THE MODERN THEATRE DANCE.
Although the theatrical ballet dance is comparatively modern, the
elements of its formation are of the greatest antiquity; the chorus of
dancers and the performances of the men in the Egyptian chapters
represent without much doubt public dancing performances. We get
singing, dancing, mimicry and pantomime in the early stages of Greek
art, and the development of the dance rhythm in music is equally
ancient.
The Alexandrine Pantomime, introduced into Rome about 30 B.C. by
Bathillus and Pylades, appears to have been an entertainment
approaching the ballet.
In the middle ages there were the mysteries and "masks"; the latter
were frequent in England, and are introduced by Shakespere in "Henry
VIII."
In Italy there appears to have been a kind of ballet in the 14th
century, and from Italy, under the influence of Catharine de' Medici,
came the ballet. Balthasar di Beaujoyeulx produced the first recorded
ballet in France, in the Italian style, in 1582. This was, however,
essentially a Court ballet.
The theatre ballet apparently arose out of these Court ballets. Henry
III. and Henry IV., the latter especially, were very fond of these
entertainments, and many Italians were brought to France to assist in
them. Pompeo Diabono, a Savoyard, was brought to Paris in 1554 to
regulate the Court ballets. At a later date came Rinuccini, the poet,
a Florentine, as was probably Caccini, the musician. They had composed
and produced the little operetta of "Daphne," which had been performed
in Florence in 1597. Under these last-mentioned masters the ballet in
France took somewhat of its present form. This passion for Court
ballets continued under Louis XIII. and Louis XIV.
[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Mlle. de Camargo. After a painting by
Lancret, about 1740 A.D.]
Louis XIII. as a youth danced in one of the ballets at St. Germain, it
is said at the desire of Richelieu, who was an expert in spectacle. It
appears that he was encouraged in these amusements to remedy fits of
melancholy.
Louis XIV., at seven, danced in a masquerade, and afterwards not only
danced in the ballet of "Cassandra," in 1651, but did all he could to
raise the condition of the dance and encourage dancing and music. His
influence, combined with that of Cardinal Richelieu, raised the
ballet from gross and trivial styles to a dignity worthy of music,
poetry and dancing. His uncle, Gaston of Orleans, still patronized the
grosser style, but it became eclipsed by the better. Lulli composed
music to the words of Molière and other celebrities; amongst notable
works then produced was the "Andromeda" of Corneille, a tragedy, with
hymns and dances, executed in 1650, at the Petit Bourbon.
[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Pauline Duvernay at Covent Garden,
1833-1838.]
The foundation of the theatrical ballet was, however, at the
instigation of Mazarin, to prevent a lowering of tone in the
establishment of the _Académie de Danse_ under thirteen Academicians
in 1661. This appears to have been merged into the _Académie Royale de
Musique et de Danse_ in 1669, which provided a proper training for
débutants, under MM. Perrin and Cambert, whilst Beauchamp, the master
of the Court ballets, had charge of the dancing. The first
opera-ballet, the "Pomona" of Perrin and Cambert, was produced in
1671. To this succeeded many works of Lulli, to whom is attributed the
increased speed in dance music and dancing, that of the Court ballets
having been slow and stately.
[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Mlle. Fanny Ellsler. From a lithograph by A.
Lacaucbie.]
The great production of the period appears to have been the "Triumph
of Love" in 1681, with twenty scenes and seven hundred performers;
amongst these were many of the nobility, and some excellent
_ballerine_, such as Pesaut, Carré, Leclerc, and Lafontaine.
A detailed history of the ballet is, however, impossible here, and we
must proceed to touch only on salient points. It passed from the
Court to the theatre about 1680 and had two characteristics, one with
feminine dancers, the other without.
[Illustration: Fig. 63a.--Dancing satyr playing castanets, by Myron,
in the Vatican Museum. The action is entirely suggestive of that of
Fanny Ellsler, and might be evidence of the antiquity of the Spanish
tradition.]
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 Pécourt, 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.
[Illustration: 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. Sallé, 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 choregraphic invention of
"Pygmalion," since which time it has been popular in England, when
those of the first class can be obtained. There are, however, some
interesting and romantic circumstances 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 classic verse of
"Ingoldsby."
"Malibran's dead, Duvernay's fled;
Taglioni has not yet arrived in her stead."
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Mlle. Adeline Genée, 1906. Photo, Ellis and
Walery.]
Duran hangs over the mantelpiece of the refectory of the presbytery.
[Illustration: 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
nobleman, 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 Fanny Ellsler (fig. 63)--some illustrations are given;
besides these were Fanny Cerito, Lucile Grahn, a Dane, and some others
of lesser notoriety performing in London at this great period of the
ballet.
[Illustration: Fig. 68.--Mlle. Sophie Fédorova.]
The recent encouragement of the classic ballet has introduced us to
some exquisite dancers: amongst these are Mlle. Adeline Genée (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 space, and the reader can easily obtain information
concerning them elsewhere.
That the technique and speed of the classic 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 classic. Moreover, the naked foot
should be of antique beauty, which in most of these cases it is not.
Advertisements tell us that these dance are interpretations of classic
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 classic
postures.
The idea that running about the stage in diaphanous costumes, with
conventional mimicry and arm action, is classic 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 classic 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 _métier_ 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 Fanny 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 classic 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-masqué_ garden dances, public balls and such-like, he has no
intention to treat; they are not classic 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
illustrations are given to illustrate traditions: for example, the use
of the pipe and tabor in Patagonia, the dancer from Japan, 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.
[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Japanese Court Dance.] [Illustration: Fig.
70.--Indian dancing-girl.]
[Illustration: Fig. 71.--Patagonian dancers to fife and tabor.]
[Illustration: Fig. 72.--Tibetan religious dancing procession, 1908
A.D.]
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End of Project Gutenberg's The Dance (by An Antiquary), by Anonymous