HISTORY OF BALLET – Context for the ballet star Rudolf Nureyev – Part 4

Arnold Haskell

This is Arnold Haskell, the ballet critic writing in 1938. Why was ballet so popular and so cheap?

I don’t know, I can only give a few facts and see if it adds up. When Diaghliev brought the Ballets Russes to Paris in 1909 and in 1911 to England it caused a major sensation and the décor and costumes changed fashion. They toured and when the Russian Revolution hit they stayed. I have said before that Diaghliev was probably the greatest artist of the twentieth century, he had a taste and recognized potential and knew what to do with it, putting together talent from all the arts. Anna Pavlova did solo performances in the theatres. In England as in other countries ballet schools cropped up and thousands trained. Obviously the star power of the dancers made ballet popular.

As to why the tickets were affordable I know the dancers of the corps de ballet were paid rock-bottom wages and several shared rooms when they toured. I imagine they danced a lot with the same productions. At any rate the theatres made money. Most were not subsidized. Remember in Russia Nureyev’s mother buying one ticket though the family were desperately poor.

As a child of seven I begged my mother to send me to ballet school. She told me I was too old, you had to start when you were three. I was dismayed and impressed to think that I was already too old to train for the career I really wanted. My mother was wrong – 10 is a good age, a child too young doesn’t have the dedication and excitement to get through the training. You kill the joy.

Haskell tells straight away the importance of the art lover. Remember I say, “Without judges there is no Art”

Louis XIV as Apollo the Sun King

J.G. Noverre 1727 for 50 years he wandered around Europe, spreading his ideas through example and more especially through his famous Lettres sur la Danse , a manifesto on the art of ballet valued for all time

Another mastermind, Carlo Blasis 1803

Many teachers are descended from him.

The star ballerinas invented and launched steps – entrechat, pirouette, fouette. Moreover through their unique personality they passed on physically when they danced, their way of expressing themselves within the classical convention.

The ballet boomed during the Romantic period which began around 1830. When the poets lost interest in this fashion in art, ballet lost its interest; the principles of Noverre were forgotten. With the decline of the great dancers the popularity waned. The corps de ballet became a line of chorus girls. These are the girls Degas painted.

Edgar Degas’s Two Dancers Resting

Why did the ballet survive in Russia?

I always wondered why ballet continued throughout the century of Russian communism; which normally would smash any art tradition connected with past privilege and wealth. The answer is because ballet belonged to the serfs, it was an art of the people. Now we know why every town has its own opera/ballet and that they form a network with the State Ballet and their schools.

Anna Pavlova – ballet stars were elegant in everyday life. They were real stars.