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Dancing With Picasso
| Article
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20236 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1992 |
2,120 Words |
| Author
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Bruce Merrill
Bruce Merrill, currently based in Paris, is a dance writer,
critic, and teacher. |
The evening "Picasso et la Danse" that premiered at the Paris Opera Garnier on March 11 was a sumptuous reconstruction of three works, each using a different drop curtain by Pablo Picasso. The program was one of the season's most interesting artistically and historically.
The ballets presented were Bronislawa Nijinska's Le Train Bleu, premiered in 1924 at Paris' Theatre des Champs-Elysees; Ronald Petit's Le Rendez-Vous, which debuted in 1946 at Paris' Theatre Sarah Bernhardt (Theatre de la Ville); and Leonide Massine's Le Tricorne, first presented in 1919 at London's Alhambra Theatre and the same year at Paris' Theatre des Champs-Elysees.
Le Train Bleu was reconstructed by Frank Ries, professor of dance history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He spent over seventeen years doing research that included sessions with Anton Dolin (for whom the work was conceived), Lydia Sokolova, and Leon Woizikovsky and a study of Jean Cocteau's notes and the annotated music score. Most importantly, Irina Nijinska (Bronislawa's daughter) had an extensive archives and the expertise that enabled Ries to ensure the exactness of the revival.
Le Tricorne was remounted by the choreographer's son, Lorca Massine, who worked extensively with his father as well as Maurice Bejart and the New York City Ballet and is now director of the dance at the Opera of Varsovie. In the cases of Le Tricorne and Le Train Bleu, every effort was made to guard the original versions.
With his Le Rendez-Vous, Petit, who is still an active choreographer, chose to update his work while preserving the original atmosphere. The result was a dramatic ballet noir.
Picasso was not always actively involved in the actual work of his drop curtains. For Le Train Bleu he simply suggested that Diaghilev enlarge a small watercolor that he did the year before, La Course, which depicts two women running happily hand in hand along the beach, the wind and sand in their faces. Artist Prince Schervachedze did such an excellent job of producing the curtain that Picasso then dedicated it to Diaghilev.
In 1945 when Boris Kochno and Petit asked Picasso to do the drop curtain for Le Rendez-Vous, he simply suggested they choose something from his latest work that conveyed the right feeling, Kochno chose a 1943 oil painting showing a candelabra with a lighted candle and, to the right, a mask,
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