tinder a'famous master in California, and repairing to Berlin, to the Royal school of Music, I was still intent upon b.ossoniing forth as a concert pianist But even as it is music -ras bound to bo tbo basis of my later aspirations. I will tcU you how. by degree?;, I came to the turn of my life. I had wandered to \ienna, and to the art centres of Italy. There I beheld tbo sculptures of ancient Greece, the masterworks of tbo great painters. It dawned upon mc how perfectly the pose, tho facial expression, the suggested movement of beautiful human forms, could ronvev the sensation of emotional realism. "I began to study tho drama ot the Greeks, their utilisation of- tne chorus as a means of expression, their cult of art, for Art's sake, and of an ideal human body. o'i tho other hand, 1 saw how, with a glance, a sweep of tho aim, or the move of a finger, even a great conductor sways tho composite body under his baton. Could I similarly sway the many more, the multitude? These wero the meen-' tiv-es leading to tho reconstruction ot ;i lost art; how far I havo succeeded you will judge on Monday night. .No, mv niov_-.ents and poses are not echoed as an afterthought by music more or less appropriate; it is the music that inspires them and finds expression in . plastic forms. Do I think I have merely evolved a novelty that will die as quickly as it camo? No; I am confident tho old pirouottes and entrechats, the simpering graces and .tereotyped steps will no longer dominato the art. I have appeared in St. Petersburg and Moscow, tho present-day strongholds of the ballet. The- Russian ballets, so enthusiastically acclaimed in England, prove unmistakably tho influences of my own methods; I have found many imitaWrs everywhere, - Lady Constance Stewart-Richardson as the last. I have oven posed before the disciples of Jacques Dacrosse at Geneva, who now claim so much attention. The old ordor of things will never, I think, be accented anywhere hero again by similar endeavour. •It wa,s owing.to tho kindness of the lato Madamo Nordica, by placing her'accompanist at my disposal, that I was ablo to nopear at Marienbad beforo the late King Edward at his command." „.