The Circus Really Does Eventually Come To Town

Being in Australia can at times leave you feeling just that little bit disconnected from the rest of the world and the things that go on out there.

And, as a kid, I guess this was probably one of the driving forces for me living in England and France for five years. With numerous European top-ups since - and a year in the Peoples' Republic of China.

But then sometimes the big things come to us here.

Like the Ballets Russes visits from the mid thirties to the early forties, taking the opportunity to perform during the disruptions of World War 2 elsewhere. It came in various guises - The Original Ballets Russes, Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, Covent Garden Russian Ballet.

A highlight of these visits would have been the 1940 re-staging by Serge Lifar of his ballet 'Icare' (1935), with new percussive music by Antal Dorati and with new sets by Sydney Nolan ...

Lifar took the lead role of Icarus at the premier ...

... but then it was danced on subsequent performances by Roman Jasinsky ...

Amazingly, there's quite a lot of colour film of the performances of the Russian Ballet during these visits, including of footage of 'Icare' with Jasinsky.

So I've cobbled together a video around Serge Lifar, Roman Jasinsky, the Ballets Russes in Australia and 'Icare', and included some black and white 1950s film of Lifar teaching the principle role to a dancer at Le Palais Garnier in Paris ...

Hope you like it as much as I did putting it together!

I must say I really like ruminating on all the angles of being drawn to the arts of places elsewhere on the planet other than where you live ... while not descending into some kind of cultural cringe.

Serge Lifar - 'Les Sylphides

This is unique June 1928 silent film footage of the original now fabled Ballets Russes of Serge de Diaghilev.

It shows Serge Lifar and rehearsing 'Les Sylphides' with a corps de ballet outdoors at the 'Fetes de Narcisses' in Montreux, Switzerland.

What makes this discovery particularly exciting is that Diaghilev never permitted the Ballets Russes to be filmed, and so this unauthorised rehearsal footage may well be the only record of the company.

The footage was originally uploaded by British Pathe onto their website (http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=79902), unrecognised, until identified in February 2011 by Jane Pritchard, curator of the Ballets Russes (Ballet Russe) exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Susan Eastwood, a member of the London Ballet Circle.

They were aided in their identification by a photograph taken during the Ballets Russes' first visit to the 'Fetes de Narcisses' in 1923, which showed the company on an outdoor stage performing 'Aurora’s Wedding'.

The Ballets Russes, 'Aurora’s Wedding', the Fêtes des Narcisses, 1923

There are now many articles on the internet about the discovery including one by Jane Pritchard herself:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/things-to-do/blogs/diaghilev-and-ballets-russes

Ms Pritchard says:

What we see is I believe the June 1928 Festival (the topiary arch indicates this is the Ballets Russes second visit to Montreux when they danced 'Les Sylphides', 'Cimarosiana' and the Polovtsian dances from 'Prince Igor'). I believe that Serge Lifar was dancing the lead role – sometimes referred to as the poet. No doubt the long wig worn confused the [British Pathe] cataloguer to suggest ‘One female dancer (representing Narcissus?).

The film confirms what many have said - that while the principle dancers were often extraordinary (Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina, Leonid Massine and so on), the corps could be a far more ordinary affair.

I have added an audio - music from 'Les Sylphides' which does not attempt to be that of the various little mini segments of choreography in the footage.

Hope you are as bowled over by the find as I was - I never expected such a thing!

A Story Looking For Its Movie

Some stories just seem to be looking for their movie, and this one is particularly high on that list.

Rather than a too long-winded telling the story, I thought I'd bullet point a few of the more startling events in the particularly startling life of Mathilde Kschessinskaya (1872-1971) - and there were certainly plenty of them.

• As the C19 drew to a close, she was the Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg

• At the age of seventeen, the ballerina had became the mistress of Nicholas II, when grand duke

• Even more scandalously for the day, she then formed a ménage à trois with two Grand Dukes of the Romanov family - Sergei Mikhailovich and his cousin Andrei Vladimirovich

• In 1902, she gave birth to a son, Prince Vladimir Sergeyevich Romanovsky-Krasinsky ('Vova'), who quite naturally was never sure who his father was

• Throwing realism completely to the wind, the ballerina would have selections from her valuable jewels sewn onto her costumes - for example, coming on stage as the Princess Aspicia in The Pharaoh's Daughter wearing a diamond encrusted tiara and choker - not a little like the American opera singer Leontyne Price who infamously jewelled up for the role of the enslaved Nubian princess in 'Aida'

• Kschessinskaya comissioned the famed Russian jeweller, Carl Faberge, to design a fetching gold and pearl encrusted, shall we say, 'top'

• It was from the balcony of her elegant house in Moscow that Lenin addressed a revolutionary crowd on his return from Finland in 1917

• In staggeringly stereotypic fashion, Mathilde escaped the Russian revolution with her jewel collection intact, moved to Europe and in 1921 married Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, becoming Her Serene Highness Princess Romanova-Krasinskaya

• The impresario Serge de Diaghilev invited the prima ballerina to dance with the famed Ballets Russes at the Paris Opera but she declined

• The family moved to Monte Carlo, where Mathilde dissipated the remaining wealth of family at the gamblimg tables - the remainder was sequestered by the crash of 1929

• Back in Paris, Grand Duke Andre was reduced to driving a taxi

• Kschessinskaya opened a ballet school in the French capital, teaching at times the likes of Ballets Russes ballerina Dame Alicia Markova, the Ballets Russes 'baby ballerinas' Tatiana Riabouchinska and Tamara Toumanova and The Royal Ballet's Dame Margot Fonteyn

Mathilde Kschessinskaya teaching 'baby ballerina' Tatiana Riabouchinska

• The prima ballerina absoluta performed one last time, aged 64, at a charity event with TheRoyal Ballet at Covent Garden

• Mathilde Kschessinskaya died in her 100th year.

'Alright already'!

Now this post was primarily prompted by my having come across 1920s footage of this 'larger than life' character at some kind of outdoor social gathering - she is seen in characteristically imperious mode greeting guests and firmly directing proceedings. And at the end there's a little section showing her son 'Vovo' loading up his plate from the outdoor buffet!

Her dying words?

'My life was beautiful'

You betcha baby!

And it makes our own seem just a tad on the dull and uneventful side. Well, mine at least - I don't know about yours!!!

Another Holy Grail

Just when I thought I'd seen all the film footage associated with the Ballets Russes and it's Prima Ballerina Absoluta ...

... I Amazon-ed up this 1970s interview ...

Hope you enjoy this rarity!

Another Holy Grail

Just when I thought I'd seen all the film footage associated with the Ballets Russes and it's Prima Ballerina Absoluta ...


... I Amazon-ed up this extraordinary 1970s interview ...

Hope you enjoy this rarity!

One Of The Seriously Less Serious Moments of Dance

These days when people speak of the Ballets Russes, it's often in hushed and reverential tones.

So it's great to see film of dancers from this legendary company(ies) away from the hallowed halls of 'The Theatre' (said in the manner of Bette Davis in 'All about Eve', 1950).

Particularly when they were having fun in the surk and the sun, as in this slow motion, silent but colour amateur footage taken during the 1938-9 tour of Australia by the 'Covent Garden Russian Ballet'.

The first film is straight-forward enough - larking round with ballet movements and positions and starring Paul Petroff and, I suspect, Hélène Kirsova ...

But the second film seems to have a much 'darker' tone.

A Lothario (above) and a friend observe a dramatic sea rescue ...



... which dissolves into a 'From Here to Eternity' moment ...


... followed, curiously, by more than a hint of the final act of 'Romeo and Juliet' ...



But then unexpectedly things seem to go wrong ...






... or right?

So what's your story board on this one?

Diaghilev Ballets Russes Prima Discusses Performing the Role of 'Firebird'

It's a bit like coming across an ancient carved stone in some dusty old castle cellar - a stone on which Noah had put down his instructions for making an ark. Or an erotic love letter ... written by Cleopatre. Or ... you get the picture.

So it is with this footage of an interview, I guess in the 1970s, with Diaghilev Ballets Russes prima ballerina absolute absoluta Tamara Karsavina (1885-1978) ...



... discussing performing the title role in 'L'Oiseau de Feu' ('The Firebird', 1910) ...

Tamara Karsavina 'Firebird' London, 1911

Madame Karsavina says she was fascinated by Stravinsky's music for the ballet but found it very difficult.

Tamara Karsavina 'Firebird' London, 1911

On performing the role, she states she 'never counted the bars' because it 'deflected her attention'.

Tamara Karsavina Adolph Bolm 'Firebird' London, 1911

And then goes on the say Stravinsky was 'really kind' - he would come before a rehearsal and play the piano for her and 'explain me all these different parts' which 'was a great help for me'.

Tamara Karsavina Adolph Bolm 'Firebird' London, 1911

Apart from everything else, what totally fascinates and surprises me about this footage is the quality of Karsavin's voice - deep, dark, rich and resonant ... with such strong and definite self confident accents.

Hope you find this interview as extraordinary as I did!