The true art of dancing is entirely free from all apparent effort. No
matter how difficult may be the feat that is accomplished, it must seem
easy. Every gesture must be expressive, every movement must be
beautiful, every step must have ease and lightness and grace. Forty
years ago and more, the 'Black Crook' brought to America three or four
dancers trained in the best schools of Europe--Bonfanti and Betty Rigl,
Rita Sangalli and Morlacchi. One of this quartet, Rita Sangalli, was
afterward the chief dancer at the Paris Opera, where she was followed in
time by Rosita Mauri, a dancer who added beauty of face and of form to a
masterly accomplishment. They were all gifted pantomimists; they had all
of them the perfection of technic; they were all of them capable of the
most varied difficulties of the art; and they all of them vanquished
these difficulties with unobtrusive ease. They had attained to that
perfection of art, when the art itself is hidden, and when only the
consummate result is visible. Each of them had absolute certainty of
execution, and each of them could float across the stage the embodiment
of grace, exquisite in its ethereal delicacy.
For those whose memories cannot recall the haunting remembrance of the
days that are gone there is abundant compensation in the opportunity
which has been afforded of late to behold the dancing of Mlle. Genee and
of Mlle. Pavlova. They are, at least, the equal of any of their
predecessors, and it may be doubted whether Taglioni or Fanny Elssler
surpassed them in mastery. They are the perfection of effortless ease;
altho they suggest only the lightness of the butterfly, they have the
steel strength of the gymnast. Behind their marvelous and bewildering
accomplishment there is a native gift, rich and full; and there is also
the utmost rigor and perseverance in training. What they are able to do
with seeming spontaneity and with apparent freedom is the result of
indefatigable industry and of merciless labor.
But tho this schooling sustains them, it is never paraded--indeed, it is
scarcely perceived. There is not the faintest suggestion of hard work
about their performances; there is nothing that hints at effort; their
art is able to conceal itself absolutely, and to delight us only with
the perfect result of their long apprenticeship. Capable of the most
obstinate feats of strength and of agility, Mlle. Genee and Mlle.
Pavlova never "show off"; they are never guilty of parading a difficulty
for its own sake, and their conquest of technical obstacles serves only
to support and intensify the continuous suggestion of aerial elevation
and of ineffable lightness. It is to be noted, also, that as they scorn
the task of the mere gymnast, they do not wear the scant costume of the
acrobat; they are enveloped in ample draperies, which fall into lines of
beauty with every movement.
Nothing more exquisite than their dancing has ever been seen on the
American stage. Theirs is the dancing which is graceful--which, indeed,
is grace itself. Here is the art at its utmost possibility, purged of
all its dross. When they are floating effortless thru space we cannot
help recalling the possibly apocryphal anecdote which records the visit
of Emerson and Margaret Fuller to the theater to see Fanny Elssler. They
gazed with increasing delight, until at last Margaret Fuller could not
contain her enthusiasm. She turned and said: "Ralph, this is poetry!" To
which the philosopher is said to have responded: "Margaret, this is
religion!"
Perfection is always rare, and there is now only one Mlle. Genee, and
only one Mlle. Pavlova, as there was only one Rosita Mauri a quarter of
a century ago. It is a pity that the Danish dancer has had to appear
here in an ordinary musical show and not in a framework more worthy of
her and of her art, and better fitted to display it. She has revealed
herself only in two or three _entrees de ballet_, as the French term
them--incidental dances; and she has not yet been seen here in a _ballet
d'action_, a complete story told in pantomime. It was the poet, Francois
Coppee, who devised the plot of the 'Korrigane' for Rosita Mauri; and he
had had Theophile Gautier as a predecessor in the preparation of a
ballet-libretto. All those who are interested in every manifestation of
the art of the drama, must find pleasure in the _ballet d'action_, with
its adroit commingling of dance and pantomime; it gives a delight
possible to no other form of the drama; and at its best it is more
closely akin to pure poetry. Being her own manager, Mlle. Pavlova has
been seen in a series of ballets more appropriate to her extraordinary
gifts than those in which Mlle. Genee has been permitted to appear.