29 May 2009

Part two

Despite various occasional attempts, neither Britain nor the USA had a permanent ballet company during Ashton's and Balanchine's early days. That remained the case in America until well after Balanchine's arrival, but in Britain both Rambert and her contemporary Ninette de Valois planned to develop companies from their pupils; moreover, the Russian Ballet's frequent seasons had built an audience who wanted a replacement when the company closed down after Diaghilev's death in 1929.

By then, de Valois was beginning to put on little ballets that supplemented operas and plays at London's Old Vic Theatre, and when the rebuilt Sadler's Wells Theatre opened under the same management in 1931 her enlarged company began regular performances, initially as the Vic-Wells Ballet. Meanwhile Rambert, after two short seasons in Hammersmith, had started the Ballet Club in its own little theatre (later named the Mercury) at Notting Hill Gate. Greatly helping both ventures was an organisation called the Camargo Society, started by two dance critics, Arnold Haskell and Francis Richardson, to bring together all available talent and present mainly new ballets to a subscription audience. During 1930-33 this made possible more frequent and more ambitious productions than would otherwise have been the case.

Besides being Rambert’s chief choreographer and artistic associate, Ashton made ballets for the Camargo and the Vic-Wells. In 1935, to benefit from de Valois' greater resources, he transferred full-time to the Wells. Thus during the decade before World War II, which saw British ballet beginning to establish itself on a serious level, Ashton was the most vital and prolific creative element in both its leading companies. Among his outstanding works from that period are Capriol Suite, Façade, Les Rendezvous, Apparitions, Les Patineurs and A Wedding Bouquet, all of which have been in the repertory of Birmingham Royal Ballet or its direct predecessor companies.

Already he had proved three of his most valuable gifts: an unusual flair for inventing pure-dance ballets, a range taking in both highly individual wit and extreme romance, and the ability to develop the qualities of his dancers, who then included Britain’s two great ballerinas, Alicia Markova and Margot Fonteyn.

Ashton had organisations, however raw and new-formed, within which to work; Balanchine in America was starting from scratch. Fortunately the School of American Ballet which he opened in 1934 filled a real need and thrives to this day, but his first company, The American Ballet, lasted only three years (1935-38) plus a short government sponsored wartime tour of South America. However, it did see the creation of three of Balanchine's great plotless ballets, Serenade, Concerto barocco and Ballet Imperial, besides a complete Stravinsky evening and a controversial but much discussed Orpheus and Eurydice with the Metropolitan Opera. For the rest of his first dozen years in America Balanchine's choreography was made for other people's companies (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo or American Ballet Theatre) and for Broadway musicals or Hollywood films. It was not until 1946, with Lincoln Kirstein released from war service, that they started their own company again, Ballet Society (initially a membership venture, like the Camargo), from which grew New York City Ballet, one of the world's great companies.

That same year, 1946, saw the start of the company from which Birmingham Royal Ballet is descended, initially called Sadler's Wells Opera Ballet, formed to replace the original Sadler's Wells (formerly Vic-Wells) company when it moved to Covent Garden. The new 'second company' was intended to foster young dancers and new choreographers, but drew also from the existing SWB repertory, and one of its earliest productions was Ashton's satirical Façade, with the choreographer himself dancing the lead – unmatched then or since for the subtlety with which he parodied a Latin Lover. Following his war service, Ashton found increased lyricism for the plotless ballets that had always occupied him; this was manifested at Covent Garden in what are arguably his two greatest works, Symphonic Variations and Scènes de ballet (both of them since mounted for Birmingham Royal Ballet).

Between their premieres he created for the Sadler’s Wells company Valses nobles et sentimentales, a new treatment of music by Ravel which he had previously used for Rambert. This time his fluently expressive dances hinted at episodes of young love (and interestingly the first cast included two future director-choreographers, Peter Darrell and Kenneth MacMillan).

Ashton was sufficiently taken by the Company's young dancers to give them one of his most demanding virtuoso ballets, Les Rendezvous, and another early work, Capriol Suite, which relied on a mixture of vigour and quiet characterisation. He also provided, for the Company's first American tour in 1951, another creation, Two Scenes from Casse-Noisette, comprising his own stylish new choreography for the Snowflake and Kingdom of Sweets sections of The Nutcracker, with all the story deleted.

By this time, Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet (its revised name) had also acquired its first Balanchine ballet, and this was something unique: his only creation ever for a British company. New York City Ballet, making its first visit to Britain in 1950, invited Ashton to create Illuminations for its repertory, to Benjamin Britten’s music, and wanted to commission a premiere in London from a British choreographer. John Cranko, then with the Sadler’s Wells company, was recommended as the most suitable young choreographer for this. In return, Balanchine produced his Ballet Imperial at Covent Garden and created Trumpet Concerto for Sadler’s Wells. It showed off the company’s six best Principals in a neat, crisp set of entries with a military swagger, and the choreographer presented each of them, at the premiere, with a medal he had made himself.

Click here for the final part of this article.