The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1947 THE BALLET

Wanganui Chronicle, 10 March 1947, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1947 THE BALLET

QRADCALLY New Zealand is being made more and more aware of the value-of the ballet as an artistic medium. The reason for the time-lag in,appreciation of this most remarkable of the composite arts is that ballet is expensive to maintain, difficult to produce, and easily overdone. The finest exhibitions of the ballet in New York have sometimes proved to be large-scale financial failures. It is not to be expected that ballet will often be brought to the cul-de-sac of the Pacific.

Yet it is true that in the past two decades some excellent ballet performances have been seen in New Zealand. What is more remarkable is that New Zealand has already, despite its obvious handicaps, produced some excellent ballet artists. These have been compelled to go abroad to complete their education, b.ut it is clear that those who have taken up the art of the ballet in this country have shown no lack of ability once the road has been opened up before them. It is a generally-accepted misconception that the ballet is of Russian origin. Actually this is not so. It received a great impetus from Russia during the eariy years of the current century, but Russia in its turn received a very rich inspiration from the American dancer Isadora Duncan. But first let us be clear as to what the ballet really is. It is dancing assisted by music and painting. Early Rome saw the development of this form of entertainment, but the early form of the ballet in Italy was the interpretation of a theatrical plot by means of dancing and speech. It was in France that the ballet retained for long its essential quality of artistic characters of dancing and music, the ballet being there chiefly associated with the opera. The French Court fostered the ballet, and Louis the Fourteenth took part in it until he became too fat and his interest waned. The great Cardinal Richelieu used the ballet as a vehicle for his political purposes, but that was not the first time that it had been so used.

The ballet really blossomed out into its fulness during the Eighteenth Century, when Novarre enlisted the best composers, and artists were availed of to design costumes and construct scenery. In the great. Opera Houses of Europe the Corp de Ballet persisted, the old tradition being preserved, particularly in the Royal Opera Houses of Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Russia, where political ferment was kept underground, the people-found in music, and particularly in the ballet, a channel for their artistic expression, which succeeded in keeping free from the intrigue of polities and therefore suffered little or no interferenc from the censorship. The Russian ballet rose to its height, at the beginning of the current century and was in a state of receptivity to new ideas when Isadora Dunean appeared in Europe in 1907. She adopted the classical robes and danced not with padded shoes, but with bare feet. She moved with such grace that it appeared to be easy to slide from one Grecian pose to another. Europe did not take Duncan seriously. Russia, however, was in a mood and mind to receive her, to consider and to absorb her ideas. Fokine was strongly influenced by the ideas of Dunean, and on his coming to the management of the Russian ballet he swept away the traditions of two centuries and gave to the ballet a wider field. But Europe remained unaware of this, and it was not until the Russians went to Paris in 1909 and presented a new form of the art, that Western Europe became fully aware of the name of Nijinsky, who took command for the season of 1913. Nijinsky had been influenced by the Swiss Dalerose. Then the ballet was' ready for such great artists as Massine, Tamara Karsavimt and Anna Pavlova. But the ballet refused to be eontinentalised. Mary Wigmore, Ruth St. Denis and Gwen Milne became well-known names. New Zealand remembers the supreme art of Thursa Rogers, who accompanied Pavlova, and Australia in turn has provided some excellent artists. Now the ballet is well established in Melbourne. In the United States, as a result of a precipitating- movement there are at least six professional companies operating at the same time. There are many ballet societies active in most States. South America has welcomed the new ballet, with its colour, its story, and its expressive movement. New Zealand has a natural interest in Shona Dunlop as she is a native of Dunedin, but it should occasion no surprise that a New Zealander should be given the lead in a ballet company to-day. The ballet is universal. It has recived its impulses from many sources, and the probability is that the newer countries will provide it with as many recruits in the future as the older countries. The ballet demands physical vigour, artistic adventurousness, and enthusiasm to a high degree. All of these qualities are not lacking among people descended from pioneer stock. Ruth St. Denis has popularised Eastern dances. Will any dancer strive to adapt the Polynesian dance movements to the service of the ballet? The idea is worthy of exploration.