LA MERI’S ART

Southland Times, Issue 22969, 15 August 1936, Page 11

LA MERI’S ART

Varying Moods Of A Personality AN ENRAPTURED AUDIENCE Visits of dancers to New Zealand are widely separated, and the people of the Dominion have much less opportunity than they would like of seeing exponents of one of the most beautiful of all the arts. La Meri, the international dancer, opened her season at the Civic 'theatre last night and after 17 dances, each as diverse as they were exquisitely done, an enraptured audience still demanded more. La Meri combined with unforgettable technique the vigour of an amazing personalitypersonalities, it might almost be said, because in each of the 17 characterizations she was a different woman. Her moods varied from a shy, half-awk-ward, half-graceful peasant girl to a capricious flirt of Vienna, and from thq abandon of a peasant woman of Cuba to the austere and beautiful dignity of a Chinese princess. A World Tour. La Meri took her audience to half the countries of the globe, from the languor and stately grandeur of the East to the happy, carefree villages that Spain once knew, from the stolid Scandinavia to the sun-baked plains of Mexico. She used no scenery, and relied for effect on lighting, gorgeous costumes which

no inexpert male pen could attempt to describe, and her own , amazingly vigorous personality. A mimic, a great actress and a superbly beautiful dancer, La Meri had the heart of her audience from the first number to the last, and applause was generous and prolonged for every item. A musically brilliant trio of a pianist, a ’cellist and a violinist rounded off a programme that was extraordinarily attractive. La Meri has a hundred moods and a hundred aspects, and each serves to emphasize the versatility of an artist acknowledged to be among the world’s best. Four Spanish dances opened the dancer’s performance and gave a standard that the whole 17 maintained. The first, “Vida Breve,” was an adaptation of Andalusian folk dance steps to opera music, and the combination was a happy one. The dance was fast and full of grace, and was enhanced by the chatter of the castanets with which La Meri gained such effect in the four numbers of the Spanish group. The second, the Antique Bolero, was of exceptional interest because with all the abandon and happy rhythm of the Spanish swinging melody were intertwined foot technique that was both masterly and beautiful. The third _of the group was the Bolero, to Maurice Ravel’s unforgettable music. The intense passion of it, working to an emotional climax from a splendidly dramatic beginning, was in sharp contrast to the two that preceded it. The fourth, again, was another contrast. It was a characterization of an Asturian peasant, and this time La Meri was a peasant girl, half-shy, and half-em-boldened by the spirit of the music. The gaucherie of some of the dance was brilliantly done, and as a character study it was superb. Three Oriental dances followed. The first was the traditional Spring Dance of Japan, and the daintiness and cherry blossom prettiness of it showed La Meri in still another fascinating change of personality. The “Nacni Nrrta,” a Northern Indian dance, was amazingly done. Body and arm movements were exquisite and the applause that followed was more than merited. It was an absolute change from the rhythm and abandon of the Spanish dances, and just as well suited to the brilliance and versatility of La Meri. The third dance, a Chinese impression, was equally good, and the authentic music added much to the atmosphere of all three dances in the Oriental group. “The White Peacock.”

The third group comprised four interpretative dances of the artist’s own creation, and the first of them, “The White Peacock,” was a remarkable and brilliant study of bird movement. The indolent, strutting grace of the peacock was beautifully given, the jerky but infinitely graceful movements of the bird, and the leisurely and proud preening of its tail all combining in a remarkable spectacle of beauty. The next was a visualization of Chopin’s lingeringly beautiful Nocturne No. 2, as moving as it was artistically expressed, with infinitely delicate shades of meaning. Caprice Viennois, an interpretation of Kreisler’s beautiful composition, was full of gay coquetry, and showed La Meri to be as good an actress as she is a dancer. The fourth was different again, a humorous interpretation of the varying moods of Dvoraks famous piece. Masks were used to gain some of the humorous effects, but La Meri really needed no effects. Her whole body and every movement caricatured tragedy, flirtation and other satirically humorous facets of a brilliant composition. Five racial dances, the Tamborito, dance of a peasant woman of Panama, the Polska, a Swedish folk dance in which Laura Mollica was an attractive and clever co-dancer, the Carabali, mulatto dance of the sugar plantation of Cuba, and El Jarabe Tapatio, a characteristic Mexican dance, concluded La Meri’s programme to an audience that was reluctant to let her go. Time and time she had been recalled after each dance, and when the programme was ended constant applause showed that an appreciative audience had taken La Meri to its heart.

Mr Mario Salemo, the pianist, played two solo numbers that were brilliant and almost as popular as La Meri’s dances had been. His playing of Liszt’s Rigoletto Paraphrase was superb. Two other soloists were Miss Joan Howley, a ’cellist, and Mr Tom Challen, a violinist. Each gave solo numbers that were well in keeping with the merit of the whole programme, and the three artists

as a trio were equally good. Mr Salerno’s accompaniment for “The White Peacock” was an exact adjunct to La Meri’s dance, and the musical accompaniments played by the trio were all of high standard. Mme. La Meri will give a matinee performance this afternoon at 2.15 and her final performance in Invercargill to-night at 8.15. The programme which she will present at these two farewell appearances will be entirely new, and will contain many of the most beautiful dances in the famous artist’s repertoire.