The Russian Ballet

It would be as vain to describe the movements of the phantom visitant, as to seek to convey the sound of language without regard for the meaning it expresses. Movements may have...

The detailed movements of this tribal dance are of no great moment. What is of interest is the robust expression which they give to the virile impulses of an untamed race, not y...

Sportively they dance and toss the apples to and fro, innocently enjoying their hour of liberty, and unaware that any stranger’s eye observes them. But Ivan, in his place of con...

It has been said that Nijinsky, by this recourse to primitive forms, sought to strip off modern conventions and obtain a more forceful mode of expression. But in that case it is...

In “Pétrouchka,” as in “L’Oiseau de Feu,” Stravinsky shows himself a master of the art of writing ballet music. Throughout the four scenes he displays not only a nice sense of d...

“Pure Beardsley” was the popular phrase with which the ballet was summed up on its first production. It is, of course, nothing of the sort--at least, if the phrase is to be stri...

The ballet is of the same _genre_ as “Thamar,” with which it has many points of similarity. The latter, however, has the advantage of an elusive charm derived from its legendary...

The costumes devised by Bakst are of the Victorian period--crinolines and peg-top trousers, of which the quaint prim style, so far removed from modern tendencies, exactly suits...

have been set up in the market-place. A spirit of careless jollity prevails, and as the mingled nature of the moving throng betrays, the licence of carnival time has broken down...

There is no need to enlarge here upon the vogue which the Russian Ballet, or rather that company of dancers which has become familiar outside its own country under that title, h...

So it happens that with Pavlova one can but state a bare opinion, and leave her art to speak for itself. Mere description is impossible, since her method is subjective rather th...