ART OF LA MERI

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 257, 27 July 1936, Page 5

ART OF LA MERI

Traditional National Dances SKILLED INTERPRETATIONS Somewhat alien to our culture, the art of La Meri conies to us like the first breath of spring. Even at the present time in the greater world across the seas there are not so many interpretive dancers of La Meri’s order ami status. That is to say, there are not many dancers who are prepared to devote years •■■t intensive study, mind and body, to achieve an exact knowledge of the traditional national dances and perlorm them in anything like perfection, bo that no one interested in this form of art can afford to miss this opportunity ot seeing for themselves what genuine interpretive dancing is, as something altogether apart from dancing of the musical comedy order, the Russian and Italian ballet, or the modern tap-dancing craze. La Meri comes as an apostle of a new order of dancing, and such is her approach to the ideal that one feels instinctively that her efforts do convey, subtly but quite definitely, a good deal ot the spirit of the people whose age-old dauces she so cleverly encompasses. There was a complete change ot programme at the Grand Opera House on Saturday evening, when La Meri presented a new League of Nations of the dance. As usual she commenced with a bracket of Spanish dances, the gay "Mirando a Espana,” with steps from the gay cachuca and the malaguena. This was followed by an exquisitely beautiful dance, called the “Goyesca,” evidently based on figures in the paintings of that great Spanish artist, Goya. It is a slow, proud, dignified, even disdainful, dance, the music employed being the intermezzo from the opera “Goyescas,” by Granados. Incidentally Granados, n brilliant composer, was drowned in the mining of a steamer in the Atlantic during the war. after having supervised the production of “Goyescas” in New York. La Meri was the finished artist in every pose, movement, and look. Moreover, her playing of the castanets stamps her as a virtuoso in that department of her art. Used as La Meri uses them, the castanets become an instrument that reflects gaiety, romance, or drama. This was manifested in the scene “Hearts and Spades,” _ in which a gipsy fortune-teller, disillusioned in love, seeks consolation in the cards, only to find to her . maddening chagrin, that they are against her. The “Jota Aragonesa" was more primitive and livelier.

Fascinating indeed are the dances of the East. To the sound of weird music (recorded) La Meri in typical costumes danced with sober charm the quaint “Bedojo” of Java ; but perhaps the most pleasing of the Oriental dances was the “Lasyanatana,” a Hindu dance of the Peninsular school. Placid and with comparatively little movement, this rhythmical dance, which gives opportunity for singularly beautiful hand-play, completely captivated the audience. It showed, too, La Meri’s power of transforming the contours of her face. She did not seem the same person who had danced the “Badojo.” The “Danse Arabe,” as danced by the Ouled Nails, danced in a flowing bell-like blue costume, with bell-cas-tanets, was also rhythmically intriguing.

The interpretive bracket was as popular as any section of the programme. This included a dainty gavotte (danced with Laura Mollica), and the ravishing “Etudes Symphoniques” danced to Schumann’s music of that name, and representing lour distinct moods. In these cameos La Meri wore a revealing short kirtle of white satin and 'bare legs, displaying the beauty of form. In “The Adoration of the A’irgiu,” La Meri appeared as a lovely draped and hooded figure from an old master. Indeed, the dance, a series of devotional supplicatory postures, were those of figures in famou s paintings by Filippo Lippi. The music used was the solemn adagio from the Vivaldi concerto for organ. La Meri, in this dance, might have posed for all the .Madonnas in the Uffizi and I’itti galleries. Then in sharp contrast the dancer made merry as a Russian marionette, one of the cleverest bits of dancing mummery imaginable. The racial dances included the “Hoop Dance” (Red Indian), the “Cueca Uilena,” of Chile, the “El Gato,” of Argentina, and the joyous hula-hula from Hawaii, which brought down the house. The lighting effects were again glamorously beautiful, thanks to Guido Carreras, who designed them. La Meri is not the only star in the combination at the Opera House. There is more than the germ of virtuosity in the pianoforte playing of Mario Salerno. Added to a tremendous technique this player has the inner grace of poetry, am! a gift of expression, exercised in the nicest tonal shading, which is bound to bring him into the forefront of pianists. On Saturday evening his interpretive capacity was delightfully exercised in the suite, “Baby’s. Family” (11. A’illalobos), while his artistic playing, of Chopin’s “Ballade in G minor” made great appeal. Mr. Tom Challen (violin) and Miss Joan Howley (’cello) also played attractively. The trio was delightful in the Haydn “Rondo.” but not so thrilling in the “Marche Militaire” of Schubert. This programme will be repeated again this evening.

The same programme will be repeated to-night. The third programme, which will be presented to-morrow night, on Wednesday afternoon, and at the final performance on Wednesday night, will include “Passepied” (Delibes), “Tango" (Albeniz), “Garrotin” (Spanish Gipsy dance), “Geisha Fan Dance,” “Tandava” (Hindu dance), and some of the most popular dances from the other programmes.