Ballet's Return

Two years ago the Monte Carlo Ballet Russe arrived in the U. S. to present Russian ballet as it had not been given since the days of Diaghilev and the great Nijinsky. In Manhattan the troupe played in a small side-street theatre. A few devotees went night after night but money was lost. Last season the Monte Carlo Ballet visited go cities, earned nearly a million dollars, more than the Ziegjeld Follies. Last week it opened again in Manhattan, this time in the grand manner, as a thriving, accepted organization. Scene was the Metropolitan Opera House where the Diaghilev company gave its historic performances 19 years ago.

Opening ballets were The Three-Cornered Hat, Scheherazade and Aurora's Wedding, all from the Diaghilev repertory. Settings were by Picasso, Bakst and Benois. all Diaghilev artists. First night cheers went to the youthful ballerinas, Irina Baronova, Tatiana Riabouchinska, Tamara Toumanova. Leonide Massine, the maitre de ballet, was still the surest-footed dancer. David Lichine and Yurek Shavelevsky made the most sensational leaps. After twelve days in Manhattan, the troupe takes to the road again, visits no cities, gives 212 performances in the U. S. and Canada.

In the repertoire this season there are 25 ballets. 13 more than in the first winter. In the company there are 65 dancers, several of whom still travel with their fathers or mothers. In charge of them all is Colonel Vassily de Basil, a onetime Cossack officer who was so determined not to see Russian ballet die out that he organized the troupe, named it "Monte Carlo" for Princess Charlotte of Monaco who gave him his first backing. Colonel de Basil's purse was almost empty when he first arrived in the U. S. But in the last year he has been able to buy three Fierce-Arrow automobiles, one that was smashed near New Orleans, another in Strasbourg, France, a third which is still running.

Ballet enthusiasm has become epidemic. Young girls see the Monte Carlo dancers and go home to practice standing on their toes. In Manhattan addicts who call themselves balletomanes have organized a club. Books on the ballet appear with increasing frequency, give new glamor to the names of great oldtime dancers. This week British Critic Arnold L. Haskell tells the life story of Diaghilev, the man who brought Russian ballet to its highest peak.* Author Haskell's volume is in part an answer to the best-seller by Romola Nijinsky who insinuated repeatedly that Diaghilev was the cause of her husband's brain-collapse. Author Haskell admits Diaghilev's abnormalities but he maintains that Nijinsky was never well-balanced, that there was something strange about his sudden marriage to a girl with whom he had scarcely spoken. After his break with Diaghilev, Nijinsky suffered much. He was detained in Austria as a prisoner of war, until Diaghilev effected his release, invited him to join the Ballet for the U. S. season. Mine Nijinsky claims that Diaghilev encouraged the two religious maniacs who were responsible for Nijinsky's complete collapse. Author Haskell says that Diaghilev reprimanded the pair roundly, that if Mme Nijinsky had confided in the director in time she would have had a powerful ally.

*Diaghileff--His Artistic and Private Life--Simon & Schuster ($3.75).

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