The Dance (by An Antiquary) Part 4

It is not a little curious that wearing the mask, a revival of the antique, was practised in some of these ballets. The history of the opera-ballet of those days gives to us many celebrated names of musicians, such as Destouches, who gave new "verve" to ballet music, and Rameau. Jean Georges Noverre abolished the singing and established the five-act ballet on its own footing in 1776. In this it appears he had partly the advice of Garrick, whom he met in London. The names of the celebrated dancers are numerous, such as Pecourt, Blaudy (who taught Mlle. Camargo), Laval, Vestris, Germain, Prevost, Lafontaine, and Camargo (fig. 61), of the 18th century; Taglioni, Grisi, Duvernay, Cerito, Ellsler, etc., of the 19th century, to those of our own day. A fair notice of all of these would be a work in itself.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 64.--Mlle. Taglioni. From a lithograph of the period.]

The introduction of the ballet into England was as late as 1734, when the French dancers, Mlle. Salle, the rival of Mlle. Camargo, and Mlle.

de Subligny made a great success at Covent Garden in "Ariadne and Galatea," and Mlle. Salle danced in her own ch.o.r.egraphic invention of "Pygmalion," since which time it has been popular in England, when those of the first cla.s.s can be obtained. There are, however, some interesting and romantic circ.u.mstances connected with the ballet in London in the last century, which it will not be out of place to record here. Amongst the dancers of the last century of considerable celebrity were two already mentioned, Mlles. Duvernay (fig. 62) and Taglioni (fig. 64), whose names are recorded in the cla.s.sic verse of "Ingoldsby."

"Malibran's dead, Duvernay's fled; Taglioni has not yet arrived in her stead."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 65.--_Pas de Trois_ by Mlles. Ferraris, Taglioni, and Carlotta Grisi.]

Mlle. Duvernay was a Parisian, and commenced her study under Barrez, but subsequently was under Vestris and Taglioni, the father of the celebrity mentioned in the verse.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 66.--Mlle. Adeline Genee, 1906. Photo, Ellis and Walery.]

Duran hangs over the mantelpiece of the refectory of the presbytery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 67.--Mlle. Anna Pavlova, 1910. From a photo by Foulsham and Banfield.]

Having made a great Parisian reputation, she came to London in 1833, and from that date until 1837 held the town, when she married Mr.

Stephens Lyne Stephens, M.P., a gentleman of considerable wealth, but was left a childless widow in 1861, and retired to her estate at Lyneford Hall, Norfolk, living in retirement and spending her time in good works. She is said to have spent 100,000 in charities and churches, and that at Cambridge, dedicated to the English martyrs, was founded, completed, and endowed by her. She led a blameless and worthy life, and died in 1894. Her portrait by Mlle. Taglioni (fig.

64), her co-celebrity, married Count Gilbert de Voisins, a French n.o.bleman, in 1847, and with her marriage came an ample fortune; unfortunately the bulk of this fortune was lost in the Franco-German war. With the courage of her character the Countess returned to London and gave lessons in dancing, etc., in which she was sufficiently successful to obtain a fair living. She died in 1884 at 80 years of age. Of the other celebrities of the period--Carlotta Grisi, Ferraris (fig. 65), and f.a.n.n.y Ellsler (fig. 63)--some ill.u.s.trations are given; besides these were f.a.n.n.y Cerito, Lucile Grahn, a Dane, and some others of lesser notoriety performing in London at this great period of the ballet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 68.--Mlle. Sophie Fedorova.]

The recent encouragement of the cla.s.sic ballet has introduced us to some exquisite dancers: amongst these are Mlle. Adeline Genee (fig.

66) and Mlle. Anna Pavlova (fig. 67); the latter, with M. Mordkin and a corps of splendid dancers, are from Russia, from whence also comes the important troupe now at the Alhambra with Mlle. Geltzer and other excellent dancers. The celebrated company at Covent Garden, and Lydia Kyasht at the Empire, are also Russian. It is not surprising that we get excellent dancing from Russia; the school formed by Peter the Great about 1698 has been under State patronage ever since.

Notices of all the important dancers from Italy, Spain, Paris, or elsewhere, performing in England in recent years, would occupy considerable s.p.a.ce, and the reader can easily obtain information concerning them elsewhere.

That the technique and speed of the cla.s.sic dance has considerably increased is historically certain, and we must hope that this speed will not sacrifice graceful movement. Moreover, technique alone will not make the complete fine-artist: some invention is involved.

Unfortunately, some modern attempts at invention seem crude and sensational, whilst lacking the exquisite technique desirable in all exhibitions of finished art.

Before concluding it is almost imperative to say something about the naked foot dancers, followers of Isidora Duncan. Some critics and a certain public have welcomed them; but is it not "sham antique"? It does not remind one of the really cla.s.sic. Moreover, the naked foot should be of antique beauty, which in most of these cases it is not.

Advertis.e.m.e.nts tell us that these dance are interpretations of cla.s.sic music--Chopin, Weber, Brahms, etc.; they are not really interpretations, but distractions! We can hardly imagine that these composers intended their work for actual dancing. One can listen and be entranced; one sees the dancer's "interpretations" or "translations" and the music is degraded to a series of sham cla.s.sic postures.

The idea that running about the stage in diaphanous costumes, with conventional mimicry and arm action, is cla.s.sic or beautiful is a mistake; the term aesthetic may cover, but not redeem it. There is not even the art of the ordinary ballet-dancer discernible in these proceedings.

On another plane are such as the ballets in "Don Giovanni" and "Faust." Mozart and Gounod wrote these with a full knowledge of the method of interpretation and the persons who had been trained for that purpose--the performers fit the music and it fits them. This opera-ballet is also more in accordance with tradition before the time of Noverre.

Neither do the "popular" and curious exhibitions of Loie Fuller strike one as having a cla.s.sic character, or future, of any consideration, pretty as they may be.

The operetta or musical comedy has given us some excellent art, especially at the end of the 19th century, when Sylvia Gray, Kate Vaughan, Letty Lind, Topsy Sinden, and others of like _metier_ gave us skirt and drapery dancing.

This introduces us to the question of costume. That commonly used by the _prima ballerina_ is certainly not graceful; it was apparently introduced about 1830, presumably to show the action and finished method of the lower extremities. If f.a.n.n.y Ellsler and Duvernay could excel without this ugly contrivance, why is it necessary for others?

At the same time it is better than indifferent imitations of the Greek, or a return to the debased characteristics of Pompeiian art, in which the effect of the cla.s.sic and fine character of the material are rendered in a sort of transparent muslin.

With these notices the author's object in this sketch is completed. Of the _bal-masque_ garden dances, public b.a.l.l.s and such-like, he has no intention to treat; they are not cla.s.sic dancing nor "art," with the exception perhaps of the Scottish reels. Nor is he interested in the dancing of savage tribes, nor in that of the East, although some few ill.u.s.trations are given to ill.u.s.trate traditions: for example, the use of the pipe and tabor in Patagonia, the dancer from j.a.pan, winged, like that in the "Roman de la Rose" (fig. 40), and the religious dance of Tibet, showing the survival of the religious dance in some countries. In Mrs. Groves' book on dancing there is an excellent chapter on the Ritual dance as now practised, to which the reader can refer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 69.--j.a.panese Court Dance.] [Ill.u.s.tration: Fig.

70.--Indian dancing-girl.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 71.--Patagonian dancers to fife and tabor.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 72.--Tibetan religious dancing procession, 1908 A.D.]

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