NY PUBL C LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIES

B Karsavina Haskell

3 3333 05770 4989

Tamara Karsavina

Danr« MY

GMERAl LIBBART OF THE PE^fmitfG ARTS 111 AMSTEaDAM AYE. MW lOitK, N.Y. 10023

Thamar Karsavina.

Tamara Karsavina

-

by

ARNOLD L. HASKELL

BRITISH-CONTINENTAL PRESS

LONDON

1931

ARTISTS OF THE DANCE.

Vol.1. Vera Trefilova by Arnold L. Haskell

A Study in Classicism, with Foreword by Prince Wolkonsky.

Vol. 2. Anna Pavlova by Valerian Svetloff

(Second revised edition.)

Vol. 3. Anton Dolin by Arnold L. Haskell

with Foreword by P. J. S. Richardson.

Vol. 4. Tamar Karsavina by Arnold L. Haskell

Vol. 5. Penelope Spencer and other Studies by Arnold L. Haskell with Foreword by Gustav Hoist.

Vol. 6. The Marie Rambert Ballet . . by Arnold L. Haskell

with Foreword by Tamara Karsavina.

(Second enlarged edition now ready.)

" Mr. Haskell is a widely cultivated and keenly sympathetic critic who writes with wit, charm, and an admirable sense of

perspective."

M. P., in The Era

In Preparation.

Vol. 7. Lifar, Sokolova, Woizikovski, and other studies.

tt

i

NOTE.

I must thank the Editor of the "Dancing Times " for permission to reprint the first chapter of this monograph, "A Study in Romanticism," which originally appeared in the Christmas number of the "Dancing Times," 1929.

A. L. H.

To HJ.B.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Introduction 7

Chapter ONE A Study in Romanticism 9

Chapter TWO Career 15

Chapter THREE Some Roles 18

Chapter FOUR Karsavina as an Author 24

Roles in Ballet 27

Divertissements 29

Bibliography 30

Paintings and Drawings 31

Appendix A. B.

„ C. D.

6

INTRODUCTION.

The writing of this monograph has given me immense pleasure. I have missed scarcely any of Karsavina's great performances in Western Europe, and my admiration has increased with each creation. Karsavina taught me, as she has taught thousands, to love and to understand Russian art in its purest form. Bakst, Somov, Benois, Doboujinsky, Larionov and Gontcharova, all those countless dreams of glowing colour came to me through Karsavina. She has been a veritable ambassador of artistic Russia, and her name will live not only in the history of dancing, but in the history of decorative art, and of music.

She is one of the few amongst the great artists of the dance whose virtuosity is not discussed. It is taken for granted — yet entirely apart from her immense artistry, her technique stands almost alone in its strength and purity. Where many other dancers have made a feature of their technique, hers is entirely subordinated to her genius for dramatic interpretation. I have seen her strike an attitude or suggest a pose in everyday clothes without any of the charitable illusions of the stage. No words can describe the beauty of those movements. They suggest a veritable collection of tanagra figures.

Knowing Karsavina it is not easy to keep the personal note out of this study. I have tried to do so, but it is not necessary in this introduction.

Karsavina off the stage is the same as Karsavina on the stage. By this I do not mean to suggest that she is as cruel

as Thamar, as mischievous as the Can-Can Dancer, or as sentimental as the young girl in " The Spectre of the Rose,"" but that she retains that suppleness of mind that enables her to interpret these roles. Karsavina is not a purely instinctive artist. While instinct may suggest to her a particular interpretation, it is reason that suggests its final form.

Karsavina understands her art and the allied arts. She has in her the qualities that go to make the producer, as well as the purely interpretative artist. She is a keen judge of her own work and a kind, but sincere critic of the work of others. Though not didactic by character it is these qualities that make her an ideal teacher. She possesses a rare under- standing of other people's problems ; the same understanding that enables her to feel for the moment as Thamar would have felt.

It was interesting during the recent Memorial Exhibition which Karsavina opened at the Claridge Galleries, to see how many of the most inspired designs owe their being to Karsavina.

I cm only end this introduction by repeating what I said during the opening ceremony.

' ' For many of us the Diaghileff Ballet means Karsavina —without her there could have been no such exhibition."

Arnold L. Haskell. London, March, 1930.

8

CHAPTER ONE. A STUDY IN ROMANTICISM.

In an earlier volume devoted to Vera Trefilova, I explained the great merits of classical Ballet, and also some of its limitations. At its best, danced by a great exponent it was a very high form of art, while at its worst it was utterly ridiculous, and nearer acrobacy than dancing. " The Swan Lake," " The Sleeping Princess," " La Fille Mai Gardee " and that great dramatic poem " Giselle" all belong to the great classic period of Russian Choregraphic art, but there are countless other works that have survived in name alone, and which if danced to-day might charm a few connoisseurs of dance technique, but would most certainly provoke laughter. They would seem as great anachronisms as a bustle or crino- line in Bond Street to-day. Truly great art does not date in this manner, and the work of a Chardin is as modern as that of Cezanne. Some of the objections that one could make about these obsolete ballets apply even to the very finest works of that period in a lesser degree according to the work in question. There is a complete divorce between the ** atmosphere " of the music, the movements of the dancers, and the usually complicated story that is to be told. Dancing,

it is true, is a convention, but there is nevertheless " dance- realism." It cannot or must not be true to life, but it must be true to the " atmosphere " suggested by the music. In watching " Thamar " for instance, I never feel that it did not all happen in this manner. I am enchanted by the poem and completely forget the convention, and the very com- plicated technique that has gone to produce this wholly beautiful thing. Such is not the case with the Classical Ballet, with perhaps the exception of " Giselle " which from many points of view is entirely romantic and in fact belongs to an earlier romantic period. I am an enthusiast of Petipa's " Swan Lake" When it is well danced, I am completely carried away by the prima ballerina's art, but I am never carried away by the whole work itself. I am always fully aware that I am at the Ballet, watching every detail, analysing every movement, and ready to count the 32 fouettes. That too has its charm, and as we see less and less of these ballets the more I admire them. Perhaps at that period dancing stood at its highest, but the art of ballet was in a formative period. How brief has been the whole history of modern ballet. There are many alive to-day who have played parts in the whole movement from discipline through beauty to chaos.

Karsavina made the popular spread of Romanticism possible, but one might equally say that Romanticism made a great and unique Karsavina possible. They are so closely bound up together that the answer is of no importance. It is usual for those who have heard Mario, to say that there will never be a great tenor again, even in the middle of the

10

M. Fokine, Creator of the Romantic Period of the Russian Ballet, by Isamo Nahuchi.

reign of a Caruso. They are annoying people, whom we all have met, and they are obviously mistaken. I am not going to repeat their mistake when I say there will never again be such a dancer as Karsavina. One has only to consider the circumstances of her rise to fame to realize how this remark is justified. She was trained in the hard technical school of Petipa, Johannsen, Guerdt, Sokolova, Berettaand Cecchetti, practised in ballets such as " Corsair," " Don Quixote" " Paquita " and " The Swan Lake" where every little fault was noticeable and would most certainly be brought to her attention by my eagle-eyed friend, Valerian Svetloff, and yet she was at the most receptive age when Fokine horrified the " balletomanes '' with his revolutionary works. In her were embodied the obvious advantages of both schools, and she had the physical beauty, the temperament and the brain to take every advan- tage of them.

The Romantic movement was picked out of the air by Fokine, so to speak, interpreted by Karsavina, Nijinsky, and a veritable galaxy of talented artists, and its gospel was spread by the genius of Serge Diaghileff.

Romanticism was in the air and it only needed the coming together of these four remarkable people to make it a con- crete development of Ballet. Doubtless the dancing of Isadora Duncan, who appeared with great success in St. Petersburg at that time had much to do with the actual form of the development. Her dancing itself could teach nothing to these highly trained Russians, but her conceptions, the themes she chose for her interpretation and especially the music she danced to, must have come as a revelation.

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Apart from the essentially Russian Tschaikowsky, with his often genuinely romantic sentiment, the favoured composers of that time were such total nonentities as Minkus and Pugno, entirely forgotten to-day, and out of place anywhere save in the circus ring or the fair ground. It was indeed a bold and unheard-of thing to dance to the music of such masters as Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Wagner — Isadora had done so and had been applauded and written about, and painted by every popular artist of the day. Here then lay the suggestion that Fokine was to make into the highest and most perfect development of choregraphic art. Ballet was to be no more the vehicle for the success of one scintillating technician and a perfectly trained hierarchy of soloists, choryphees and corps de ballet at the expense of decor, music, sentiment and sense. If the music of the Immortals was to be used, great poets must choose the theme, great painters prepare the scene, and dancers who are actors as well must fill the roles. The five act ballet with its plot and counterplot becomes a thing of the past, and a perfectly balanced choregraphic poem, that is the true meeting place of all the arts, takes its place. Once more the great Noverre's many obiter dicta are laws. Nothing is destroyed — this is evolution, not revolution. The new and the old can exist together in the repertoire, and the old will give dancers to the new. At the present time we have had a real revolution, and the works of a Fokine or a Petipa are damaged beyond recognition, together with the limbs of the performers. In Karsavina, as I have said, lay the perfect medium for the interpretation of Fokine 's ideals. They were her ideals too, and she must

12

An Unpublished Russian Photograph.

go down in history, not only as an inspired interpreter, but as a part creator. Without her sympathy and active co- operation T/iamar, Sheherazade, Petrouchka, UOiseau de Feut Cleopatra, Le Spectre de la Rose and Carnaval, would have been dreams without reality, to say nothing of the later Massine ballets, which were the natural outcome of these earlier works. There were many great dancers at that period, but none were ready to assist Fokine in his ** mad ideas,'* and for a time the young ballerina was fiercely attacked for what seemed her abandonment of the great traditions, in spite of the fact that she continued to gain mastery over the complicated technique and to excel in such ballets as Corsair, Paquita, Giselle and Don Quixote, This at last was the true Russian art, for the older ballets had been, in spite of what the "balletomanes" fondly imagined, still very near to Italy in inspiration.

It was but recently that such great dancers as Vera Trefilova, Preobrajenskaya, Kshessinskaya, Sedova, Geltzer and Sokolova had leapt into fame, and that amidst the greatest difficulties. It was considered that only an Italian ballerina such as Legnani was fit to be entrusted with lead- ing roles — and after all Marius Petipa, the father of Russian ballet himself, was a Marseillais, who retained a foreign accent to the end. Fokine, Nijinsky, Karsavina and Diaghileff were Russian. Stravinsky, their favoured composer, and Bakst perhaps more than anyone, responsible for the popularity of the movement, were Russians too, and if they did dance to the music of a Chopin, a Schumann or a Weber, the dreams that they created could not be mistaken for

13

anything but Russian, and the park of the sylphs was the park of a Russian palace. Nor must one forget Benois, Doboujinsky, and the other followers of Diaghileff's " World of Art."

In another chapter I will analyse in detail various ballets, and in particular Karsavina's contribution to their perfect artistic success.

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CHAPTER TWO. (i.) CAREER.

Tamara Karsavina has given a striking picture of her career in her memoirs, " Theatre Street," so that anything but a brief sketch would be out of place here. She was educated at the famous ballet school at St. Petersburg and almost from the first showed signs of unusual talent, though weak health made it seem possible that she would have to abandon her career. Her father, Platon Karsavin, was a dancer of fame, though he had retired from the stage before her entry into the school and was not over eager for her to take up such an arduous career. She must, however, have owed a great deal to his example and to her mother's strong will and courage. It is not possible to give the name of any one teacher who formed her. Under the excellent system in vogue she came under the influence of many, and the names of Guerdt, the old Johannsen, Sokolova, and later, Beretta and Cecchetti, are all associated with her rapid progress.

From her mother she inherited the priceless gift of self criticism. While the critics were satisfied and the

15

public applauded she felt her technical shortcomings and during a visit to Italy for reasons of health she placed herself under the Italian ballerina Beretta. There she rapidly mastered her technique under the strengthening influence of the Italian school and with perfected technique came the self-confidence that had been lacking. She was now ready to take her place as a great Russian ballerina, and to carry on the glorious tradition. She added, however, one extremely important item to her equipment — dramatic ability. Without that she would still have been a great dancer, but scarcely the most important figure that the art of ballet has produced. Her dramatic ability, which to a certain extent was inborn (her grandfather had been an actor) must have been greatly fostered by her intense love for literature and by the fact that as a child she would act what had impressed her the most in her reading. Acting was by no means neglected at the Imperial School, particularly under Prince Wolkonsky, but it was rather the graceful mime required in such a ballet as " La Fille mal Gardte " than anything more subtle and powerful.

(ii.) The Ballet Stage at the Time of Karsavina's Debut.

Karsavina emerged at a critical time. The Russian dancer was by now firmly established, but the Italian tradi- tion was long in dying. Kshessinskaya was at the height of her fame, sparkling and brilliant, outmastering the Italians in technique, while Trefilova, most elegant and

16

aristocratic of dancers and the witty and intelligent Preobra- jenskaya had hosts of admirers. Pavlova was beginning to bring a new quality into the dance, poetic frailty rather than muscular strength, and Kyasht, Karsavina's friend and contemporary, was charming audiences with her " espieglerie." Great dramatic actress there was none, and indeed had there been, there was no role in the repertoire in which she might shine. I have recently seen a dramatic interpretation of " The Swan Lake " and it created an entirely false note. The delicious artificiality of such ballets must be respected, or they degenerate into burlesque. It was only when Diaghileff , Fokine and Karsavina met that the new ballet was ready to be born out of the old. The story of how the Russians completely conquered Paris and later London in " Prince Igor,''' " Le Pavilion cTArmide " and " Festin " is now ballet history. The r61e played by Karsavina in that conquest can be best understood when one realises that for many years the Ballet could only secure its contract so long as "La Karsavina ' ' was a member of the troupe.

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CHAPTER THREE.

SOME ROLES. (a.) The Spectre of the Rose.

In many particulars this apparently simple role is one of the most difficult ever attempted by a ballerina. The actual dancing is simple enough to the well-trained dancer. The difficulties consist in giving it the right dramatic intensity.

The male role of the Rose is one of singular brilliance, a virtuoso role, culminating in the mighty leap from the window. The ballerina must forget that she is a brilliant dancer, she must be content to leave all the brilliance to her partner. She is a young girl just home from her first dance, letting her fancy wander and dreaming of the rose and doubtless of its giver. This is a role requiring consummate acting. The wrong perspective — and the whole delicate balance is upset. Virtuosity must be forgotten, dramatic intensity there is none. It is a question of taste and proportion, of natural grace, a thing entirely removed from the dancer's, grace, a quality so often missing.

18

Karsavina in " Le Spectre de la Rose.

Karsavina alone fulfilled all the conditions required. I have seen the role interpreted by two brilliant dancers, particular favourites of mine, with whom it hurt me to find fault, but the result was flat. They could not have conjured up that romantic vision. In spite of the fact that Nijinsky was no longer the Rose, and that the dancer in each case was well below his standard, it was the young girl that I noticed and I realised that hers was in fact the leading role.

This remains one of the many ballets that owe their existence to Karsavina, and that she alone can dance.

(b.) Thamar.

This role is in strong contrast to the last. The actress is no more pure and virginal. She is a proud, sadistic Eastern Queen nervously awaiting a fresh victim.

The curtain goes up with Thamar on her couch waving to entice the passing stranger, and descends with her waving once more. What has gone in between, the passing of the life of a young man, has been but an episode to her, a passing amusement. Thamar is more than a vicious woman, she is a Queen in search of amusement, and pride and cruelty, both play their part. It is a role worthy of a Bernhardt, and Karsavina made of it one of the most marvellous dramatic performances seen in this century. She has told how a brief hint as to the make-up from Diaghileff gave her the suggestion. Glancing at herself in the mirror, pallid with her eyebrows in a line, she became Thamar and lived as Thamar nightly on the stage. So completely is she

19

Lermontov's heroine that the whole convention of ballet is momentarily forgotten and her wonderful dancing takes a secondary place. We are assisting at a tragedy. Never did a poem translated into action retain its original spirit more intensely. Here was Lermontov's Thamar, realised in paint by Serov, in human form by Karsavina.

(c.) Petrouchka.

Again we have an entirely different r61e where more stress is placed on the actual dance. Passion again, but the passion of a puppet this time, the human heart beating beneath doll-like movements. A Goppelia of deeper signifi- cance, where dancing aids drama, and is not the sole justifica- tion of the ballet, a Doctor Caligari anticipated by ten years and devoid of the tawdry thrills of cinema. Bakst, Stravinsky and Karsavina recreate for us the Russian fair, and the puppet booth with its Hoffmanesque atmosphere, which is far nearer Hoffman than the ballet adaptation of his own story of Olympia and Coppelius. " Petrouchka " is the simple pattern of all tragedy, the tragedy of dolls without the sickly senti- mentality of the old-fashioned doll ballet such as " The Fairy DoH."

(d.) The Firebird.

This is another complicated role that Karsavina alone can interpret : A bird, requiring all the lightness and virtuosity of the prima ballerina, but much more than this, a legendary bird of Russian folk tale that needs a certain

I

20

dramatic intensity, and an ' ' atmosphere ' ' that it is difficult to define. The lightness of the bird is not enough, one must feel the passion of the woman too, and all the glamour of legend. To be all bird or all woman is to fail utterly and to make Fokine's dream into a Christmas pantomime, as it has appeared during all the recent revivals, where it was in- differently danced and entirely misunderstood. Fokine's work is exceedingly easy to mar by faulty interpretation. ** The Spectre of the Rose " becomes mere flashy virtuosity, " Sheherazade " a scene out of a revue, and " Petrouchka " a scene mimee of the Chauve Souris. As I have said in another chapter Karsavina made these great works of art a concrete possibility, and danced by her, they stand as the highest artistic achievements of ballet. " The Firebird " is the most striking example of this fact.

(e.) " The Three Corned Hat." 44 Good Humoured Ladies." 44 Boutique Fantasque."

This time we have a peasant theme from Alarcon's delightful story, and Karsavina gives us a Spanish dance totally devoid of the usual noisy imitations of Spanish temperament. " The Three Cornered Hat " is perhaps Massine's masterpiece, a synthesis of all forms of Spanish dancing, adapted to ballet conventions, and the immense success of this ballet in Spain is significant. The dancing is essentially Spanish, but it is Spanish dancing stylise, seen through the

21

eyes of a ballet master and it calls for the greatest technical ability, a combination of ballet and character work. Karsavina was by nature its ideal interpreter. A dramatic actress unique in her power and versatility, and a dancer equally at home in classical and character dancing was needed, and Karsavina alone fulfilled these conditions, which were essential in nearly all the early Massine ballets.

In " The Good Humoured Ladies " we have another work something in the spirit of " The Three Cornered Hat" but with the lighter note of mischief suggested by its Venetian setting and the more fragile music of the Italian composer.

The role of the " can -can " dancer in "La Boutique Fantasque " is one of pure mischief and high spirits combined with the romanticism of " Les Sylphides," a difficult combina- tion. In " Petrouchka " we had the tragic puppet, here we have the "naughty" and "sentimental" puppet, a complete transition of mood after the closing of the toyshop. Although the path is chiefly associated with the charming Lydia Lopokova it is also one of Karsavina 's most delightful roles, and shows her in an entirely new mood.

(f.) Columbine in ** Carnaval."

In Fokine's " Carnaval " there is another study in mischief, in a far lighter key than in " The Good Humoured Ladies." This time it is the commedia delle arte, not the Venice of Longhi. The recent revival with the Marie Rambert Ballet, brought

22

out many interesting points in the choregraphy of this ballet. It clearly showed that " Carnaval " requires more subtle artistry, stage sense, and experience than almost any other work. The ballerina must shine both as an individual and as a member of a team. She must continually ** feed " and be ' * fed by ' ' her company as in any dramatic comedy. Karsavina showed to the full here her remarkable ability to see a work of art, in which she is the central figure, as a whole. The real test of a very great artist.

I have not attempted to do more than to sketch a few of the most memorable roles created by Karsavina. " Giselle," perhaps her greatest role of all, I have never seen. From what I know of the ballet and from what I have heard from connoisseurs I realise the immense pleasure I have missed. From the few r61es I have quoted, Karsavina 's extraordinary versatility can be realised : a young girl dreaming of her first ball, a cruel oriental queen, a legendary bird of fire, a puppet — tragic, sentimental, mischievous, a Spanish miller's wife. Each r61e entirely different ; each time a new and inspired Karsavina.

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CHAPTER FOUR. KARSAVINA AS AUTHOR.

Karsavina has lately made her debut as an author, and in her reminiscences, " Theatre Street," has written a veritable classic of the dance that every student should read. "Theatre Street " is an admirable work of art for reasons in no way connected with the dance. It gives the most moving descriptions of a Russian childhood since Aksakov ; it is full of memorable pieces of characterisation that would do credit to a novelist of experience. But it is for what it reveals to us of Karsavina, and for what it should mean both to the dance student and to the ordinary lover of the ballet that it interests us here.

It clearly shows that an artist of the front rank is only made by hard work, self-criticism, and a wide horizon outside the immediate technique required. A hard-working studious Karsavina might have become a great dancer, but it was the hard-working, studious Karsavina who read and understood the Russian poets, who became a great artist.

No system that neglects their general mental develop- ment can ever create dance artists of the front rank. The

24

Thamar Karsavina dancing to the Music of Bach's "Phoebus and Pan."

ballet school, as Karsavina shows us, gave a first class education to its pupils. Karsavina added to that, apart from her many natural gifts, a love for literature and acting, and so ended head and shoulders above her fellow pupils.

The book is an exceptionally modest one and it is that modesty that will make it live when the ' ' shaking hands with the King " type of memoir is forgotten. That modesty is the outcome of an entire outlook on art — a complete philosophy of life — it is more than just the result of a charming nature. "All that matters is the artistic whole and it is my duty to increase and enhance the value of that artistic whole. I must not shine at its expense. If it seems that I must take a second place (" Le Spectre de la Rose " is an example of this) well and good." This is no quotation, but a summing up of my impressions of the attitude of mind of the author of * * Theatre Street. " It is an attitude of devotion, an attitude without which great things can never come into being, and it is a lack of this attitude that has wrecked many a theatrical enterprise artistically. This attitude of artistic honesty I have always noticed and admired in Karsavina, and her book shows that while she is tolerant in her way of expressing things — I have only noticed one dig throughout — she makes it perfectly clear, both in her judgments of Isadora Duncan and in the few remarks on the later phases of the Diaghileff Ballet, that intellectual honesty is for her the first of all virtues. She will not merely follow a movement because it is the fashion. Art certainly can and does have its fashions, but the main, indeed the only, question is — ** Is it good art ? "

25

" Theatre Street" then, apart from the delightful entertainment it affords, apart from its immense historical value and its literary excellence, that has been acclaimed by our greatest critics, shows, with clarity, many things vital to the dancer.

An artist of the front rank is made by hard work, self- criticism, extra education outside the chosen art, a correct attitude towards art and intellectual honesty. The directly - inspired artist with her extraordinary caprices and fits of temperament is a pure figment of the imagination.

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APPENDIX A. Some of Karsavina's Memorable Roles.

IN RUSSIA: "Bayadere," "Sleeping Princess," " Casse Noisette," "Corsaire," "Don Quixote," "Eunice," "Fairy Doll." "Pharoah's Daughter," "La Fille mal Gardee," " Le Petit Cheval Bossu," " Graziella," " In the Kingdom of Ice," "Javotte," "Swan Lake," "Raymonda," "Awaken- ing of Flora," etc.

WITH DIAGHILEFF.

Corali.

Giselle in " Giselle " (with Nijinski). . . . Benois (Adams) 1910

Petipa.

Divertissements in Festin . . . . Korovin (Tschaikowsky) 1909

(First Diaghileff Programme.)

Fokine.

*tColumbine in " Carnaval " .. .. Bakst (Schumann) 1910

*|Sylphidein "Les Sylphides " .. .. Benois (Chopin) 1909 Queen of Shemakhan in " Coq d'Or " Gontcharova

(Rimsky-Korsakov) 1914

fChloe in " Daphnis and Chloe " . . . . Bakst (Ravel) 1912

| Young Girl in " Le Dieu Bleu " . . Bakst (Reynaldo Hahn) 1912

jPotiphar's Wife in " Joseph's Legend " Serf Bakst (Strauss) 1914

fEcho in " Narcissus " .. .. Bakst (Tcherepnine) 1911

tTa Hor in " Cleopatra " Bakst (Arensky) 1909

fFirebird in «• The Firebird " . . Bakst Golovin (Stravinsky) 1910

* Revived with the Marie Rambert Ballet at the Lyric, Hammersmith, 1930.

27

fYoung Girl in " Papillons " . . . . Bakst (Schumann)

fArmida in " Le Pavillion d'Armide " Benois (Tcherepnine) 190<

(First Diaghileff Programme.)

f Ballerina in " Petrouchka " .. .. Benois (Stravinsky) 1911

fZobeide in " Sheherazade " .. Bakst (Rimsky-Korsakov) 19K

fThamar in " Thamar " Bakst (Balakireff) 1912

*fMaiden in " Spectre de la Rose " . . . . Bakst (Weber) 1911

Nijinski. f Maiden in " Jeux " Bakst (Debussy) 191J

Massine. fSwan Queen in " Children's Tales " Gontcharova

Larionov (Lliadov) 1915

Mariuccia in ** Good Humoured Ladies " Bakst (Scarlatti) 1917 fPas de deux in " Gimarosiana " . . . . Sen (Cimarosa) 1920 fSnow Maiden in " Midnight Sun " Gontcharova

Larionov (Rimsky-Korsakov) 1915

f American Girl in " Parade " .. .. Picasso (Satie) 1917

jPimpinella in " Pulcinella " . . . . Picasso (Pergolesi-

Stravinsky) 1920 fMiller's Wife in " Three Cornered Hat " Picasso (da Falla) 1919/20

Nijinska. | Juliet in ' ' Romeo and Juliet ' ' Miro and Ernst (Lambert)

| signifies creation. (Dates refer to Paris creation.)

* Revived at the Arts Theatre Club ; The Lyric, Hammersmith

(with Harold Turner).

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APPENDIX B.

Some Divertissements.

J. M. Barrie's " Truth about the Russian Dancers "

(decor, Paul Nash) London Coliseum Nursery Rhyme Suite (decor and costumes, Lovat Fraser)

London Coliseum Maurice Donnay's Revue : (La Cantiniere, La Nymphe de

Corot, Mdlle. de Maupin) Porte St. Martin, Paris The Angel (costume by Somov) to Phoebus and Pan, Music

by Bach. (see Illustration, p. 25) Chaconne from the elements, by Destouche Sleighing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Mozart)

Dances to Kleine Nacht music . . . . . . . . (Mozart)

Happy Deception (decor by Benois) to the Water Music of

Handel Shonbrunner Valse . . . . . . . . (J. Strauss)

The Slave Girl (Arnold Box)

Jack in the Green . . . . . . . . . . (Gustav Hoist)

Mademoiselle de Maupin (Liesberg) Arts Theatre Club The Polka . . . . . . . . . . . . (Glazounov)

The Galop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Strauss)

Note.

(These are but a few of the more memorable divertissements and performances danced by Madame Karsavina away from the Diaghileff Ballet. The majority of these are of her own creation and are interesting as showing an entirely new phase of her art. Her momentary appearance as

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Mdlle. de Maupin in the Maurice Donnay revue was a veri- table triumph of stagecraft, an unforgettable memory that resulted in the creation of the Mdlle.de Maupin divertissement to the delightful and little known music of a Chopin disciple, Liesberg. Once away from the Diaghileff Ballet, Karsavina did not relax her high artistic standards, and amongst the artists who have created for her are Lovat Fraser, probably the only decorative genius England has produced, a partner- ship that would have had far reaching effects, but for this great artist's early death, and her own fellow countrymen, Benois, Somov, Doboujinsky and Gontcharova.)

APPENDIX C.

Bibliography.

*' Theatre Street," the reminiscences of Tamar Karsavina, with a foreword by J. M. Barrie. (Heinemann, 25/-, 1930) *' Thamar Karsavina " — Valerian Svetlov. (Beaumont, 1922) *' Album " — George Barbier and Jean Louis Vaudoyer.

(Paris, 1914)

*' Karsavina." Volume published by the Writers' Club. " The Wandering Dog." .. .. (St. Petersburg, 1914)

" Some Studies in Ballet " . . . . (Arnold L. Haskell)

(Chapter on Karsavina as " Tragedienne ") Thamar Karsavina (L'heure dansante au jardin du roi)

Robert Brussel. Illustrations by Gir

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APPENDIX D.

Some Paintings and Drawings.

As Thamar by Glyn Philpot (A.R.A.)

(In the possession of Madame Karsavina, reproduced in Valerian Svetloff's Tamara Karsavina — Beaumont]

In Spanish Costume by Oswald Birley

(Three-quarter length. In the possession of Madame Karsavina) Dancing on the Stage (In Russia) . . by 5. Sorine

A Series of Charcoal Studies . . . . by John S. Sargent

(reproduced in " Theatre Street ")

Drawing (reproduced in Svetloff's " Karsavina ") .. by Serov Drawing (Seated. Reproduced in " Theatre Street ")

by H . J. Bruce

Drawing in ' * Spectre de la Rose " . . . . by Jean Coctean Russian Ballet Poster, 1912. In the possession of the Baroness D'Erlanger. Exhibited Memorial Exhibition, Claridge Gallery, 1930. Reproduced in Svetloff's " Ballet Contemporain "

NOTE.

There is perhaps no completely satisfactory portrait of Karsavina, a thing not to be wondered at, when one examines a few hundred photographs of her with scarcely the same mood or expression in any two. Therefore, the most successful efforts seem to me to be the more hasty pencil and charcoal sketches. Sargent has succeeded in many fine works, but there is much of Karsavina that he has missed. The dignity is there, but they are all lacking in the spirit and the animation. Undoubtedly, the two works

31

that give the most of Karsavina are the delightful pencil note of her by that great master Serov, and a seated portrait, a charcoal sketch, by her husband, H. J. Bruce. Of many action studies by Dame Laura Knight and the German painter Grunenberg, who has published a volume of his sketches, ** The Firebird," a few only are successful. Bakst in a stylish portrait, in reality a maquette for the costume design of the young girl's dress in " Le Spectre de la Rose.19 has caught to perfection the mood of Karsavina in what is one of her greatest roles.

Statues of dancers are rarely interesting, particularly of dancers in action, but the work of Soudbinin, which I am only judging by reproduction, seems well above the average.

Of the hundreds of photographs, those that give the most pleasant memories are the fine studies with Nijinski by De Mayer, many studies by Hoppe, in particular those in " Astuzzi Feminelli" and " Pulcinella" and a magnificently proud head in " The Firebird," by Bertram Park.

32

Artists of the Dance

PRESS OPINIONS.

•' Anton Dolin " is a book that should be in the hands of every dance lover . . . the book is admirable. — The Era.

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** Qiiex " in The Daily Chronicle.

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33

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34

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