STAGE AND SCREEN
Russian Ballet at Covent Garden THE season of Russian ballet at Covent Garden ends this Saturday night. Once again success has been unqualified. For the past seven weeks or so, all the glories of ballet were restored to us ; and there is no other art today from which one may gather an equal sense of achievement. Ballet, alone of the arts, enjoys its High Renaissance, the flowering of a grand and historical style.
The figure inspiring us with the greatest sense of achieve- ment is, of course, Massine himself. We have been par- ticularly fortunate this year to see him dance so often : each of his performances has been incomparable. More than this, we arc certain that the future glory of the ballet lies with him as well. As the season progressed, once more we were vividly aware of his great and manifold genius as a choreographer. It is astonishing that the choreographer of Les Presages and Choreartium should be the choreographer of Beau Danube, Scuola di Ballo, Jeux d'Enfants as well, to name but three ballets whose charm and gaiety and instant poetry are, as it were, effervescent. The epoch of Les Presages .and Choreartium will prove itself even more far-reaching than the early nineteen-twenties, to which belong the first productions of Massine's ever-famous Tricorne and Boutique, ballets that we have acclaimed anew this season. Massine is the only living artist to whom we could wish to attribute the many-sided and paramount triumphs in visual art, associated with a Titian or a Raphael.
The young Eglevsky has danced well. There is an element of suspense, almost moody, in some of his movements. He has now obtained this quality for his leaps, which he performs with the effect, usually associated with Nijinsky, of pausing in the air. It is pictures such as this one that we shall carry with us until the ballet returns : and I cannot better sum the season up than by referring shortly to a few of the other dancers who have impressed their stamp upon the mind.
Of the lightness of Riabouchinska I have written before. One will remember also most vividly the evenness of her turns. From watching her, I carry the picture of a car suspended from a roundabout that is thrown outwards by the motion, yet sails in wide and wider circles, cutting an unbroken curve upon the air. We shall hold in mind the tensile power of the young Baronova. Her small compact body exploits the range of physical tension when she draws herself up or lets herself droop. Over this compact body she herself reigns, we feel, as should a queen of great dignity, exquisite in her inclinations of the head and of the torso. Toumanova is a refreshing and ingenuous force. I admire her beauty and the straightforward trajectory of her leaps. When balanced upon one point she excels in making any swaying movement sideways with the free leg. Toumanova is unforgettable in Concurrence, Cotillon and Choreartium. In the last-named ballet her well-contained yet hurtling strength serves as a criticism of the overdone energy of Lichine, her partner. This ballet loses somewhat when Massine does not take the role. Lichine, be it said, a dancer of proved strength and fire, excels in Jeux d'Enfants and other ballets. Kirsova has enjoyed a great success with the discerning. She possesses speed, lightness and precision. Except for Danilova, the unchallenged prima ballerina, no other danseuse of the troupe displays an equal finish in her movements. Of Danilova and of Verchinina I have written before. Shabelevsky has filled many of the absent Woizi- kowsky's roles with surprising power. I have no space to • write of the other principal male dancers except to say that Algeranoff, Borovansky, Psota, Guerard and Petroff have dis- tinguished themselves, especially the two last-named. My final words must be offered to the corps de ballet, base and centre of the whole. Probably no other company of dancers has needed a corps de ballet of so extensive an individual, as well as co-operative, skill. The convolutions of the corps de ballet in Les Presages and Choreartium seem infinite. They have worked hard, they have worked incessantly : and among those ranks there are many dancers of considerable promise.
ADMAN STOKES.
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