Frederick Ashton Foundation: documentary to mark its tenth anniversary

[MJW]

From the Foundations's YouTube channel

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BDNX79JwkQ

[Blossom]

It’s simply fabulous.

[Odyssey]

Gorgeous footage and lovely contributions from dancers past and present. For anyone who treasures memories of original interpreters of Ashton’s work, this will be an emotional watch.

[alison]

This is what was shown at the Ashton event in the Linbury Theatre last month.  It's really well worth watching.

[FionaM]

I wish the Ashton Foundation uploader would switch the ‘made for kids’ feature off in YouTube.  One cannot save it to playlists or ‘watch later’.  
 

I think uploaders get confused between ‘made for kids’ and ‘suitable for kids’

 

And if they want to increase interest, the comments field should also be turned on. 

Edited November 19, 2021 by FionaE
Add info

[maryrosesatonapin]

There was so much of value and interest in this documentary.  I think a lot can be learned from Sir Fred today.  For example - it was emphasised, more than once, that he gave dancers roles that suited them.  Every dancer has strengths and weaknesses, and if they are given roles at which they can excel it's win-win for them and for the audience.  I feel that in the RB today, artists are often just given a 'turn' at every role whether they are ideal for it or not, when they might be better in a different role. Some of the men, in particular, are ideal poetic, romantic heroes whereas others are better at less emotional, more showy roles.  (Of course, some can do both!)

 

Another thing that was said is that when choreographing a new ballet, Ashton would bring in a number of different observers during the early stages to see what they could understand of the intended story.  What a good idea.  Something that I feel is not always done in new, modern works.

 

And how staggering that Benesh notation takes 8 hours to record one single minute of dance!  I had no idea.  All in all a fascinating film.  The only thing I wished is that they had put the names of the various speakers on-screen when they first appeared rather than at random later points.  I recognised them in any case but I would like to think newer ballet-goers could enjoy this film to the fullest extent, so I hope they correct that small detail.

 

 

 

 

 

[bridiem]

Terrific documentary, and extremely moving. So much wonderful footage, much of which I'd never seen before. Just beautiful.

[alison]

3 hours ago, maryrosesatonapin said:

Another thing that was said is that when choreographing a new ballet, Ashton would bring in a number of different observers during the early stages to see what they could understand of the intended story.  What a good idea.  Something that I feel is not always done in new, modern works.

 

I think that was only for The Dream, wasn't it?

[Two Pigeons]

Please, please, please will someone have the foresight to interview and film Lynn Seymour talking about her memories of working with Ashton while we still have the opportunity.  She is so fearsomely intelligent and she clearly adored him but I feel her contribution to British (and world) ballet is getting so overlooked these days.

 

I found her explanation about the original cast of Birthday Offering so enlightening and delivered with the authority of someone who was there in the mid to late 50s and knew all these ballerinas I just wanted her to carry on talking.  If only we had the chance to hear her expand on creating the Young Girl in Two Pigeons, Natalya in Month in the Country and, most of all, Isadora Duncan in the Five Brahms Waltzes which told you far more about Duncan as a dancer and personality than the later full length ballet ever did.

[maryrosesatonapin]

13 hours ago, alison said:

 

I think that was only for The Dream, wasn't it?

Maybe you're right, Alison - I don't have time to re-watch at the moment but I doubt it was the only time he sought such feedback.

[alison]

15 hours ago, Two Pigeons said:

Please, please, please will someone have the foresight to interview and film Lynn Seymour talking about her memories of working with Ashton while we still have the opportunity.  She is so fearsomely intelligent and she clearly adored him but I feel her contribution to British (and world) ballet is getting so overlooked these days.

 

I found her explanation about the original cast of Birthday Offering so enlightening and delivered with the authority of someone who was there in the mid to late 50s and knew all these ballerinas I just wanted her to carry on talking.  If only we had the chance to hear her expand on creating the Young Girl in Two Pigeons, Natalya in Month in the Country and, most of all, Isadora Duncan in the Five Brahms Waltzes which told you far more about Duncan as a dancer and personality than the later full length ballet ever did.

 

Yes, it's very disappointing that we get to hear so little from her.  I still treasure memories of her coaching Tamara Rojo as Juliet - a video which has unfortunately disappeared from the MacMillan website  

[Fonty]

I couldn't believe it when they said Ashton created Ophelia for Fonteyn when she was 58.  So I went hunting around on Youtube, and low and behold, I found some footage of Fonteyn and Nureyev dated 1977.  Goodness me, and there she was, on point, dancing beautifully.  

 

Fascinating clips of the dancers performing Birthday Offering as well.  It looked wonderful.  Why did it look so good in a bit of grainy black and white film, and so dull when I saw the last revival at Covent Garden?  

Edited November 22, 2021 by Fonty

[LinMM]

Does Lynn Seymour get asked to coach dancers these days.....just thinking about Month in the Country coming up. 
As the Creator of one of the main roles you’d think she would be. Very privileged to have seen her with the original cast in this. 
She was wonderful as Isadora too. 

 

[Rina]

I think Lynne Wake has made a great documentary. Her film is very well structured and bursts with insights, communicating on several levels at once. In focusing on the creative process - and letting fragments of biography fall out where they will - she opens up a space for viewers to make their own links, so to speak, between the diverse factors making up Ashton's creativity and the delicate task of performing his works in the 21st century.

 

I was struck by the ways in which rehearsing a new cast could draw so much on Ashton's original creative process, as if it were a re-creative process in its own right rather than just preparing for a performance. For example, when Anthony Dowell was teaching Dance of the Blessed Spirits to Vadim Muntagirov, it was clear that he was not just demonstrating the movement; the way that Muntagirov noticed the beauty of Dowell's hands and regarded them as "speaking" suggested he was seeing in Dowell something which had attracted Ashton to him. In other words, a dancer rehearsed by a first cast member can experience at first hand the Muse which inspired the work, however one likes to understand the word, and in a mysterious way can stand in the choreographer's shoes. At the end, Dowell kisses his own hand and places it on Muntagirov's head, which suggests that this "passing on" of a role (a phrase used frequently in the film) can be a kind of blessing.

 

I was also impressed by David Bintley (eloquent throughout) when describing his experience of dancing (presumably as Elgar though he doesn't actually say so) in the finale of Enigma Variations. He says it was extraordinary, feeling he was absolutely in the middle of it, everyone in role around him, the friends "pictured within" in Elgar's phrase. It was clearly a deep experience for him. I associate his words with those of Antoinette Sibley earlier on when she recounted how Ashton would come into the studio saying he had had a dream and he wanted her to dance like the river in his dream: she says that "you really put into action his dreams". Dream images are perhaps the purest form of the imagination, far away from ordinary consciousness, requiring metaphorical thinking to relate to them. (Elgar finding musical images for his friendships, Ashton dance images for the music, Bintley like a dreamer surrounded by images from both sources?) I'd suggest that this sense of ballet as an externalised dream, where what is "pictured within" seems to be alive and dancing around you is of the essence in this "passing on". There seems more to it than the "choreographic intent" which Lynn Wallis says she is seeking to transmit, perhaps because it's not fully definable. 

 

In relating their experience of Symphonic Variations it was remarkable how everyone spoke of the ballet's spiritual quality - Henry Danton (elevated, out of this world), Gillian Lynne (it was thrilling spiritually), Bintley (spiritual spring, absolute distillation). I sometimes see the dancers' bodies as clothes for spirit. "Passing on" could be a kind of investiture. I recall the story how Ashton reacted to a performance of Symphonics in the 1970s or 80s  - "The ballet's dead" he said, adding "but the steps are there". This highlights the challenge. You can have all the right steps, angles, positions on stage, musical appreciation, ideas about emotion, inner images - and yet the ballet may still not emerge as a living being if it lacks the spirit or soul or mix of the two which accompanied its creation, as if every great ballet acts as a lure to some passing planetary spirit or daimon or genius. As long as the daimon remains, the ballet will continue to live. It will still "work" and "exert an influence" on the dancers, as Bintley says. Somehow a revival or a new production has to activate the creative sparks present at its birth, even though the conditions are very different.

 

But there is an "elephant in the room" in the film. Passing-on can only occur if the ballets are still being regularly performed but both Royal companies are failing to do this. Christopher Nourse gives the impression in the film that Ashton is being performed widely all around the world, but apart from Sarasota and isolated works here and there, is there much being done? I hope that the documentary will act as a stimulus to more Ashton performances.

 

[bridiem]

Thank you for this beautiful and illuminating post, Rina.

[Lizbie1]

I think this is an absolutely lovely film - and the closing bars made me long to see Fille on stage right now. (Along with SV, the Dream, Enigma Variations, Birthday Offering...)

[maryrosesatonapin]

@Rina I agree with every word you say, and you expressed it far more beautifully than I could have done.

 

 

[jmhopton]

1 hour ago, maryrosesatonapin said:

@Rina I agree with every word you say, and you expressed it far more beautifully than I could have done.

 

 

Yes, especially the last paragraph about the 'elephant in the room'. Terrible that Sarasota Ballet perform far more unusual Ashton works than do either RB Companies. I know the RB has a much larger rep but their founder choreographer should be better represented in terms of preserving his more unusual works while there are still original cast members who worked with him. Sadly  they won't be around forever. 

[Sim]

On 24/11/2021 at 18:46, Lizbie1 said:

I think this is an absolutely lovely film - and the closing bars made me long to see Fille on stage right now. 

Me too, Lizbie.  I have just watched this film and hearing that music at the end brought a tear to my eye.  I so hope they will show it next season.   The whole film was fascinating, and how amazing to see a clip of the RB's two genius choreographers arm in arm, dancing the Ugly Stepsisters from Cinderella.  

[FLOSS]

The film is far less guarded than I had anticipated it might be and I can't help thinking that must be because it was made for the Ashton Foundation rather than by or for the company where people have professional reputations to maintain as specialist Ashton coaches and custodians of the much reduced Ashton repertory.  I find the film is as interesting for what it doesn't say as it is for what does . It managed to provide a lot of useful information and provide some very useful archival material which we might not have seen if it had not been for the Pandemic. If things had been normal we might well have had today's dancers performing the choreography and that would have been a great loss. Here are a few thoughts on its contents.

 

The first important point which is rarely mentioned or considered today is what it means to be a company's founder choreographer and the sort of  power such an individual has over the company which employs him. I think this is often seen today simply in terms of the company developing to the point at which it was in a position to employ a choreographer rather than in terns of what he did for the company  by creating and developing its unique style, its unique repertory and when Markova left developing its next ballerina with a mixture of new ballets which played to her strengths as a lyrical, expressive dancer and works which challenged her technically and artistically helping to develop her as an artist. Bintley, a practising choreographer and  outstanding character artist, makes some important points about Ashton as a working  choreographer emphasising his singular originality and invention while drawing attention to the way in which, as a practical man of the theatre, he assists the performer who cares to think to create the character he is to portray through the interrelationship of apparently unconnected but strategically  placed bits of stage business. Bintley's enthusiasm for the man and his works is infectious and it provides an effective antidote to those who see Ashton , or wish to treat him, as little more than a necessary but unimportant  precursor to the Royal Ballet's towering genius, MacMillan whose works today are central to the company's repertory with Ashton reduced to a walk on supporting role. 

 

Again I think that Seymour who is often seen simply as a MacMillan dancer, although Ashton made three major roles for her, makes an extremely important point when she talks about Ashton's centrality to the company's creativity and talks about "Ashton's children having strong bones" thus making it clear how much she thinks the next generation of choreographers which included MacMillan, Cranko and Darrell owed to Ashton the choreographer. I have to say I hope that there are many more hours of film of both Bintley and Seymour talking about Ashton.

 

Then there is now the section on Symphonic Variations which I think makes it clear that at some level the ballet in the form it was finally staged still retains elements of the devotional writings which are said to have inspired Ashton to make the ballet, even if they are now evocative and diffuse rather than literal and specific. It is good to see people who danced it in the ballet's initial seasons emphasise its joyous nature and the sense of freedom it gave its early casts as a ballet full of barely expressed feelings which Sibley once described as what it must feel like if you had died and found you had gone to heaven. I think that we should all be grateful for the two things which made that ballet possible. The first is that Ashton got the idea of staging ballets  based on  literary and allegorical sources out of his system with his wartime ballet The Quest which was based  on Spenser's Faerie Queene. Second that he became a born again exponent of classical ballet largely in reaction to Helpmann's expressionist ballet but I can't help thinking that when he expressed his commitment to the cause of classical ballet and rejected ballets based based on literary sources he was also speaking about himself.As a convert he remained committed to the cause of ballet using the classical idiom until his death.

 

It was interesting to hear from people who were immediately involved in the creation of his ballets. Sleep was right to give the viewer an understanding of the range of Ashton's experience in the commercial theatre working for men who would not have accepted the second rate or the self indulgent from anyone,but wrong I think to pray in aid British pantomime for the presence of travesti roles in his ballets. Although this belief might explain why his performances in Cinderella were so brash and vulgar,he ought to be aware , but clearly isn't, that travesti roles are part of a very ancient theatre tradition which is not confined to the British Isles. What Sibley had to say about the Dream not being based on pure classical movement should help point the way for those who coach the work as should her description of Titania being a really sexy fairy, as she has of late become far to straight laced and demure. Such comments are useful at a time when much of the expressive detail in Ashton's choreography is smoothed down to make his choreography conform to the sort of classical choreographer those in charge of the repertory in the rehearsal studio believe him to have been rather than the one he actually was.

 

If it was interesting and useful to hear the dancers of the past speak about Ashton's ballets seeing dancers on film whom he would have coached should have come as a revelation as there is just so much more vibrant detail on show in them. The fairies in the Dream did not just make a polite ballet gesture to indicate that they were listening they looked as if they were straining every muscle to hear, and so it went on. The excerpt from the 1962 recording of Birthday Offering showing the solos with Seymour describing the special qualities of each dancer that Ashton sought to showcase should have made virtually everyone involved in the last revival hang their heads in shame, while the film of Nimrod with its original cast was a wonderful reminder of Beriosova's unique qualities of serenity and simple graciousness. While Lynn Wallis who made a good job of staging Birthday Offering in Argentina made it very clear that there is far more to staging Ashto than getting the steps right, but then most of us have known that for a very long time. The one aspect of the film that was more than a little disconcerting was the extent to which certain guardians of the works were prepared to talk about the changes they have made to the choreography. All in all it is a very useful document which should be followed up by a Seymour film and at least a Bintley one about the ballets.

 

 

[Fonty]

On 10/12/2021 at 14:32, FLOSS said:

Again I think that Seymour who is often seen simply as a MacMillan dancer, although Ashton made three major roles for her, makes an extremely important point when she talks about Ashton's centrality to the company's creativity and talks about "Ashton's children having strong bones" thus making it clear how much she thinks the next generation of choreographers which included MacMillan, Cranko and Darrell owed to Ashton the choreographer. I have to say I hope that there are many more hours of film of both Bintley and Seymour talking about Ashton.

 

 

 

It is hard to imagine two dancers who are less alike than Fonteyn and Seymour, when it comes to creating a role.  Sadly, I have seen very little of the latter, there don't seem to be many clips, but there are the roles created for her by MacMillan, so I have got a good idea of what sort of dancer she was.  However, I knew she was also the person who created the lead role in The Two Pigeons, and presumably Ashton chose her precisely because of her dramatic skills, and ability to create certain types of character.  I remember seeing an interview with her about the role, and she said the girl was meant to be "hoydenish."  It stuck in my mind, because it is not a word that I would normally associate with female leads in ballets. 

 

I think this was part of the problem when I saw The Two Pigeons the last time it was on a Covent Garden. I saw several different dancers, but I wouldn't have said any of them could possibly be described as wild, boisterous tomboys (to use the dictionary definition of hoydenish.)  Rather they seemed to make the girl rather delicate and dainty.  Which might explain why the ballet came across as twee at times.  

Edited December 20, 2021 by Fonty

[Lizbie1]

2 minutes ago, Fonty said:

I think this was part of the problem when I saw The Two Pigeons the last time it was on a Covent Garden. I saw several different dancers, but I wouldn't have said any of them could possibly be described as wild, boisterous tomboys (to use the dictionary definition of hoydenish.)  Rather they seemed to make the girl rather delicate and dainty.  Which might explain why the ballet came across as twee at times.  

 

Did you see Beatriz Stix-Brunell? She definitely brought a tomboyish edge to it IMO. 

[Fonty]

1 minute ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

Did you see Beatriz Stix-Brunell? She definitely brought a tomboyish edge to it IMO. 

 

I didn't, no.  A pity, I read the rave reviews about her on here.  

Edited December 20, 2021 by Fonty