staf

According to a French-writing critic, the title was 'Salome'...

Dear all, Pavlova danced a Salome-dance in Brussels, February 1920. The index in Keith Money's standard work does not refer to this piece. Could anyone tell me when she danced it for the first time and to which music? Thanks a lot! Staf

Does anyone know how I can get hold of a tape or DVD (or a copy) of the Joffrey Ballet's recreation of the 1913 Nijinsky choreography of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps? I have seen it on Youtube but would like to have it for didactic reasons. I'm also interested in the Jeux and Après midi d'un faune reconstructions mentioned in this topic. Thanks.

Thanks so far, Mel. - I know touring was not new, but did the 19th-century examples you give dance alone on the stage? (e.g. I read at the Petipa page on Wikipedia that he toured the US with his father and a group of French dancers). Lola Montez seems a good example, though. But do you have other examples of early 'proper' ballet dancers performing alone? E.g. when Elssler toured? Was her La Cachucha accompanied by other dancers I thought in ballet it was more common to give small scale performances with at least two dancers, but, if you say so, i must be wrong. - I like your comment about '"salon concerts" at social events hosted by the well-to-do', that's very interesting. But again, I'm curious whether there were real solo performances. Thanks a lot!! As you see, I'm not a 19th century-specialist at all... though I'm always suspicious about people who claim that things started in the 20th century, so that's the reason why I'm asking you, as I don't want to make idle statements in my thesis... (Maybe I should signal the following French book: Rousier, Claire / La danse en solo : une figure singulière de la modernité (Pantin : Centre national de la danse, 2002, in which the emergence of the 'solo' is ascribed to Loie Fuller and other modern dancers, without reference to the ballet tradition). Staf PS: is it possible to re-edit my topic title myself? i did something wrong there...

Dear all, I’m currently working on a PhD-project about Belgian dance history between 1890 and 1960 (I’m based at University of Leuven) and would be glad if you could help me. I have a question about the origins of the ‘ballet recital’ as a concert form. Is solo ballet performance, without assistance from other dancers, a 20th-century invention? With ‘ballet recital’ I mean a full-evening program dedicated to one dancer, in a small venue (salon, society house) or in a larger theatre. Was Anna Pavlova the first ballet dancer to dance and tour in this way? (I understand that she also had a troupe for at least part of her career). If so, was she inspired by early modern dancers such as Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan, who, I imagine, pioneered the idea of dance recital? (I know Pavlova incorporated many Duncanisms in her performance). Did music halls, for their part, have solo ballet dancers, or was the backing by the corps de ballet central to the concept of spectacle? Or is this assumption wrong and was the ballet recital not a typically 20th-century art form, but already present in 19th-century ballet (not in the opera house, but perhaps in the margins of cultural life, e.g. for charity performances, …)? I think Cléo de Mérode gave many recitals at the beginning of the 20th-century … but who was the first to launch the genre? I ask this because I am writing a piece about Belgian dancer Félyne Verbist, who toured the World during the First World War with an eclectic program (Dying Swan, Vision of Salome, Waltz of Coppélia) and who was i.a. preferred to Pavlova by a critic in the Dancing Times. In 1920, the idea of a ‘ballet recital’ seems to have been new to the Brussels audiences seeing Verbist perform. They experienced many ‘dance recitals’ before, however. Maud Allan and Isadora Duncan, amongst others, were enthusiastically received in Antwerp an Brussels in 1905 and 1907, as were the Ballets Russes in 1910 (i’m not talking about the twenties now). They only saw Pavlova later. Thanks for your help! Staf Leuven, Belgium