Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 14, 1915, Page 25

{5\ 'THE SUNDAY [ AN EccExnTRICc BUT CHAEMING OTRE, . o America Soon to See for the 7y First Time This - Remarkable Dancer, a Favorite of the Czar leading dancer on the femi- nine side of Serge de Diaghilew's Ballet Russe, which is veing brought to America this year by the directors of the Metropoli- tan Opera House, will appear at the Metropolitan Opera House for four weeks with the remainder of the troupe, displacing in that time America’s most costly song birds. Karsavina is, perhaps, the great- est dancer and mime of this gen- eration. In the full flush of youth- ful comeliness and plastic charm, she s neither too simple nor too sophisticated, The Russians, the most critical audiences in the world, have long applauded her artistry. in the subtlest and most elusive feats of the dance. Like a perfume is the delicate and insin- aating illusion that she works upon THAMAR KARSAVINA, the the stage with the bavret, the sen- eation of Europe for the last six years. “The glory of the Russian bal- let,” is how the jaded Parisians de- scribed the ballet when it thronged their Chatelet. “The stuff that dreams are made of,” is how Lon- don felt when its Covent Garden and Drury Lane were thronged. And now America will experience the thrill. When the Diaghilew ballet was first produced in the continental cities there was ro end to its train of influence. Fashions reflected it, Russian was spoken—Russian was the background of soclety while it lasted, and even now where art has been almost oblit- arated by the war the glory and [ Ax ORIENTAT) Mer.ooy o Morron, the influence of the ballet still re- mains. The Diaghilew ballet is the bringing together and unifying of all the arts in such a way that the cumulative effect is absolutely pro- found. Serge de Diaghilew, an attache of the Court of Russia, wealthy and well connected, is directly respon- sible for the existence of the ballet. As a young man he surrounded him- self with the younger artistic set in Russia, and when the time was ripe introduced them through a ittle art exhibit. The morning after the exhibit Diaghilew was world famed, and so were the young artists who had exhibited their works. But there was even a greater influence than that. Rus- sia of the steppes of the North, the Russia of Siberia and fallow flelds, was displaced in the minds of Eu- rope by a new Russia, a Rui awakened, revivificd, a Ru pregnant with ideas, which re- flected the influences that had been at work for centuries to break down the reaction of the ages. Diaghllew was fa.aous, but eo was Bakst, who had designed a great number of drawings for this exhibition, drawings which, by thelr striking method, as well as their riotous color harmonies, seemed to clash and yet were harmonious, provided Paris with a piquant stimulus. From this heginning grew the ballet. Diaghilew returned from Parls to Russia and felt that the time was ripe for the Occldent to see more of the glories that slowly had heen developing in Russia. ‘Two years after his first exhibit at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, in June, 1909, he produced the ballet Cleopatre, that sensuous story of Egypt's queen. The dancers were the best of Russia's Imperfal Academy—Nifin- ski, the incomparable, the same who will be in America this Fall, and Karsavina, the beautiful, su- preme in her particular fleld. The stage settings were huge Oriental creations, columns, o esques that the of Bakst had devised. The music combined all the lure of the East with a Turkish and Persian strain predominant, And all these, the dancers, th usiclans and stage painters, were assembled by thelr Copyrixht. 1015, by the Star Company. Greast Britain Rights Reserved. PHoToOS, ©sv E.Q.HoPPE, compatriot Diaghilew to produce artistic, aesthetic unity. And then Diaghilew gave them more., And from being the pro- ducer of a lone ballet he became the regisseur of a great number. The greatest musicians in the world, Debussy, Rimskl Korsakov, begged for permission to write the music for his ballets; kings begged for the honor of being present at performances. A wave of en- thusiasm swept through Europe and kept on for six years, and on the crest of this wave were Diaghi- lew, Nijinski, Karsavina, Bolm, Miassine and the others with whom the Russian producer had sur rounded himself. Not all of the ballets had an Oriental background like the first one, Cleopatre, but they presented a variety of backgrounds as well as @ large number of storfes. The more divergent they were the more did it delight these intrepid Rus- slans, who only regarded the greater difficulties as giving them greater room for expression. There will be, for instance, here in America, the ballets with the flerce wild Rus- slan background and stories, Prince Igor and Petrouchka. There will be ballets with the placid and refined Greek milieus, which re- flect the Greek life and make anclent Athens alive, Then there are the purely arti- ficlal ballets of Carnival, which show how the ballet was before the genius of Diaghilew and Nijinski developed it from its stays and ballet slippers and bounden forms. The most striking of the ballets, perhaps, full of the chrome and crimson passion of the Orient, is the ballet, Scheherazade, which tells the story of a sultan's harem and its intrigue. In this Bakst allowed his sense of color to grope about in the whole realm of the spectroscope and then take that which just reflected the ideal. Bakst, in this ballet, dramat- ized color, and his vivid portrayal of the story by color made critics say with justice, “the true sym- ) NE PAGE, O . BEE MAGAZI phony of music and motlon, light' and shade, line, ma and color has been achieved. ‘To depict a certain emo- tion & certaln color {8 chosen, with sympathetic background and added to it a correspond: ing strain of music, and dance evolution, all com- bining in artfulness and force to achieve the result. For each emotion there is a suggestive cor- responding color and dance step and musical tone and these are manipu- lated In unison In this wonderful ballet. Fifty-five principals will come to America as part of the troupe. Warslav Nijinski, perhaps, stands InAGrACEYDL USETAN VoLwUITON out as the foremost. He has been compared to a jet of flame shooting up in the alr, as he dances. From his first years of training at the Imperial Ballet School in Petrograd, he has stood out as one of the first dancers of all time. He is the prinel pal male dancer of the troupe. Thamar Karsavina, supreme in her particular fleld, that of mimetic dancing, and universally considered the most beautiful dancer, io the chief female member of the troupe. Her portrayal of the roles that de- mand a true understanding of the passionate nature of woman, is startling and amazing. Malssine is a young Apollo. To his activities as a dancer he adds a clear knowledge and technical in- sight of the ballet and with Bolm acts as directeur choreographique. There are, of course, other prin- clpals of the company, who are each of them stars in their particular flelds. For that is one of the many factors that differentiate this ballet from all others ever seen on this side of the Atlantic. It is true that other Russian dancers have danced here, but when they performed it has always been with a company of assisting dancers picked up here and there, and with the especial reason of enhancing the dancing of the premier danseur or danseuse by contrast. In this company each prineipal is a star. How this great aggregation comes to America in a year when an international confiict is raging is an interesting story. The under- taking that the directors of the Metropolitan Opera Company have put upon themselves is a most dif- flcult task. But where the cul- mination of an artistic ideal is concerned, the pocketbook does mot matter to them, First the company was assembled in the land of artistic and political . neutrality, Switzerland, and here on the shores of the beautiful Lake Geneva they went through the hearsals of the twelve ballets which will be produced in America, Igor Stravinsky, great composer, also was at hand to assist with any new musical compositions that Diaghllew wished to add. The troupe remained in Switser- land until the late Fall. Then all geous costumes, the exquisite draperies have all been stored in London, safely insured from the bomb-throwing Zeps, waiting for the time when they shall be put aboard ship for Americs.