One hundred years ago, Pablo Picasso lived Rome for two months. It was his first trip to Italy. The Ballets Russes was in town and Picasso was eager to begin work on his designs for Parade, the ballet which would open on 18 May 1917 in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet. Two years previously, Picasso had found himself relatively alone in Paris. His mistress Eva Gouel had died … [Read more...]
Carla Fracci with Schaufuss, Vasiliev, Cragun, Jude and others on YouTube
In 1987 a two-part television programme called The Ballerinas featured Carla Fracci, with some of the top male dancers of the period, in a series of reconstructions putting various ballets and their interpretors in an historical context. Fracci was an amazingly youthful 51 when she danced these extracts. Dance Magazine critic John Gruen wrote: The nineteenth … [Read more...]
Alex Ross at the grave of Stravinsky
Yesterday I took a vaporetto out to San Michele, the cemetery island of Venice. It was seven-thirty on a Sunday morning, and my only fellow passengers were several elderly people whom I took to be widows and widowers, bearing flowers for their loved ones. I was preparing to pay my respects to Igor Stravinsky, who loved Venice and held the premieres of The Rake's Progress, … [Read more...]
Last week to catch the V&A’s glorious Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes exhibition
This is the last chance to catch the stunning collection of Ballet Russes material brought together by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Diaghilev's dramatic performances transformed dance, reawakening interest in ballet across Europe and America. Celebrating the company's key period of activity, this major exhibition reveals Diaghilev's enduring influence on … [Read more...]
At the National Portrait Gallery, Ballet In Focus – a free exhibition
The richness and variety of dance on the British stage in the early decades of the twentieth century is often forgotten: overshadowed by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, which made its first appearance in London in the summer of 1911. However, spectacular ballets and dance diverstissements, featuring classical and stage dancing, attracted large and enthusiastic audiences in … [Read more...]