1949
The post-war ballet boom had reached its peak and was about to start declining - but at the start of the year ballet was still sufficiently popular for programmes to be presented in huge arenas and temporary theatres. Prices The Dancing Times cost 1/- (5p) D Di Salvo's "Famous Sun_Ray Ballet Shoe" cost 16/- (80p) Ballet Rambert's Arts Council grant for a full year was £1500. Event of the year Was the Sadler's Wells Ballet's first visit to the USA. They opened in New York on October 9th with Sleeping Beauty and had a success which has passed into history. Dancer of the Year Was undoubtedly Margot Fonteyn who had a personal triumph in the States and moved from being the UK's favourite ballerina to being a world star. "To watch the coordination of her head, arms and torso is to learn a lesson about the nature of art. The inclination of her neck and the exact curving of her arms from shoulder to finger-tips are Raphaelesque, (I am reminded that Leonardo wrote in his Notebooks 'it is the extremities that lend grace to the body')". {Richard Buckle} Ballet of the Year Was Roland Petit's Carmen, which shocked London with its realism and provided a wonderful vehicle for Petit and especially for his wife, Zizi Jeanmaire Calendar January    Markova and Dolin appeared, with a small company, at the Empress Hall, Earl's Court - an ice-rink holding 10,000 people. The programme included their most famous party pieces - the Dying Swan for her and Bolero for him. February    Fonteyn apeared in 'Cinderella' for the first time, having missed the première through injury Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris visited London - the company included stars Nina Vyroubova and Vladimir Skouratoff as well as Jeanmaire. March    Alexandra Danilova, one time ballerina of Diaghilev's company and now star of the Ballets Russes, appeared as a guest with Sadler's Wells Ballet, with her partner Frederic Franklin. They danced 'Giselle', 'Coppélia' and 'Swan Lake', and Danilova returned to one of her most famous roles, dancing the Can-Can in Massine's 'Boutique Fantasque' with Massine himself. 'Champagne on stage', as she was described. April    Petit's company, returning to London for their second season of the year, showed Ashton's 'Le Rêum;ve de Léonor', to music by Benjamin Britten - not usually counted as one of Ashton's successes. May    Ballet Rambert appeared at the Mercury Theatre - they had recently returned from a tour of Australia which was intended to last 40 weeks and actually was extended to 18 months! June    A fire at the Theatre Royal in Hanley destroyed the sets and costumes of the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet's entire repertory, together with the dancers' personal possessions. Help poured in, in the shape of scenery, costumes, shoes, tights and make-up as well as money, and the company were able to open as scheduled in Hull the next week - though with some rather strange looking productions! Meanwhile, in London, Le Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo opened at Covent Garden, with such very starry names as Toumanova, Eglevsky and Riabouchinska; and a couple of teenagers, dancing the Nutcracker pas de deux at the Empress Hall as part of the 'backing' to a season starring Massine, Danilova and Franklin, were described as 'the heirs to a great tradition' - their names were Svetlana Beriosova and Erik Bruhn. July    Ballet Rambert performs for the last time at the Mercury theatre - its birthplace and in many respects the place where British ballet started. Hot gossip from the Dancing Times; "Miss Helen Dzhermolinska, the Executive Editor of the American "Dance" Magazine, was a welcome visitor to London at the beginning of last month". (er that's it!) August    Markova and Dolin appeared at the Harringay Arena with Ballet Rambert. The two stars were said to have been paid £3000 between them for 5 performances - an enormous sum for dancers in those days. September    Another French company, Les Ballets des Champs Elysees, appeared in Edinburgh and London. The star was Jean Babilée; also in the company was the teenage Leslie Caron. October    A month for British companies: Rambert were at the King's, Hammersmith, International Ballet appeared at the Empire Theatres at Chatham, Hackney, Chiswick and Wood Green, and Continental Ballet toured England and Ireland. The Sadler's Wells Ballet opened in New York. First night was 'Sleeping Beauty' with Fonteyn and Helpmann, and Beryl Grey as the Lilac Fairy; the conductor and musical director, Constant Lambert had a triumph of his own. Legend has it that de Valois' apprehension about the reception the company would get was not relieved when the Mayor of New York leant over from a neighbouring box and said "You're in, lady!" - she didn't know whether this was good or bad. "When Sadler's Wells first appeared at the Metropolitan in New York Lincoln Kirstein wrote to me: 'The hero of the occasion, according to Balanchine and myself, was (Constant) Lambert; he had a fine hand and the score never sounded so well; he is a genius for tempi; absolutely on the note in every variation; no boring bits; and he supports the dancers on the huge stage by giving them assurance from his authority. He whipped people up into applause, purely by sound; when nothing was really happening from a dancer he seduced everyone into somehow imagining that she was divine. Anyway, he got an ovation; many people knew what he had done. {Richard Buckle} November    Three 'Nijinsky Galas' were held at the Empress Hall, to raise money for the century's most famous dancer: despite the large numbers of stars appearing, the venture made an overall loss of £1500. December    Metropolitan Ballet, a small but artisitcally successful British company, closed after three years of existence. They Did Things Differently The Empire, Leicester Square, still had a four-times-daily show, including a film of The Forsyte Saga and a ballet company of 25 Australian radio stars went to the Italia Conti stage school to distribute food parcels from Australia Metropolitan Ballet had generally poor houses on a tour of Holland because clothing had just come off the ration and people had spent all their money on clothes Among the numerous theatres, now lost, which hosted touring ballet was the People's Palace in Mile End Road, London. Sounds Familiar... There was much criticism of the whole concept of 'arena ballet' - did it really give a fair representation of the art? how could it be presented so that people sitting at the sides got a proper view? would all these people move on to 'proper' ballet? - and we heard exactly the same questions in summer 1997 when ENB were dancing 'Swan Lake' at the Albert Hall. Next Month The year we'll be looking at will be 1967. Anyone with particular memories of that year, or requests for items to be included, should write to us! {top}
{top} Home Magazine Listings Update Links Contexts
../nov97/year_1949.htm revised: 8th November 1997 Bruce Marriott email, © all rights reserved, all wrongs denied. credits by Jane Simpson and Bruce Marriott © email design by RED56