FAMOUS BALLET DIRECTOR

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25547, 15 July 1948, Page 3

FAMOUS BALLET DIRECTOR

madame rambert in CHRISTCHURCH

influence on modern theatre Chrte ' founcted, and oi which she is direct™ Monday. 1 ” Christchurch season next wi?? Ort L slim ’ Precise, and still speakng' a lifpti^ ol l g ac . cent £ spite otalmost a lifetime spent in the British Isles ’ arwith Robert is a theatrical direc-1 all t?stl kn <=>! vle a c nCT gy and, above l all, taste. She delights m discovering I of nth?r= g ’ bisplaying the talents' £l° thers ’ , wh i} e modestly concealing • In “£ Ballet Rambert, th? “Ifemtert” ° n ballet ” rather than on!

Rambert has worked enort£?n. S ?Jh 1° keep ber ballet alive through the depression, the war, and cmjtract dispute. She has Sr . el L !r ‘ th;s , task—on her own terms without making concessions to so-called popular taste” or “commercl,aL n , a . tre - , . produces the type of ballet in which she believes, and does not alter the standard of her programmes whether the performance is being given in’ London or a small provincial town. She does not play down to the public, _ et there is nothing abS cu or . highbrow about her work. She brings a refreshing vitality to a branch of the theatre which had shown more than a tendency to become precious and unreal. She has made stars and when they have left her for larger, more prosperous companies, she has made others. She has developed designers, choreographers and, in a sense, a new style of ballet. Career in Britain Madame Rambert’s active work in English ballet began soon after her marriage to the playwright, Ashley Dukes, in 1918, when she started a dancing school, but she did not form a proper company of her own until 1926. when she produced a ballet for the London revue, ‘‘Riverside Nights.” She chose the music for her ballet from some early pieces by Eugene Goossens. The Rambert Dancers of revue became a full-time ballet company in 1930. Except for a short break during the war, the company has remained in existence continuously since then. The company has often been called “the nursery of English ballet,” although there is no trutn in the implication that it is immature.

Madame Rambert’s ballet has been a nursery for two main reasons: she has had the gift of discovering and developing talent; and, second, for a long time economic conditions confined the company to small scale operations. Obliged to work with a small theatre, a small stage and a small budget, Madame Rambert developed what might be called the “ballet intime.” This is a ballet of extreme simplicity compared with the Diaghilev extravagance of “Firebird” or “Coq d’Or,” but a ballet in which just as much careful attention is given to the elements of music, costume, decor and choreography, so that it, too, is a magnificently effective piece of theatre.