Glimpses of Ashton 1

[rg]

in advance of the ashton doings at nyc's lincoln center festival it seems appropriate to post the following pictures. these particular ones were generously given to me for a recent birthday.

the first of two, is a photo of F.A. in FACADE [see other post(s) for details]:

[rg]

the second of two here is a moment from the recently revived DANTE SONATA by Birmingham Royal Ballet and scheduled to be part of that company's appearances at the Ashton Festival in the upcoming Lincoln Center Festival.

the dancers depicted are Michael Somes and Margot Fonteyn. if mem. serves when pamela may was recalling the creation of the work at an ashton conference in london, she remembered the choreographer arriving at rehearsals with portfolios of drawings, by him i think, to help him arrange his ballet in particularly pictorial ways.

[Alexandra]

Lovely! Thank you, rg!

[Nanatchka]

How divine. What plastique. A personal poetics. An art not of calcuation, but of compostion. And the tango picture is just wonderful. What an instep. Thanks, RG. And Happy Birthday. xxxNana

[sandik]

How nice of you to share your birthday gift with all of us!

Yes, his instep is stunning in the tango photo, but I'm particularly drawn to the arms. The lift in the right elbow combined with the torque in the lower arm gives a great shape to the whole torso -- it makes the posture very specific to the moment and the style.

[Alymer]

Although the photo is definitely Ashton and Facade, I think it's from a number called Noche Peruvienne - a solo which Ashton added in the late 1930's and which was performed as late as 1943 when my husband actually saw it. (Ashton was born in Peru). Both Ashton and Helpmann danced the number - which was dropped before the end of the war. The Dago's costume doesn't have the sash.

[rg]

interesting info.

i stand corrected and have learned not to assume too much on the strength of too little knowledge.

[Mel Johnson]

The "Noche Peruvienne" was a satire on what Ashton considered a "shameless" solo by Anton Dolin to the Ravel "Bolero". The music was the "Long Steel Grass" music from the Walton setting of the poems.

[rg]

the following message came in an email to me from david vaughan re: the photo i've scanned and posted here. fyi:

Now this photo is I think definitely of FA as the Dago (sic) in the Tango

from Facade; Nocturne Peruvienne was a new solo made for the redesigned

version in 1940 (after the original was lost in Holland), with a different

costume. It didn't last very long, though Helpmann also danced it a few

times. It was generally thought to be a take-off of Dolin's notorious

Bolero.

needless to remark i have NO firsthand knowledge of any of the history so. i offer this to those who might know more.

[Mme. Hermine]

I don't know about the photograph but years ago Ruth Page's Chicago Ballet did Facade, and the Dago was deliciously danced by Ben Stevenson.

[jose manuel]

hmm........ isn´t "dago" an offensive word for spanish/portuguese/latin people??

jose manuel

[atm711]

Thanks for the memories, rg. I saw Ashton and Shearer perform the Tango in that first magical season of Sadler's Wells in NYC. Somehow, the sash seems right to me---it is in keeping with his outrageous performance.

[Mme. Hermine]

I'm pretty sure that the term refers to Italians, jose manuel, and I have seen it as "the debutante and the gigolo". I also think it might have had a somewhat different social context in the 1930s than it does now to some.