PAVLOVA AND GENEE

Evening Star, Issue 19274, 12 June 1926, Page 15

PAVLOVA AND GENEE

A COMPARISON A well-known Sydney journalist set himself out to compare Anna Pavlova, soon to he scon bore, with Adeline Geiiee. who toured New Zealand some years ago. This is what ho said;— Pavlova dances by inspiration. Above the supremo gilt of technique which is cultivated, more or loss, and may certainlv be acquired bv patience, practice, and persistency, tins amazing artist ba.s the interpretive soul ol genius; which is innate. And, this, the difference between her and Gonoe is the difference between genius and greatness; between, say. uie warm, rose tone of Elman, and the admirable arctic technique of Heifetz. “’J liis reminds mo oi a mnsica.Jlyobsessod Sydneysider who refused to endure any local violinist alter once having heard Eliuau. So may some be, also, I am alraid. after beholding Pavlova in ‘ i'lio Swan,’ her original creation. I have seem the swan many rimes--strangled. On Saturday night I saw it languish and die with all the tremulous fliitterings, the travail, anguish, ami quivering of despair; its arched and snowy beau tv contorted and crumpled into pitiful collapse. Look at her girlish logs,’ said a "mu an to another sitting near me—this behind her programme. But there was no need to wliisper it; Pavlova’s legs carry the same suggestion as her arms or her eyes. They interpret the lantasios_ of her brain; they are a fantasy in themselves, artistically regarded. The thrill that is in' the throat ol Melba. the tremor in the hands of Paderewski; the sol, that Caruso affected in ‘Si Vous L’aviez Compns ; those are in the eyes, in the arms, in the legs of Pavlova 'herself. I hat is why her dancing arouses such exquisite sensations as come only from masterpieces of magic. “ About Anna Pavlmm’s hows. They are always in the spirit of the dance concluded; that is to say, part of the dance, or the epilogue. In the event of a tairy dance, ttiere is a fairv how and so on. Every mom her of the ballet follows the same rule, and does not. allow, for instance, the leet to interpret one story and the lace reveal an entirely different emotion. 1 noticed that the Queen of the bailee! unlike other great artists and mamstars (so called), did not take (ho call alone, not even before the final curtain.”