Ballet
Bruhn
By CLIVE BARNES
IN ballet it is not the birds that have taken over, it is the men. Only the other day the box-office queues were snaking healthily around Covent Gar; den, complete with thermos flasks and lurking spivs. And the patient bookers crawling towards their queue tickets were waiting not for Fonteyn—who is showing the flag in Australia —not even, I think, for the French ballerina Yvette Chauvire, who is temporarily replacing her, but Covent Garden's gentleman visitors, Nureyev and Erik Bruhn.
Bruhn continues to be so impressive, despite his injured foot, that I am begining to worry lest when it finally mends he will be seen to be at such an unfair advantage to his contem poraries that Equity will be forced to take action.1 He takes his acting very seriously indeed, giving' the appearance of calculating minutely every! facial gesture. The extreme consciousness of his approach baulks spontaneity without destroying conviction. It is all entirely professional even in its casual, throwaway grace. His dancing is just as exquisite, and perhaps even more stylish, but whereas his acting is a highly developed talent, his dancing is a pure gift. Presumably his perfect technique at some time caused him trouble to acquire; but there is no sign of it.
As Albrecht in Gisdic, unlike Nureyev, he does not trouble to be different from his rivals; he contents himself with being better. Here is the conventional lover, betrayer, penitent, con- veyed with intense force. After Giselle's death, Bruhn's Albrecht erupts into mad hysteria—not the polite coloratura stuff beloved of the Romantic lyric theatre, but the real, stark, raving thing. It is quite shocking, as though someone suddenly started acting Strindberg in the middle of Lilac Time. Bruhn's well-matched ballerina, Nadia Nerina, keeps up with him, brilliantly adapting her dance style to his.
Bruhn's injury prevented his appearance in Les Sylphides, but, once again with Nerina, he obliged with,almost contemptuous finesse in the Don Quixote pas de deux. To this rackety, circus- like piece, with its technical petards bursting all over the stage, the two of them bring the re- deeming style of high poetry. It is also a superb exhibition of unforced bravura; where with most dancers the display would have been notable for its cleverness, they make it remarkable for its ease. Bruhn is at Covent Garden for another two months. He should be seen by all who ad- mire good male dancing and all who refuse to believe in its existence.
The Karmon Israeli Dance troupe, which opened a season at the Saville Theatre recently, is gay, lively and a little monotonous. But its choreographer' and artistic director, designer and principal dancer, Jonathan Karmon, has created the beginnings of a splendily effective folk-dance company.
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