BALLET
The Great Detective. (Sadler's Wells.)
MARGARET DALE'S theme for her first stage ballet seemed promising enough as an idea, but, oh, how disappointing it is in execution. The Great Detective is of course Sherlock Holmes, whose adventures, one would have imagined, were rich and varied enough to have provided subjects for dozens of ballets. Instead of having selected asarticular crime, whose perpetration, discovery and final solution would have nicely lent itself for a compact three-scene work, with all the necessary dramatic form and shape, Miss Dale has attempted to give a general impression of the struggles between the infamous professor and the detective, introducing, at the same time, typical Sherlock Holmes characters. The result is a jumble of dancers jigging about, rushing on and off stage to very little purpose, the whole so burlesqued and formless- that one might be watching a family-party charade. There are some ingenious ideas, such as the uncanny effect of the Human Marionettes, and the comically gruesome Unfortunate Victims, but these are just the frills, and Miss Dale has omitted to make the garment upon which to sew them.
It is high time that would-be choreographers realised that pseudo- Edwardian costumes and decor are not the primary ingredients of a light ballet. On the contrary, we have become sick to death of them; too many people have cashed in on them for far too long. Also this new production again forces home the fact that we are in urgent need of some system of serious training for choreographers. It is not enough to take an experienced dancer with a bright idea and expect him or her to be able to turn out a ballet. Experimentation is wholly desirable, but let it take place in some little theatre set aside for the purpose, and not before an audience who have every right to expect a certain standard of maturity. LILLIAN BROWSE.
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