What is Ashton's place in the arts as a whole?

[Rina]

The programme for the current Ashton triple bill includes an appreciative article by Mark Monahan, the Arts Editor and Chief Dance Critic of the Daily Telegraph, in which he states that Ashton created "a body of work as great as any across the entire artistic spectrum". I was rather moved by this, and it set me thinking - what are the qualities in Ashton's work which would mark him out as being in the first rank of the arts as a whole?

 

The first thing which comes to mind is its seemingly effortless grace and nonchalence, which conceals all of the work which has gone into making it - a quality personified by the raised hands at the end of Rhapsody. It's the ease which you feel in front of a Raphael - as i did in the National Gallery the day before the triple bill. The very last painting in the Raphael exhibition is of his friend Baldassare Castiglione who coined a word for this nonchalence - sprezzatura - specifically to refer to the way the body moves in space.

 

Another quality is the way Ashton fuses apparently opposite tendencies: as has been said before in this forum, his style is like a combination of "Isadora above the waist, Cecchetti below it". It's paradoxical - you have to put together inconsistencies - "abandoned precision" for example. It would be fascinating to think of other phrases of this kind. It is Shakespearean - combining the noble with the lowly, for example in Capriol Suite, the courtly and melancholy pavane with the knockabout, boisterous Mattachins dance for the men. In A Month in the Country, there is the episode of the lost keys. It's daft, but something else is going on: it is so well made that it conceals its metaphorical layers - finding and losing, searching like lost souls, being found by love, or found out, the rose, and so on. It's interesting that it's Natalia Petrovna who finds the keys.

 

I'd also mention his work with myth. Myths and fairy tales show in personified forms the basic patterns of the imagination. Ashton was drawn to them throughout his career, whether they are implied as in Symphonic Variations or express such as with Daphnis and Chloe. Or the elements, literal, embodied, and metaphorical - as with Ondine, the water spirit.

 

In antiquity and the Renaissance, it was a favourite topic of conversation to compare the qualities of the arts. Is poetry the chief of the arts, or painting, and why? they would enquire. Having been interested in the arts all of my life, and dabbled in them a bit myself, I know that classical ballet can speak in a way that no other art form can. Ashton's danced images have extraordinary power. They are dramatic, poetic, sculptural, figurative, musical - and yet more; perhaps they have another kind of reality, which we long for, but cannot name, only glimpse through our responses as we watch.

 

I feel convinced that Monahan is right in his judgment, but struggle to express in words exactly why. I wonder what others think?

 

[bridiem]

It seems to me, Rina, that you have in fact expressed very beautifully the nature of Ashton's genius. Thank you.

[Lizbie1]

Thank you, Rina, for reminding me of sprezzatura, which is sometimes used for the very best opera singers as well. I've been groping for the right word in reference to Ashton: the best I could come up with was "taste", but in the (possibly more old-fashioned?) sense of knowing exactly where the line is and not being afraid of introducing what in lesser hands might become vulgarity. But then that doesn't cover the swan-paddling-below-the-water skill of it all.

[maryrosesatonapin]

I'd rate him as at least a Rossini or a Reynolds.  Not a Mozart or Michelangelo.  But very wonderful and so delightfully witty, elegant and understated.  (Well Rhapsody is far from understated, but you know what I mean.)

[JNC]

It is difficult to compare art forms but within dance I thought some of the choreography in A Month in the Country had flashes of MacMillan as I was reminded of Manon and Romeo and Juliet. 
 

And patterns of Sleeping Beauty in Scenes (as Christopher Carr pointed out in the very insightful insight) and some of Swan Lake in Rhapsody (where the females have their faces covered and when each one is approached by the lead male they move their arms and drift away as they are not who he is looking for). 
 

It was very nice to see a triple reflecting the heritage of what came before but also that hopefully inspired future works. 
 

Thank you @Rina for your interesting thoughts and making me think as well! 

Edited May 2, 2022 by JNC

[LinMM]

A really interesting post Rina many thanks for that 😊 
I couldn’t say personally where he stands in the whole world of Arts as am definitely not erudite enough to do that.  
In ballet terms however  he somehow seems to get right  to the heart of what he wanted to express in each piece via the perfect  marriage of the choreography with the music which is one of the reasons his work is so satisfying. 

It is interesting that in a post above  he has been “rated” as a composer and artist not as high as Mozart or Michelangelo!
But the way these latter two can truly touch the soul in some of their works is similar to Ashton in some of his. So certainly shares  moments of greatness with them! Although the latter two were much more prolific. 

Edited May 3, 2022 by LinMM

[bridiem]

5 minutes ago, LinMM said:

A really interesting post Rina many thanks for that 😊 
I couldn’t say personally where he stands in the whole world of Arts as am definitely not erudite enough to do that.  
In ballet terms however  he somehow seems to get right  to the heart of what he wanted to express in each piece via the perfect  marriage of the choreography with the music which is one of the reasons his work is so satisfying. 

It is interesting that in a post above  he has been “rated” as a composer and artist not as high as Mozart or Michelangelo!
But the way these latter two can truly touch the soul in some of their works is similar to Ashton in some of his. So certainly shares  moments of greatness with them! Although the latter two were much more prolific. 

 

Yes - if he is to be 'rated', as far as I'm concerned he's up there with the greats.

[Jan McNulty]

37 minutes ago, LinMM said:

A really interesting post Rina many thanks for that 😊 
I couldn’t say personally where he stands in the whole world of Arts as am definitely not erudite enough to do that.  
In ballet terms however  he somehow seems to get right  to the heart of what he wanted to express in each piece via the perfect  marriage of the choreography with the music which is one of the reasons his work is so satisfying. 

It is interesting that in a post above  he has been “rated” as a composer and artist not as high as Mozart or Michelangelo!
But the way these latter two can truly touch the soul in some of their works is similar to Ashton in some of his. So certainly shares  moments of greatness with them! Although the latter two were much more prolific. 

 

Lovely words Linda and I agree with every word.

[alison]

46 minutes ago, LinMM said:

In ballet terms however  he somehow seems to get right  to the heart of what he wanted to express in each piece via the perfect  marriage of the choreography with the music which is one of the reasons his work is so satisfying.  

 

Of course, as with any creator, over the course of time some works which perhaps have been less successful (as well as some which should never have been allowed to) will have fallen by the wayside, so we are perhaps discussing the "core" Ashton canon, rather than the entirety of his works.

[Rina]

Interesting responses - thank you. One thing I learn from this forum is the validity of one's own response to watching ballet. A fundamental trust in one's own responses to the arts gives the confidence to dig deeper.

 

If I say that La Fille mal Gardee is the happiest work of art ever created, it is true according to my own response to it. I would have to reflect long and hard even to bring together comparisons across the arts. Matisse's paintings from Collioure after his breakthough into pure colour might be one. Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, perhaps. But I only have to bring into the mind's eye Widow Simone being cajoled into her clogs to break into a smile and sense a deep pleasure.

 

Watching Ashton, I feel a profound sense of harmony. It is really not unlike the sensations involved when contemplating a Raphael. I would describe it as having one's being re-ordered, as if it has been out of sorts and needed to rediscover its place in the cosmos. On a mundane level, it is like asking a naive question - which comes out in a rather incoherent, inchoate fashion - of a beloved teacher who answers it by returning it in a crystal clear form,  with an answer which affirms the desire for knowledge that underlay the original question. Going into the auditorium to see an Ashton ballet, I am in my usual muddle but emerge more alive, with new patterns of being.

 

We could compare him with the composers who inspired him. Perhaps he recognised his own sensibility in theirs - Ravel, Liszt etc. I thought of Ashton when listening recently to Handel - the same combination of exuberance, steppy, skipping rhythms and piercing tragic melancholy. Or Henry Purcell. Yet for every ten people who have heard of Handel's Messiah, would there be even one who knows Symphonic Variations?

 

I sometimes wish we had the same appreciation for beauty in the particulars of small scale arts that the Japanese have - ceramics here are still afflicted by the craft label, but there it is a highly valued art. The choreographic transformation of music into dance images in the hands of an artist such as Ashton is an art of such subtlety and beauty - how one dancer's line is often continued by another's, for example. It is a form of natural magic. Working with moods and atmospheres as he does is very close to the world of the dream.

 

It makes me happy to speak in this way. I hope we can continue this thread a while longer.

 

 

[bridiem]

I think that Ashton does what all great artists do: he gives us a glimpse of the transcendent reality we cannot see in our day-to-day lives. I was reminded of this when reading Rina's description above - incoherence is enlightened by clarity and harmony. (cf St Paul - 'For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.' 1 Corinthians 13:12.) I don't mean that all great art arises out of a religious sensibility; but I do think that it's always to some extent (and no matter what form it takes, or what the subject matter may be) the expression of a greater reality. I'm also reminded of J. R. R. Tolkien's essay 'On Fairy-Stories' - Tolkien believed that in writing, man is not a primary creator but a sub-creator, reflecting something of God's eternal light. For me, Ashton is one of ballet's great 'writers'.

[Sim]

1 hour ago, Rina said:

Interesting responses - thank you. One thing I learn from this forum is the validity of one's own response to watching ballet. A fundamental trust in one's own responses to the arts gives the confidence to dig deeper.

 

If I say that La Fille mal Gardee is the happiest work of art ever created, it is true according to my own response to it. I would have to reflect long and hard even to bring together comparisons across the arts. Matisse's paintings from Collioure after his breakthough into pure colour might be one. Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, perhaps. But I only have to bring into the mind's eye Widow Simone being cajoled into her clogs to break into a smile and sense a deep pleasure.

 

Watching Ashton, I feel a profound sense of harmony. It is really not unlike the sensations involved when contemplating a Raphael. I would describe it as having one's being re-ordered, as if it has been out of sorts and needed to rediscover its place in the cosmos. On a mundane level, it is like asking a naive question - which comes out in a rather incoherent, inchoate fashion - of a beloved teacher who answers it by returning it in a crystal clear form,  with an answer which affirms the desire for knowledge that underlay the original question. Going into the auditorium to see an Ashton ballet, I am in my usual muddle but emerge more alive, with new patterns of being.

 

We could compare him with the composers who inspired him. Perhaps he recognised his own sensibility in theirs - Ravel, Liszt etc. I thought of Ashton when listening recently to Handel - the same combination of exuberance, steppy, skipping rhythms and piercing tragic melancholy. Or Henry Purcell. Yet for every ten people who have heard of Handel's Messiah, would there be even one who knows Symphonic Variations?

 

I sometimes wish we had the same appreciation for beauty in the particulars of small scale arts that the Japanese have - ceramics here are still afflicted by the craft label, but there it is a highly valued art. The choreographic transformation of music into dance images in the hands of an artist such as Ashton is an art of such subtlety and beauty - how one dancer's line is often continued by another's, for example. It is a form of natural magic. Working with moods and atmospheres as he does is very close to the world of the dream.

 

It makes me happy to speak in this way. I hope we can continue this thread a while longer.

 

 

And it makes me happy to read such a lovely expression of how you feel about art and its effect on your soul and wellbeing.  I totally agree with you, but could never have put it into words as you have. 

[bridiem]

On the triple bill thread, Jane S has linked this Dancing Times article by Daniel Pratt of the Sarasota Ballet - he writes about Scènes de Ballet from a dancer's point of view and is illuminating about the work in a way that also illuminates Ashton's genius:

 

https://www.dancing-times.co.uk/dancing-scenes-de-ballet/

[Emeralds]

That’s a good question, Rina. I must say I think in Britain we are too self deprecating about home grown talents.

 

Firstly, how important is Ashton in the world of ballet.....I’d say he is up there with Petipa, Bournonville, Balanchine, Ivanov, Perrot, Robbins, etc - all the greats. This isn’t just hometown bias. If you have a look at the repertoire of all the major companies of the world, the list of major companies and dance institutions (before you count the smaller ones) that have an Ashton work or several in their repertoire is very long.

 

They include American Ballet Theatre, National Ballet of Canada, Australian Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, La Scala, Royal Danish Ballet (had- as Ashton’s Romeo and Juliet has now been replaced with Neumeier’s but it was still there for a long time), Tokyo Ballet, Joffrey Ballet (again, their rep is now different but still counts when one considers how many they had), New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet etc .....the list goes on.

 

Also impressive was the fact that despite having had a traditional production of La Fille mal Gardee for years with the alternative Hertel score, both Paris Opera Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet decided recently that they too wanted the Ashton version and duly acquired it, and it has been very popular with audiences. Grant Coyle and other Ashton repetiteurs are constantly kept busy going around the world to stage his works.

 

Apart from Balanchine, I’m not sure any other non living choreographer’s original work is or has been so sought after. MacMillan and Robbins’ works are gradually catching up with Ashton and Balanchine, but I believe Ashton is still performed by more companies. 

 

One unique quality Ashton had as a choreographer was how much input he welcomed -indeed, insisted on - from his dancers. Choreography is often a collaborative process although some choreographers also prefer to be very prescriptive (eg Grigorovich is said to have given strict instructions for every step and movement so much that Bolshoi dancers found it very hard not being told what to do when other choreographers were invited to work with them, while Choo-San Goh was known to have prepared everything extensively and would dance every single role to demonstrate his choreography). Ashton was the complete opposite in asking his dancers to come up with ideas for the steps. While this became a bit of an in joke that it felt like the dancers were choreographing the ballet for him while he just tweaked things here and there, it has resulted in a rich variety of movements and character in each ballet he made. Fille looks nothing like Scenes de ballet which looks nothing like Marguerite & Armand, which looks nothing like Monotones which looks nothing like Rhapsody etc. There is great originality, range and versatility, though all use classical ballet technique/language. Although the story ballets are marked by great detail in characterisation, and the “Fred step” sequence appears from time to time, they don’t look or sound the same as each other.

 

What is also wonderful about the input from the dancers is that you can now see them and their unique qualities imprinted in an Ashton ballet- the long lines and elegance (plus some tricky balances and turns!) in roles made for Anthony Dowell, the jumps and lightness in Fille and Birthday Offering for Nadia Nerina, the contrast between the elegant arabesques in The Two Pigeons and A Month in the Country for Lynn Seymour and the charming fast footwork or use of the arms and angles of the head in roles for Margot Fonteyn in Ondine, Scenes de ballet, Birthday Offering, Sylvia etc. You never feel “same old same old” when you approach an Ashton ballet, because there is no formula being repeated. 

 

How important is he to the arts? Well, the twentieth century could probably be described as the century where ballet became democratic and independent - freed from being court entertainment for kings, tsars, and noble patrons, and also the century that it became empowered and enlightened- grown up, taking its place side by side with painting, music and plot/drama thanks to Massine, Fokine and other creators working with Diaghilev such as Stravinsky, Bakst and Picasso, and not being forced to squeeze behind music hall, revue or worse like it did in nineteenth century Paris when its status fell into decline and dancers became “for hire” in the worst sense.

 

These two important changes occurred in part thanks to three developments- 1) the various Ballets Russes becoming self sufficient companies that could turn a profit from touring to pay its dancers and choreographers, inspiring others to do the same, 2) Ninette de Valois setting up her school and a company in Britain that would inspire other women to do similarly in Canada, Australia, etc and other new democracies/nations taking note of her example when thinking of establishing their own national ballet companies, 3) Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein setting up a school and company in New York with similar aims of financial and artistic independence, with the Christensens doing the same in San Francisco. 

 

With Ashton being de Valois’s earliest long serving and prolific choreographer, twentieth century ballet wouldn’t be what it is today without Ashton. There have been other 20th century choreographers who made perhaps even more works than Ashton- most have stopped being performed when the choreographers passed away or left the companies, very few have been sought by other companies or other countries. You couldn’t have the arts today without ballet, and you couldn’t have ballet without Ashton. 

 

Some of us use the classical music angle as comparison. If I had to do the same, in terms of style and method of working (not just in terms of time frame), I’d say Bournonville is Bach (both were similarly prolific), Petipa is Mozart, Ivanov is Schubert, Perrot is Gluck, Fokine would be Beethoven, Massine would be Mahler, Balanchine would be Stravinsky (I think he might like that), Ashton would be Prokofiev (minus the government persecution!), MacMillan would be Shostakovich, Robbins would be Leonard Bernstein (for the versatility and range, and not just because both are American and Robbins has actually made ballets to his music). I’ve deliberately avoided choosing Tchaikovsky because of his stature as the composer of the three of the most widely performed classical ballets!

 

I think analogies and comparisons are necessarily imperfect because firstly classical music is an older art form and more reproducible from a score. Also, you can choose for so many different reasons. If you love Haydn immensely, saying Ashton was like Haydn would be the highest compliment; if you thought Haydn is boring and insignificant, it would be a put down to say Ashton was like him. Whether Handel, Haydn or Prokofiev, I’d say Ashton is one of the pillars of ballet history and the history of the performing arts. His most recognisable or easily name checked work?- Cinderella. It’s still the most widely performed version worldwide  (although Wheeldon’s is catching up) even if his “home company” has been without it for 11 years....though hopefully that will change in March 2023. 

 

DOI: I also rate Paul Taylor, Wayne McGregor, Crystal Pite, John Cranko, Roland Petit, Martha Graham, William Forsythe, and Twyla Tharp highly, to name just a small selection of choreographers! 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Emeralds

[Rina]

On 04/05/2022 at 12:28, bridiem said:

I think that Ashton does what all great artists do: he gives us a glimpse of the transcendent reality we cannot see in our day-to-day lives.

 

Well put Bridiem. Your words remind me of Ashton's comment quoted by David Vaughan that a choreographer "should deal with that which is spiritual and eternal rather than that which is material and temporary". It's interesting that Daniel Pratt, in that marvellous article you re-posted from Jane S, says that Scenes de Ballet "has something eternal about it".

 

Brendan McCarthy thought that Ashton's ballets had strong roots in the Catholic world into which he was born: https://dancelog.blogspot.com/2004/09/choreographer-in-carmel-tablet-11.html His experience as a server to the Archbishop of Lima taught Ashton - in his own words - "to time things rightly and to make effects at leisure, and the proper times for climaxes and the whole rightful measure of things and the ecstasy of ritual" (Kavanagh, Secret Muses, p.23). I think that phrase "the whole rightful measure of things" is important to this thread. It doesn't require belief of any kind. I don't know whether Ashton would have accepted any religious labels for himself. The phrase points to an inherent beauty and meaning in life.

 

In the ancient Greek world of Euclid and Plato, the "rightful measure of things" connected the world of the gods to the world of nature. The movements of the sun and moon and the planets were images of eternity in time. The rhythms of nature, and of the body, were in harmony with them so that music and dance also partook of the eternal. Sir John Davies's long poem Orchestra, which was much admired by Queen Elizabeth I, elaborates this basic idea - that everything dances because dance is the best metaphor for life. I am reminded of Daniel Pratt's reference to Ashton's use of the whole body - "every elbow and eyelash". I love Davies's poem because he sees everything in terms of dance -

 

All learned arts, and every great affair,

A lively shape of dancing seems to bear.

...

For what are breath, speech, echoes, music, winds,

But dancings of the air, in sundry kinds?

 

He also regards Eros as the guiding influence behind the dance:

 

Kind nature first doth cause all things to love;

Love makes them dance, and in just order move.

 

Bridiem made a fascinating observation about Scenes de Ballet in the Triple Bill thread: "Ashton seems to be revealing the hidden structure of time, of the universe, of creation in his work." Another reason perhaps why Ashton belongs in the pantheon of great artists in whatever medium. As with the poets, he could see through literal reality to the metaphorical. He knew how to use the body's lines and angles and turns in space to reveal the hidden depths of soul.

 

[Emeralds]

Addendum: I just did a little check on Joffrey Ballet to update my intel: it seems that while they couldn’t/didn’t hang on to Les Illuminations, La Fille mal Gardee and several other Ashton ballets when they moved from New York to Chicago and changed the company manifesto, they have actually kept Monotones II in the repertory and added Cinderella! (That’s another company that has had his Cinderella while Royal Ballet dancers and audiences have gone without for 11 years!) Roll on March 2023. 😊

Edited May 6, 2022 by Emeralds

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, Rina said:

Brendan McCarthy thought that Ashton's ballets had strong roots in the Catholic world into which he was born: https://dancelog.blogspot.com/2004/09/choreographer-in-carmel-tablet-11.html His experience as a server to the Archbishop of Lima taught Ashton - in his own words - "to time things rightly and to make effects at leisure, and the proper times for climaxes and the whole rightful measure of things and the ecstasy of ritual" (Kavanagh, Secret Muses, p.23). I think that phrase "the whole rightful measure of things" is important to this thread. It doesn't require belief of any kind. I don't know whether Ashton would have accepted any religious labels for himself. The phrase points to an inherent beauty and meaning in life.

 

In the ancient Greek world of Euclid and Plato, the "rightful measure of things" connected the world of the gods to the world of nature. The movements of the sun and moon and the planets were images of eternity in time. The rhythms of nature, and of the body, were in harmony with them so that music and dance also partook of the eternal. Sir John Davies's long poem Orchestra, which was much admired by Queen Elizabeth I, elaborates this basic idea - that everything dances because dance is the best metaphor for life. I am reminded of Daniel Pratt's reference to Ashton's use of the whole body - "every elbow and eyelash". I love Davies's poem because he sees everything in terms of dance

 

Thank you for these wonderfully illuminating references, Rina - Brendan McCarthy's article/blog is so interesting, and I'd never heard of Orchestra but will now read it - it sounds terrific! I realise I must also re-read Secret Muses - I'm shocked to see that it was published 26 years ago so I will read it in quite a different way now. Something to look forward to!

[Emeralds]

About the Lost Keys scene you mentioned in A Month in the Country, Rina, a couple of critics have in the past have also said they don’t know why that scene is there, presumably meaning since the music with the same theme that Vera and Kolya dance to is still playing, why not just get another character to dance?

 

I think that’s the point. While a lesser choreographer would say, we MUST fill up the music with steps, Ashton has chosen to show us more about the characters. Yslaev is the father and husband, host to his friend Rakitin, and important in the household, yet Ashton demonstrates that when he comes back prematurely from his walk/journey flustered, his children (if you consider his foster daughter also his child) and his maid help him search, but his wife doesn’t care at first, preferring to continue conversing with their guest instead, This shows that she really isn’t all that interested or in love with Yslaev any more (if she ever was in the first place). It’s only when a Yslaev goes over to interrupt by asking if she’s seen them that she sighs, with a look of “You’re so scatterbrained”, and with Rakitin also joining in the search, manages to find them (in the desk) more quickly than anyone else. I think it shows his genius and skill at storytelling and plot development. Lesser or inexperienced dancemakers would be tempted to fill up every bar of music with solos or steps, which then risks it losing tension and pace, but Ashton knows when the characters need to dance, and when to stop, so that we end up with a better ballet. 

 

The other interesting thing about AMITC is that Ashton resists the temptation to introduce his lead character (Natalia) by having her dance - the complete opposite to the unwritten “rule” in classical ballets where the lead ballerina always makes her entrance with a dance (Kitri, Giselle, Aurora, La Sylphide, Juliet, Swanilda) or at least a dramatic pose or jump (Odette). When the curtain goes up, Natalia is already on stage, on the right, seated. Is she going to get up to dance for us? No. (In fact, the first character who dances is Katya the maid.)  It’s both part of her character -she’s the wife of the millionaire landowner and lady of the manor, so she’s not going to entertain us. Plus, she is bored with her life so she doesn’t feel like dancing at that point.

 

She only gets up to dance, and quite animatedly, after her husband leaves the house. She doesn’t exactly rejoice that he’s gone, but it shows us that she seems to come to life after he’s left!   It’s both brilliant for telling us about her personality and back story as well as adding drama and anticipation: “Isn’t the ballerina going to dance? When? When will we get to see her dance?” 

 

Balanchine in his lifetime also rated Ashton highly, and choreographers who saw Ashton’s work and were influenced by him to find their own voice are many: Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, Ronald Hynd, Christopher Wheeldon, Liam Scarlett, David Bintley, etc. 

 

Still hoping that the Royal Ballet or Birmingham Royal Ballet (or jointly!) will consider putting on an Ashton Festival one day! NYCB has done many - Stravinsky, Ravel and (after his passing) Balanchine, etc - with great success, both artistic and financial.

[Rina]

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

About the Lost Keys scene you mentioned in A Month in the Country, Rina, a couple of critics have in the past have also said they don’t know why that scene is there, presumably meaning since the music with the same theme that Vera and Kolya dance to is still playing, why not just get another character to dance?

 

I think that’s the point. While a lesser choreographer would say, we MUST fill up the music with steps, Ashton has chosen to show us more about the characters.

 

Yes, I think so too, Emeralds. At first sight it seems to be a comic interlude, introduced as a contrast to the darkening of mood just before Beliaev's arrival. But I prefer to read it like a poem - like something by Pablo Neruda or Lorca, or even by Ashton's favourite Rimbaud - with images that can't be fully "understood", only experienced and savoured, and played with.

 

Yslaev enters - he has "lost his keys" - he is all "locked up inside", he has no bearings in his life, no purpose - and by urging everyone to search for them, he infects the household with his own lostness and frustration. It's choreographed movement without dancing: people collide with each other or are lifted out of the way, suggesting a emotional clumsiness and lack of grace in their ordinary social interactions despite their calm and polite exterior. Yslaev is a man who is closed to deep feeling, and by marrying Natalia has "locked her up" emotionally  too. When she gives him the key, it has no meaning for him - it's just a key. But for her - we are left wondering: will there be consequences? Now she has the key, will she continue to lock herself away or will she be open to new experiences? Is it a soul key? The "comic interlude" has presented the dilemma of the ballet, like the opening of a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm.

 

Soon afterwards Beliaev arrives. Unlike Yslaev, who is empty-handed and sucks in the energy of those round him, Beliaev brings a present for Kolya - a kite - with all its associations of play, liberation, open air, connection, opportunity. Kolya shoots an imaginary arrow at them - a sly reference to Eros, who had wings, and flew like Kolya's kite. The arrow will wound where it finds an open heart. Yslev is never wounded because he cannot fly - he is decent but has no imagination. But Natalia's soul opens as she gives Beliaev a rose - like the key to her heart. At the end she lets it drop to the ground, like a broken wing, or a crashed kite. There are several metaphors at work which relate to each other - finding is to losing what opening is to closing, for example. The images could all be taken sexually too - Thomas Moore wrote a beautiful book "The Soul of Sex" finding many intimate connections between the two. At one point Kolya runs around the centre of the stage in circles flying his kite. It's an image that reverberates.

 

 

[Lizbie1]

I've sometimes wondered if the lost keys episode is an oblique reference to Act 4 of the Marriage of Figaro and the business of the lost pin. I know it's the wrong da Ponte/Mozart opera but it could have been in Ashton's head, and the themes of jealousy and potential infidelity run through Figaro as they do through Month.

 

Or maybe others have already said this and it's a known thing!

[Emeralds]

18 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

I've sometimes wondered if the lost keys episode is an oblique reference to Act 4 of the Marriage of Figaro and the business of the lost pin. I know it's the wrong da Ponte/Mozart opera but it could have been in Ashton's head, and the themes of jealousy and potential infidelity run through Figaro as they do through Month.

 

Or maybe others have already said this and it's a known thing!

Good thought, Lizbie1. It is possible!

 

The infidelity part also came to me after I saw the Don Giovanni opera for the first time (long after I’d seen AMITC several times) and recognised the La ci darem la Mano melody being used as a theme in the Chopin variations- I did wonder if it was a sly hint- “Natalia has a husband and a man who is paying her a lot of attention already, but look, like the serial seducer Don Giovanni trying to get Zerlina on her wedding day, she is going to pinch another man too”!

 

Of course, it’s not a completely accurate metaphor as Natalia feels and is to a certain extent truly trapped, being a married woman with two children in her care, so despite wealth, servants and tutors, can’t exactly wander around town or the world like Don Giovanni. I understand that Michael Somes found the music and suggested it to Ashton, but I don’t know if Ashton ever wanted to make a connection with Natalia and any Mozart operas- Giovanni or otherwise - or whether he just picked it because it had the right rhythm for dancing to, and the right length for using in a one act ballet.

 

Both the kite and the keys episodes aren’t in Turgenev’s play, I believe, and in fact when the play begins, Beliayev is already working for them and Kolya is telling Natalia what a brilliant tutor he is. But it doesn’t matter that the plot of the  ballet is slightly different to the play; it’s probably better that it isn’t. I must admit that whenever I see the show, it always reminds me so much of modern day absent minded fathers coming back in after forgetting to take their car keys and not being able to find them (which I suppose is what makes the scene so accessible to audiences) except that I have to remind myself that Yslaev wouldn’t have been driving an automobile with keys in that era. 😂

 

The arrow and Eros imagery is another good metaphor, Rina. I must say I always feel sorry for Kolya when Yslaev, Rakitin and even Matvei don’t want to accompany him to fly his kite!

 

Now I know the Royal Ballet leadership currently aren’t keen on observing anniversaries, but just on a practical and pragmatic - as well as, first and foremost artistic level - the 120th anniversary of Ashton’s birthday is coming up in 2024. Seeing as the MacMillan celebration in 2017 was successful, perhaps a similar collaboration with other national companies could be considered again, otherwise an in-house celebration with just the Royal Ballet dancers would be good too (and push up box office takings). It would be strange not to have an Ashton Celebration when there’s been a MacMillan one and a Bernstein one- and Leonard Bernstein didn’t even write a score for the Royal Ballet or conduct any of their performances. I liked the Bernstein programme, but it just shows that it’s high time there was an Ashton one, perhaps in the 2023-24 season, or the 2024-25 season. So many Ashton gems that audiences and dancers would love to be staged. 

[Rina]

On 07/05/2022 at 17:27, Emeralds said:

I don’t know if Ashton ever wanted to make a connection with Natalia and any Mozart operas- Giovanni or otherwise - or whether he just picked it because it had the right rhythm for dancing to, and the right length for using in a one act ballet.

 

Both the kite and the keys episodes aren’t in Turgenev’s play, I believe, and in fact when the play begins, Beliayev is already working for them and Kolya is telling Natalia what a brilliant tutor he is. But it doesn’t matter that the plot of the  ballet is slightly different to the play; it’s probably better that it isn’t.

 

Your comments Emeralds about Ashton's creative process bring me back to the question of his place in the arts. Shakespeare is sometimes criticised for taking someone else's play, or history or travel book as his starting point, even to the point of plagiarism. But they all end up completely transformed into the imagined world of the theatre. The "story" he begins with is only the literal part, just as the Greek tragedians worked with myths which were already known to the audince.  It's the metamorphosis from the literal to the work of art that matters. Ashton's is a subtle art as he begins with a work of imagination and re-works it in his own medium.

 

Ashton wisely said little about his own process. We know he always immersed himself in the music. Julie Kavanagh has a long section on A Month in the Country in her biography Secret Muses and observes that the episode with the keys may have been inspired by Turgenev's novel First Love; she also makes a lot of other interesting suggestions on Ashton's sources. But I don't think there is anything mechanical about the process or even that Ashton was always consciously aware of the connections. Ashton sought the essence of Turgenev's play - the fate of Natalia Petrovna.

 

In the duet La ci darem, Zerlina is propositioned by the predatory Don Giovanni. She is initially conflicted - "Vorrei e non vorrei" - she wants to surrender to him, and at the same time she doesn't - through a mixture perhaps of fear, propriety, loyalty to her fiance, guilt, doubt about the Don's promise to marry her, and more. This aspect is  forcefully shown in the choreography but near the end of the great pdd. The music is both good for dancing, as Emeralds points out, and psychologically apt: it reverberates with erotic attraction and inhibition, as the words and the drama were distilled in Mozart's imagination.

 

I think it is this distillation - "paring down" Ashton called it - which he shares with the great artists. In the article posted by bridiem, Daniel Pratt says: "What is truly impressive is how [Scenes de Ballet] distils the essence of classicism. ... For me, Ashton's ballets are usually fragrant and aromatic, suffused with a specific time or place". Ashton the great parfumier. By the time he arrived at the rehearsal room he had reduced music and theme to essences and was available to suggestion from the dancers. He could tell whether what he was offered was the outward form of the essence or not, or its potential for being infused by it.  He is like an alchemist distilling the contents of the vessel, and distilling again and again. It is like Fille - there is nothing extraneous left.

 

As well as the characters in Ashton's ballet, we can also imagine Turgenev there as Rakitin, Chopin playing the piano, Zerlina in Natalia's conflicted passion, and many more unseen presences, like ancestors willing us on. That moment when the dancers pause and face us - it elicited some nervous laughter at the performances I attended - is radical. Are they contemplating their fate, or are they questioning us? As if to say, what is this mystery we are living - you and us? The image which abides is Kolya running in a circle with his kite - it bespeaks perfection, an image of eternity, imagined as a dancer in motion bound to Eros.

 

 

[FLOSS]

 I think that the simple, if somewhat glib, answer to this question is "Not that much". For many years Ashton's home company has relied on a very narrow core repertory of Giselle,Sleeping Beauty,Swan Lake, La Bayadere and Nutcracker as its core classic repertory,with the addition of three twentieth century creations by MacMillan, Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Mayerling. These three successful dram-ballets plus four of de Valois' classics and Markarova's staging pf La Bauadere are seen regularly as they are regarded as safe audience pleasing works which are guaranteed to cover  the cost of their revival. The strange thing is that not a single Ashton full length work, not even Fille,features on this list of essential works which what a company's core repertory represents. Of course Kevin will say the right things about the company's founder choreographer when the circumstances demand it ; he will make his dancers available to the Ashton Foundation when  they are needed but he seems unable or unwilling to give Ashton's ballets the stage time they merit.

 

At first sight the 2022-23 season seems to suggest something of a sea change has taken place. Cinderella is to be revived after twelve year's of neglect, it was last seen in 2011, and there are to be twenty eight performances of it. Much as I like Cinderella and welcome its revival,  I can't help thinking that twenty performances would have been a more sensible number and that the remaining eight performance slots would have been put to better use by being allocated to an all Ashton programme devoted to his one act works. And in truth there are any number of possibilities for an all Ashton programme ranging from one built around the work of the Ashton Foundation, to a repeat of the most recent Ashton mixed bill but with Apparitions replacing Month, to a revival of Fille. Another possibility would be a programme which showcased his early works which contain  roles created for Markova  Facade,Les Rendezvous, Foyer de Danse and possibly Les Masques. Such a programme would be welcome although it might require the addition of a further ballet to give it a bit more weight. Again Apparitions would be an ideal make wight as it is the  ballet which marks the point at which the company's leadership began to develop a new leading dancer to replace Markova who had left the Vic-Wells to set up her own company..Apparitions was created at the point at which a replacement ballerina had to be found or created and it was the ballet which announced the arrival of Fonteyn as a potential ballerina. There again if you were looking for an all Fonteyn themed programme and early pre-war Fonteyn, at that, then a programme of Apparitions, Les Patineurs and A Wedding Bouquet would fit the bill as each contains a Fonteyn role. Of course the two Ashton works I would most like to see at present are Daphnis and Chloe and Ondine as the company currently has in Hayward a dancer born to take over the Fonteyn roles in both ballets and make them her own by making those ballets live again.   

 

The breadth of the Ashton repertory provides all sorts of possibilities for the company even if it may be a bit of a headache to a marketing department trying to package him for an audience who may well not have heard of any of the works the company proposes reviving,is inherently suspicious of one act works in general and even more doubtful about rarely performed ones. I am not convinced that audiences who feel increasingly strapped for cash are likely to be prepared to invest the sort of sums now required for an evening at the ballet sitting  in the Amphitheatre.My solution would be to restore the old pre- pricing reform price structure which had been in place since 1946 in which there was a clear differential between the the price of seats in the lower parts of the house and those in the Amphitheatre. If necessary I would revert to Mason's policy of charging less for mixed bills than for full length works. I would also end the practice of offering tickets for McGregpr's full length works at prices lower than those charged for   other full length works.

 

Kevin must be aware of Ashton's ballets' potential to develop technical skills and artistry in his dancers; the pleasure his works bring to audiences and the rich resources they provide for choreographers at any point in their choreographic careers in terms of guidance in structure, the development of ideas, choreographic  expressiveness and eloquence and perhaps the most useful of resources the striking image and the use of allusion for comic and serious effect.I can't help thinking that Kevin really should seriously consider showcasing his more junior dancers in an annual programme of works selected from the pre-war Ashton repertory. Works from this period such as Les Rendezvous may not have been created as training material but they have been used very successfully for that purpose in the past . However these ballets can only really have a positive impact on the company if those works have been fully restored to the active repertory and the bulk of the company have an innate understanding of how they should be presented in performance. It is a question of total mastery of Ashton's choreographic style and the ability to reproduce it idiomatically and imaginatively rather than with dull mechanical accuracy . Such programming  would ensure that everyone becomes familiar with the Ashton style and has it in their bodies. It might help create a real understanding of the company's aesthetic which is at variance with the "display of dance" performance style which everyone is exposed to today, if only on the internet. Inculcating the company aesthetic and style which treats technique as a means to an end rather than an end in itself and places a premium on musicality, expressiveness, interpretative imagination and individual characterisation even in the lowliest soloist roles would benefit the MacMillan repertory as much as it would the Ashton repertory as well as performances of both Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.We might even be able to return to a performance style based on an  innate understanding  of an individual choreographer's personal style or styles; the release of interpretative imagination and skill; placing a premium on the possession of a complete and apparent easy mastery of choreography emphasising that it is artistic and expressive dancing which is required rather than displays of dance or astounding displays of technique.I was disappointed to learn that McRae was disappointed by his performance in the recent revival of Rhapsody because I thought it so much better than his earlier outings in the ballet in which he seemed  at every turm to emphasise the role's difficulties rather than its potential beauties.

 

I confess that I am saddened by the thought that the company's sudden enthusiasm for Cinderella may have considerably more to do with generating income and filling gaps in the schedule caused by new opera productions being abandoned, than renewed interest in Ashton or this particular work. It certainly is not evidence that the company has suddenly realised the error of its ways and is now committed to a new scheduling policy which would see the full range of Ashton's works form part of the regular churn of the company's repertory with major works guaranteed regular  revivals as part of the company's essential core repertory.

 

I think that the real question about Ashton in 2022 is "Apart from Sarasota does Ashton have any part to play in the arts today.?" I say this because while at the time of his death in 1988, Ashton's place in the hierarchy of twentieth century choreographers seemed quite secure his standing today is much diminished. In 1988 he was described in the Radio Times as "one of the greatest choreographers of the twentieth century" but by 2017 those who write the programme descriptions  for the same publication had demoted him to a "hugely influential choreographer in the early years of the last century" which might strike many as more than a little dismissive of a choreographer whose active career spanned the best part of sixty years and whose work was admired on both sides of the Atlantic. I think that Ashton's loss of reputation is the result of a combination of factors. First unlike MacMillan Ashton had no obvious single active advocate for the revival of his works. He had seven beneficiaries most of whom were dancers or former dancers who  felt able to stage the works they had inherited  and saw no need to think beyond their own lifetime as far as custodianship and transmission of their legacies was concerned. Second,Somes' abrupt departure from the company where hw had acted as the custodian and transmitter of the Ashton repertory and style meant that the Ashton repertory suddenly lacked a knowledgeable and accomplished  custodian and stager who knew  and understood the Ashton style and its development over the years, from the inside as a dancer and was committed to maintaining it. Ashton's loss of artistic stature is closely connected to this rupture in the chain of transmission and the change in performance style which began to take place soon after his death.This change I think  reflects the generational change which occurred when four of the most important and influential choreographers working in the western tradition of classical ballet died in little over a decade. Their works and aesthetics had dominated the anglophone world of classical dance  from the death of Diaghilev until the early 1990's. With the deaths of Balanchine in 1983,Tudor in 1987, Ashton in 1988 and MacMillan in 1993 the dominance  of the choreographer's eye and aesthetic taste over performance style came to an abrupt end. As far as the Royal Ballet was concerned this meant the increasing erosion of the company's unique performance style in the classics as well as in works created by Ashton. There was less interest in following Ashton's rules of emploi and less care taken with casting the right dancers in specific roles with the result that revivals of Ashton ballets were not always as effective as they would have been with a more sensitive approach to casting.In addition the absence of a successor choreographer of comparable international status and aesthetic influence capable of dominating the dance world in the way that this earlier generation had done combined with the arrival of Sylvie Guillem and the  increased access to recordings of Soviet style displays of dance led to the dissolution of the old aesthetic world and its replacement by one increasingly dominated by dancers' artistic taste, which given their comparative youth is not necessarily a good thing. Difficulties at the school did not help. By the year 2000 Clement Crisp was saying that the company had lost all sense of the differences in style between the choreographers whose works they danced. 

 

I recognise the difficulties the Ashton repertory presents for the marketing department.His works are far too wide ranging and varied to be easily pigeon-holed and packaged in a way that makes life easy for them. Many would think that the fact that he was capable of working in so many moods and styles would be a compelling reason to ensure that the bulk of his ballets were in the company's active repertory so that every surviving work and those capable of restoration are part of a consistent revival schedule.

 Sadly at present the ballets of the Royal Ballet's founder choreographer are not deemed worthy of regular programming in the way that MacMillan's works are, They are set apart from the company's core repertory by being labelled "heritage works". The description does not seem designed to  stimulate interest in the works to which it is applied. Its use does not seem to me to be intended to generate a burning desire to see the works to which it is applied, rather it seems to suggest that the works in question are old fashioned period pieces without any relevance or interest to today's audiences or dancers.. I think it is telling that in contrast to Ashton's current standing with the company MacMillan's viable dram ballets have escaped the "heritage" label as have works by Balanchine and Robbins. The fact that Ashton's ballets and the company's Diaghilev repertory bear the label "heritage works" while MacMillan's dram ballets and other ballets of similar vintage are simply repertory suggests that management regards those parts of its twentieth century repertory created by Diaghilev's choreographers and its founder choreographer are irrelevant to tday's company and its development.

 

 

"Heritage work" might be translated today as "Not required on the voyage". The meaning of "heritage" seems to have shifted none too subtly over the years. When applied to repertory today it seems to mean an inessential part of the company's repertory which is at best of limited local interest and  is staged from time to time because of the part it played in the development of the company and its dancers but for Ashton "heritage" was much more important.  It was not a label but a statement about choreographic blood lines, inheritance and influences. For him it was essential that dancers should be historically and stylistically aware of the tradition in which they worked. As he said when he spoke about the artistic coup of persuading Nijinska to stage "Les Noces" for the company it was important for dancers to know who influenced who. MacMillam's attitude to this idea of "heritage" was equally positive as was made clear in an address which Sir Peter Wright gave to the RAD. He made some interesting points about MacMillan's time as director the most important of which for the purposes of this discussion are the following excerpts. "Kenneth wanted to extend the dancers' powers of expression by embracing different styles but without destroying what had been developed by Frederick Ashton and Ninette de Valois."........." The RB organisation has a unique heritage created by many great artists which he (KM) always insisted must never be overlooked as this is where the strength  of the two companies lay" ......"He (KM) kept a good balance between the Diaghilev heritage, the classics and new work. In other words MacMillan as an active choreographer who today is often presented as the rebel prophet of a new challenging repertory based on realistic subjects saw the need to keep the past alive through performances which ensured that the chain of transmission was kept in robust good health by regular revivals which would ensure that the company would remain fully familiar with works like Les Noces by dancing in them at regular intervals.

    

The sad reality today if you take the programming policy of Ashton's home company as evidence of his importance to it and the world of the arts in general he does not seem to rate that highly. If his home company does not support him by giving his works regular programming slots in its seasonal schedule say by listing one of his full length ballets each season and at least one all Ashton mixed bill and the occasional Ashton and his contemporaries programme  then it is hardly surprising if he does not seem ro 

loom that large with companies abroad in terms of their active repertories. I know that people have given details here of companies abroad which have some of  his ballets in their repertory but I can't help wondering how many of the companies cited acquired those works at the time of the Ashton centenary and just how many can be said to retain them in their active repertory? 

 

Now of course the Royal Ballet does not entirely neglect the work of its founder choreographer but he continues to play second fiddle to MacMillan in terms of scheduled performances and sadly it always seems to be the same narrow selection of ballets that come back time after time and while I understand the reason why Symphonic Variations comes back with some regularity the institutional enthusiasm for some of the other perennials such as Marguerite and Armand and Voices of Spring is puzzling.

Marguerite and Armand is a star vehicle which needs stars to make it "go" .I still find it difficult to believe that Marguerite and Armand is the most regularly performed of the works inherited by Ashton's nephew and almost certainly the most widely performed of all Ashton's works. It is even stranger that Fille long ago ceased to be a regular feature in the company's annual programming. Sadly no one  who has appeared in Voices of Spring in recent seasons seems to understand that it is a witty response to  the Soviet gala display piece rather than an effortful, earnest attempt to emulate such a piece. As  performed by its original cast it was an effortless,. elegant, knowing, tongue in cheek, light as air entertainment. It seems that many of those who have appeared in it of late lack any real understanding of Ashton's intention, his style or that they require considerably more technical skill than the bare minimum required to get through it. It was not created to be performed with grim determination but with charm, wit and total mastery of the choreography. I miss the sense of ease,playfulness and fun which its original cast brought to performances of it.

 

I think that the neglect of the Ashton repertory while serious in itself is a symptom of  much deeper problems than it at first appears. The real problem it seems to me is the wilful neglect of the the full range of the company's twentieth century repertory and a failure to understand, perhaps because no one in a position of influence in the company is a choreographer working in the classical tradition, the potential for creative interaction that exists between today's choreographers and those of the past. I am sure that this potential was a factor in the company's acquisition of its Diaghilev repertory and that the first four directors all of whom were choreographers were fully aware of this.  Both Ashton and MacMillan after all  had found Petipa a very potent source of inspiration in their own works as did Balanchine. There is no reason to suppose that the innovations,  ideas about the function of choreography and imagery devised by some of Diaghilev's choreographers would not prove an equally potent source of inspiration to the current crop of dance-makers if they were able to experience then in performance. It is as if the current management in its enthusiasm for creating a new repertory has decided that with the exception of MacMillan's income generating ballets and the occasional Ashton and Balanchine revival the twentieth century is of no relevance to the company's future.

 

 I am far from convinced that consigning major works by Fokine, Nijnska, Massine as well as MacMillan's classically based works and Ashton's surviving pre-war ballets to the scrap heap and treating them as if they are largely irrelevant to today's audiences and dancers will in itself encourage the creation of effective ,revivable  new dance works. The policy obviously frees up stage time but treating older works  as if they are incapable of providing inspiration or useful models for the current generation of dance makers.and are essentially unworthy to share the stage with the twenty first century works which the company has commissioned and staged seems a great mistake to me. Of course new choreography needs to be encouraged but I don't feel inclined to abandon major works like Ashton's Daphnis and Chloe or Nijinska's Les Biches or Les Noces in order to give more time and space to the creation of works like The Wind, Raven Girl, Strapless, Untouchable or Medusa which in all honesty should have been killed off in the early stages of their development and never made it to the stage.

 

As far as the twentieth century  repertory is concerned a change of descriptive label might help. De Valois was astute enough to see that if her newly acquired nineteenth century ballets were to perform the task which she intended for them they had to be seen as having played an integral and unquestionable part in the development of ballet as an art form and that they had the potential to inspire further creativity.Those works had to be understood to be the best of their kind and of universal importance to the world of dance and its future development.The descriptison " classic " captures the sense of a work being of lasting value and one of the best of its kind . The term "heritage work"  which to Ashton suggested a sense of living tradition and the opportunity to see the effect of  inter-generational choreographic influence has been debased and has come to mean a work which is only of limited local interest and  only needs the occasional airing since it is irrelevant to future choreographic development. This attitude is all the more perplexing at a time when the MacMillan repertory which the company has for so long relied on to give it its unique artistic identity is no longer unique to it. It seems that Kevin either has not noticed that Lady M has begun adapting her husband's popular dram ballets to suit the resources of smaller companies or thought about the impact that this is likely to have on the company he runs. Perhaps he thinks that new works by Wheeldon and McGregor can provide a solution but each new work is a gamble with no guarantee of success or that the company will retain sole  rights over their performance for any length of time.

 

The company has a twentieth century repertory which is unique in its breadth and depth and it is strange that Kevin is unable to see the extraordinary opportunities which that repertory and above all the Ashton repertory offers it. While the director may see the founders as a source of amusing anecdotes  to a director working in an organisation which has been teetering on the edge of of becoming an arts bureaucracy for years it can be difficult to see the founders,their works and the works of their contemporaries as anything other than a bar to future creativity and a source of frustration because they are conscious at some level, although they can't admit it, that the new works which they have commissioned are not of the same quality, It is easier, it would seem, to bury the past than to compete with it..This is where I think Kevin finds himself now. It must be frustrating to know that it is unlikely that anything which you commission will be judged to be as as good as something which Ashton produced on an off day. I think this can lead to a mindset in which management can convince itself that enthusiasm for old repertory a harmless eccentricity largely confined to an increasingly older audience and among the young simply an eccentric obsession  which they may grow out of when exposed to "masterpieces" like "Raven Girl".

 

 If you only started ballet going in the last twenty years you  have been denied access to a wide range of magnificent twentieth century repertory and in the case of those which have been staged they have often been revived with less than ideal casts; big names who sell tickets rather than suitable dancers who will make the strongest case for those works in performance. The low points have been many and varied and I shall cite a few by way of example. Howard's La Fete Etrange where it was not just the "accident with the back cloth which was a problem but the casts chosen  to appear in it. Neither cast was ideal but a single cast composed of the most suitable dancers from the two  would  have made a much stronger case for the survival of the work. We are unlikely to see anyone attempt to re-stage the only surviving work by a prolific and much admired female choreographer, Then there was the company's 2012 revival of Les Sylphides indifferently performed by a cast who failed to establish the ballet's mood or its greatness

If next season's programming is anything to go by there is plenty of room in the schedule to stage a far wider range of works than at present. The company's repertory has become set in stone and more significantly apart from MacMillan's dram ballets and the Balanchine ballets in the company's repertory the bulk of its twentieth century repertory is treated as optional inessential works which only deserve or require the occasional revival.

 

I was going to say that the company's programming policy has become atrophied but talking about a programming policy suggests that some thought is given to what to stage each year but given the number of things that seem to have become set in stone such as the annual Nutcracker, the season's  nineteenth century classic and the scheduled revival of this year's MacMillan dram ballet and the number of performances allocated to each fixture there seems little room to fill and little need to think about the repertory at all. Now while it may be that the neglect of the Ashton repertory started as a policy designed to give more stage time to MacMillan's ballets because he was able to produce more works for the company the argument that led to the stage time allocated to Ashton's ballets being reduced can hardly be justified today when we are being invited to mark the thirtieth anniversary of MacMillan's death. It is shameful that so much of Ashtin's output is ignored by the company management, but it is extremely shortsighted to treat all  of the company's twentieth century repertory with the exception of a handful of MacMillan dram ballets as irrelevant and disposable as far as the company's active repertory and programming are concerned. It is as if  Mr O'Hare has decided that all that matters are the company's nineteenth century repertory and that its twentieth century ballets should be sacrificed in order to stage "exciting" new works few if which deserve their place on stage.

 

[Emeralds]

I remember a time when Fille and Cinderella were programmed very often - at least one of them every year, and occasionally we had both. In my experience, Swan Lake and Nutcracker might be the ballets that everyone instantly name checks, but when it comes to audience satisfaction, the one that everyone, from novices (including a few sceptics who only turned up because they were the designated driver  or they were too young to stay home alone) to veteran watchers, enjoys the most is Ashton’s La Fille mal gardee.

 

I sometimes get a few complaints that Swan Lake is too long (a few would be happy to leave after Act 3), Sleeping Beauty drags in Act 2, and several adults say Nutcracker Act 1 is too childish for them. Ashton’s Cinderella (when it was still being programmed regularly) was very popular, and more well-liked among novices I know than even Romeo and Juliet (any version). The classic that was the hardest sell for all but the most loyal balletomanes was La Bayadere- a number of friends and relatives asked not to see it again (any version/any company). 

 

I’ve mentioned it before (sorry for the repetition) but I think Ashton’s Sylvia and Daphnis & Chloe are due revivals, as are Fokine’s Les Sylphides and  Nijinska’s Les Biches. I think a run of 5-6 shows would sell well (as long as the short ballets are combined with something good). 

[jmhopton]

7 hours ago, FLOSS said:

Much as I like Cinderella and welcome its revival,  I can't help thinking that twenty performances would have been a more sensible number and that the remaining eight performance slots would have been put to better use by being allocated to an all Ashton programme devoted to his one act works. 

Really good idea, Floss. Pity Kevin didn't adopt it. Hopefully we'll get more Ashton variety in the 23/24 season.

A gala would be good, especially if it was filmed, and could be a great fundraising vehicle. 

[joe blitz]

very interesting.  Rina: I read that Dame Edith Evans said after seeing Ashton's Month in the Country that it was better than the play.

I'm surprised that Fille isn't done more often.  I should think it would be a staple of the repertoire and done each season. It would certainly bring in lots of audiences, especially new-comers and young people.

 

[Odyssey]

I think you also have to add into the mix, Sir Peter Wright and Sir David Bintley’s contribution in keeping some important Ashton works in the repertoire of BRB.  I doubt if Carlos Acosta will have this high in his list of priorities. 

[Jan McNulty]

12 minutes ago, Odyssey said:

I think you also have to add into the mix, Sir Peter Wright and Sir David Bintley’s contribution in keeping some important Ashton works in the repertoire of BRB.  I doubt if Carlos Acosta will have this high in his list of priorities. 

 

In 2 zoom talks I saw Acosta give during the lockdowns he said that we would see nothing from the traditional rep for 5 years!!  (Being cynical is that how long his contract is???). Obviously he has had his mind changed for autumn and spring with Coppelia and Swan Lake touring.

[Odyssey]

1 hour ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

.Obviously he has had his mind changed for autumn and spring with Coppelia and Swan Lake touring.

Yes indeed.

[jmhopton]

3 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

In 2 zoom talks I saw Acosta give during the lockdowns he said that we would see nothing from the traditional rep for 5 years!!  (Being cynical is that how long his contract is???). Obviously he has had his mind changed for autumn and spring with Coppelia and Swan Lake touring.

I suppose it depends how he defines 'traditional rep'. Surely he can't really mean the classics like Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia as BRB is a classical ballet company, and have just paid a huge amount for a revamp of Peter Wright's Nutcracker.  I think we've had this discussion before and he probably means a lot of the 20th century 'heritage' classics like Ashton,  Cranko, Bintley (no Hobson's choice, alas) and Ballet Russes rep. Very similar to the RB,  unfortunately and depressingly. Just a diet of the classics and modern works.

[Jan McNulty]

1 minute ago, jmhopton said:

I suppose it depends how he defines 'traditional rep'. Surely he can't really mean the classics like Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia as BRB is a classical ballet company, and have just paid a huge amount for a revamp of Peter Wright's Nutcracker.  I think we've had this discussion before and he probably means a lot of the 20th century 'heritage' classics like Ashton,  Cranko, Bintley (no Hobson's choice, alas) and Ballet Russes rep. Very similar to the RB,  unfortunately and depressingly. Just a diet of the classics and modern works.

 

I think Nutcracker is the only one we were sure was happening!

 

Perhaps he was "persuaded" that we need to see some of the classics such as Coppelia and Swan Lake...

[FLOSS]

I can't help thinking that both de Valois and Ashton would be appalled by the way in which the resident company's twentieth century repertory, especially the Diaghilev ballets,  is being treated by the management of both Royal Ballet companies. Sadly neither Kevin, nor it seems Acosta,appear to have much of a sense of ballet history and choreographic genealogy or much interest in the history and traditions of the companies they now run. Acosta's apparent lack of empathy or interest in BRB's performance tradition and its core repertory is more understandable than Kevin's attitude towards his company's repertory and performance traditions.  BRB's history and its repertory are not part of Acosta's formative experience as a dancer or his international career as a performer. It may be true that he appeared in both Ashton's Fille and Rhapsody with the Royal Ballet but that does not make him an Ashton specialist or enthusiast. He may well have been encouraged to lay out a radical policy for change when he applied for the job  in Birmingham and gained the impression that as director  he was being encouraged to jettison the past and take the company in a more accessible and popular direction as far as its repertory was concerned with more Cuban style offerings like  Don Q and less Royal Ballet style repertory. Sadly I am not that keen on the new direction or the ballets he has chosen to stage so far. Perhaps Acosta's very recent change of direction in programming which has been noted by others has been prompted by a drop in box office takings.

 

Kevin's attitude to old repertory is much more difficult to understand because while BRB did not share all of its repertory with the resident company there was a considerable  repertory overlap between the two companies during his time dancing with SWRB/ BRB. It is as if Kevin sees the bulk of his company's twentieth century repertory not as a valuable resource for dancers and would-be choreographers but as a barrier to further creativity. After Mason's energetic attempts to restore an impressive range of older repertory to the stage Kevin has presided over a marked narrowing of the twentieth century repertory which he is prepared to stage. The problem is that with one or two notable exceptions he seems convinced that the bulk of the company's twentieth century works should be kept in the archives and only staged when it cannot be avoided. He seems incapable of seeing these ballets as a valuable resource for his dancers and any young choreographer who may be  lurking within the ranks of the company in terms of artistry, effective theatrical structure. images and choreographic ideas that might be  stolen. rearranged and repurposed. Although Tudor's works are not really part of the company's performing tradition  he clearly had a profound effect on MacMillan's work and if Rambert,his first company,is unable or unwilling to stage his works in a way which adequately reflects the theatrical power of his work a strong case can be made for the Royal Ballet to take the most important of them on as they open up even more creative possibilities.We should be able to see the work of a major choreographer who set out to put on stage in balletic form emotions and feelings which cannot be expressed adequately, if at all,in words.

 

Perhaps it was the result of the time and place in which first de Valois and then Ashton became involved in the world of ballet and their consciousness of the patchy nature of the history of the development of ballet in this countrye and their recognition of the lack of a solid artistic tradition which fired their interest in the history of the development of the art form. There again it could simply be that as active choreographers both were fully aware of the incremental nature of the development of both ballet technique and repertory and the way in which the choreographers of the past influence the present and add to a choreographer's vocabulary and the range of expression available to the creative artist through allusion and conscious rule breaking. De Valois created a ballet, The Prospect Before Us, in which a number of eighteenth century ballet stars appear as characters while Ashton used identifiable elements of period dance technique and style to establish the contrasting characters of the two step sisters in Cinderella. As Alexander Grant said Ashton did not create new steps but he chose the right steps for his characters which explains why the timid sister  essentially has a dance vocabulary which would have been instantly recognisable to a dancer of the very early nineteenth century while the dominant sister attempts to emulate the style of the late nineteenth c Italian ballerina. Perhaps the real explanation for Kevin's apparent indifference to the past can be explained by the fact that he is working in a dance world in which the place of classical ballet in this country seems far more secure than it did in the pioneering days of the 1920's and 1930's when the founder of the Royal Ballet and its founder choreographer first came into contact with the great Russian nineteenth century ballets, Kevin takes the past for granted in a way the pioneers of British ballet never felt able to do.

 

 

[jmhopton]

Floss, You express my feelings of the current attitudes of the artistic directors of both BRB and the RB towards the  twentieth century ballets they are the current curators of, far better and more eloquently than I could ever do. It is the constant search for 'modern and 'relevant' ballets I find so frustrating.  They take up stage time and valuable financial resources when there are great ballets, new to many of us, because they have been hardly staged in our lifetime  (or at least the ballet going part of it). There are so many Ashton works I've only seen recently because of the Sarasota streaming, and works by De Valois and Tudor I've never seen,  and what about the Ballet Russes rep? Apart from the Firebird I can't remember when any were staged. If only our artistic directors would look at their wonderful back catalogue,  the envy of most of the ballet world, and realise the treasures they already had, perhaps they wouldn't need to keep search for their holy grail and realise they had it all the time.