COTILLION

[altongrimes]

Thinking back to the origins of my unquenchable passion for ballet, I remember being deeply moved by The Joffrey Ballet performing George Balanchine's COTILLION in Los Angeles somewhere around 1985 -1987. To me, it was a thing of great beauty. But as I recently pondered that experience, I realize that since that evening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, I have never seen it listed on any company program or brought up in discussion by artistic directors, choreographers, dancers, etc.. I wonder if anyone knows what became of this gem?

 

Edited November 19, 2016 by altongrimes
typo

[cubanmiamiboy]

I believe what you saw was probably the only "reconstruction"-(or perhaps "recreation"..?)-that has ever been done of this ballet. I perceive there is a sense of distrust shared by both AD's and Balanchine's connosseurs as to the validity of anything recrafted that has had such a performance gap. Long story short...I think there is not too much interest around as to stage something that could be NOT what Mr. B's created. I think that, being that there is not a person alive who danced in the original production and could stage it, this ballet is pretty much a "lost" one. And then...there is The Powers That Be-(aka The Trust)-which I guess have the last word. 

Edited November 19, 2016 by cubanmiamiboy

[altongrimes]

Fantastic reply. Truly fascinating. Thank you very much for crafting such an informative and intriguing  response.

[Drew]

At the time of the 80's revival a number of the ballet's original cast (and crew) were around to be consulted by the Hodson/Archer team that did the reconstruction. I found a Times article that discusses the process. (I was curious because, though I am very skeptical of these kinds of revivals, this one I very much wanted to see and still regret not having seen):

 

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/23/arts/how-cotillon-was-reborn.html?pagewanted=all

 

From the article: "With no single, definitive source to study, Ms. Hodson and Mr. Archer not only had to unearth and assemble ''Cotillon's'' missing pieces, they also had to find a context for them. Traveling to five countries, they sifted through photographs, reviews, sketches, film fragments - and personal reminiscences. Indeed, unlike their reconstruction of ''Sacre,'' for which they had few living participants to consult, their search for the missing ''Cotillon'' led them through three generations of dancers who had performed it, as well as to its librettist, Boris Kochno, and its orchestrator, Vittorio Rieti, along with Antal Dorati, who conducted many of its early performances.

 

Nevertheless, their endeavor points up the ephemeral nature of an art form that exists only in performance and the difficulty in aligning fragments and recollections of a 'lost' work."

Edited November 19, 2016 by Drew

[altongrimes]

I am honored to have received such an exhaustive reply as this ! This is very exciting. I am most eager to explore the New York Times attachment ! Wonderful of you to reply in this manner. Sparks everywhere !

[Quiggin]

Actually Balanchine himself didn't want Cotillon recreated. When the Joffrey earlier appoached him, the were met with "amiable disuassion" (LA Times). Possibly because he felt it was dated or that the types of personalities he had built it on were no longer around. Also he had used parts of it in Serenade, La Valse and Liebeslieder.

 

Drew is right about its ephemeral nature. Lewis Segal felt that the revival had lost what Cyril Beaumont called its "curious, bittersweet perfume".

 

Edwin Denby already looked at it as a lost ballet by 1941 -

 

Quote

This piece profoundly affected the imagination of the young people of my generation. It expressed in a curiously fugitive and juvenile movement the intimacy, the desolation, the heart's tenderness and savagery, which gave a brilliant unevenness to our beautifully mannered charm. The thirties had not only a Biedermeier parochialism, they had also insight into the eternity of a moment of grace. We are all out of them now ...

 

Adrian Stokes (Russian Ballet, 1935) gives a similar description of how it looked, one part having "the paraphernalia of the carnival, the hunt and the serenade," and the whole "the character of a hastily convened seance." 

 

Here's a clip from an early version of Cotillon -

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fM6SP--oac

 

& its descendant, La Valse -

 

http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/tanaquil-leclercq-nicholas-magallanes/la-valse/

 

 

 

 

[Drew]

I agree with the "ephemeral nature" remark in the NYTimes article--though those weren't actually my words.

 

Still, I think it made a certain sense for Joffrey to try to revive Cotillion when so many participants in the earlier production were still around and even if reviving the revival is not now plausible. My impression is that Balanchine was always skeptical about looking backward -- and for the same reason skeptical about the future of his own ballets after his death. They do often look different now, and mean differently, but I'm still glad we have them! (And, even when Balanchine was alive, liked having the earlier version of  Apollo to watch alongside Balanchine's later stripped down version.)

 

Joffrey revived Tudor's Offenbach in the Underworld and I've often wished someone would try to revive that revival, so to speak (which I saw), but I haven't seen Offenbach in the Underworld listed among potentially revive-able Tudor works.

 

Edited to add: How wonderful to see LeClercq...

Edited November 20, 2016 by Drew

[altongrimes]

So grateful for these generous replies. Like a box of the finest chocolates. I will be diligent to make careful study of all of these. I am on fire with every word.

[Quiggin]

Balanchine was more interested in the research Robert Joffrey had done, according to Barbara Horgan. "He talked about the ballet, but never talked about bringing it back."(LATimes 4/30/89)

 

I'm thankful for Millicent Hodson's remaking of Ballets Suedois' "Skating Rink" in 1922 with curtain and costumes by Fernand Leger. Where Cotillon seems the end of something, an autumnal summing up, Skating Rink is right at the beginning, and lines up with what was being done at the Bauhaus and in the Soviet Union. (Maybe Ashton took an idea or two from it?)

 

https://vimeo.com/14390025

 

And Joffrey's Parade for its place in dance and equally in the later development of Picasso's and Leger's Cubism.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Chq1Ty0nyE

Edited November 20, 2016 by Quiggin
first name left out, spelling

[Drew]

I remember really enjoying the Joffrey's Parade! 

Edited November 20, 2016 by Drew

[sandik]

I am eternally grateful to Robert Joffrey's historical curiosity, which led to an incredible repertory -- much of my early exposure to historical works came from performances by the Joffrey Ballet.