ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Beriosova, Daughter Of The Ballet

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30879, 12 October 1965, Page 11

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Beriosova, Daughter Of The Ballet

(London Correspondent of “The Press”)

Svetlana Beriosova, principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, is excited at the prospect of her three weeks' tour of New Zealand which begins on October 18. “1 am very much looking forward to it,” said Miss Beriosova, when I visited her Knightsbridge flat. “I think that it is wonderful for a

young country to have its own ballet company, and I have known so many New Zealand ballet dancers whom I have met in this hemisphere—they are great artists.” Miss Beriosova presents some surprises. She is a tall, vivacious woman in her early thirties and speaks English with a trace of American accent. Her early schooling was in Manhattan. New York, and she then boasted a Brooklyn dialect. “Everybody thinks that I in-

vented this name for professional purposes, but it really is my own," she told me. PARENTS DANCERS She was born in Lithuania, of Russian parents who were both dancers. “I had no home and was on tour at the age of two, with my mother following the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the major European ballet company of the time, in which my father was then dancing.” “We were in the United States when the war broke

out, so we stayed there for the duration. I began to learn dancing at the age of eight, from Russian teachers, at the same time as having my schooling.

“At 13 the war was over and I saw the Ballet Russe reformed at Monte Carlo. My father was ballet director. I was a tall girl and had an audition and managed to get into the corps de ballet. “I stayed for a year in Europe, mostly France, with the ballet and gave up normal schooling except correspondence courses.” STATELESS PERSON Then Miss Beriosova had to return to the United States for school examinations and renewal of her “travel document.” She had emerged from the war as a stateless person with no passport, and obtaining United States citizenship was a lengthy process. At 14 her studies ended and her father was invited to be ballet master of the Metropolitan Ballet. Svetina was also invited to join the corps de ballet with the possibility of dancing some solos. “It was here that I danced with Potil Gnatt. Poor lad, it fell to him to see me through my first major roles.” Poul Gnatt, the founder of the New Zealand Ballet Company, who is now in Australia, partnered Miss Beriosova in ballet scenes like the second act of “Swan Lake.” “And so at 15 I was that strange, precocious, dangerous thing called the ‘baby ballerina? Everybody in the company was young. We danced in England and also on the Continent. The company went for two years and then it folded and back I went to the States—it was the only place Where I had documents and was allowed to live. In Britain, as a foreigner, I had to have a working permit. OFFERED ROLE While she was dancing at the Balanchine School of Ballet, Ninette de Valois saw Miss Beriosova and offered her a role as ballerina with the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet in London. “This was in every respect the junior company, but with some brilliant people dancing in it, and after two years I was moved up to the first company (now the Royal Ballet) but also in a sense moved down because it was back to

being a member of the corps de ballet-cum-soloist. “This was my chance to try most of the big classical ballets—‘Swan Lake,’ ‘Beauty’ and ‘Giselle.’ And then people created ballets for me—l have always been very fortunate to have choreographers interested in my dancing. When 1 was 15, John Taras (now choreographer with Balanchine) created ‘Designs With Strings.’ Since then ballets have been created for me by Frank Staff, John Cranko, Balanchine, Ashton, and McMillan.” IN EIGHT BALLETS Since 1952, Beriosova has been a principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden and dancing in eight three-act ballets. One of these was John Cranko’s “Prince of the Pagodas” specially created for her (music by Britten). Two of her partners have been New Zealanders, Phil to Chatfield and Brian Ashbridge. Rowena Jackson has also been a particular friend. Miss Beriosova is married to a psycho-analyst from Pakistan who is practising in London. In New Zealand she will dance with Karl Musil, principal dancer of the Vienna State Ballet.