The Art of Ballet

by Mark Edward Perugini

“Under One Flag,” a topical ballet in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, in 1897, ran for some months. Before the close of the year the Treasure Island tableau in “Monte Cristo” was staged, and in this, on November 22nd, 1897, a certain historic event took place—Mlle. Adeline Génée made her London début at the Empire Theatre.

One of her critics at the time wrote that: “Her pas seuls commanded encores which were thoroughly deserved. The dancer is lissom to a degree and thoroughly mistress of her art. With her terpsichorean ability she has the advantage of a prepossessing personality, which will assist in endearing her to the public.” So much did her personality endear her to the public that Mlle. Génée’s first engagement at the Empire for six weeks extended to over ten years, with return visits after that!

Looking back at the great dancers of the past, we see that all illustrate the incalculable value of personality in art. The technique of a Camargo or Sallé, Taglioni or Grahn, Karsavina or Génée, has the same foundation—the traditional “five positions,” which are to the Dance what the octave is to the sister art of Music. Before a dancer can hope to appear with success on any stage she must have acquired a knowledge of those “five positions,” and their possibilities of choregraphic combination. The ease and rapidity with which she illustrates them, the fluidity of the phrases and melodies of movement which she evolves from them, and the qualities of “finish” and “style” are finally achieved only by incessant practice. She must attain as complete a mastery of the mechanism of her body as can be attained. No technique in any art is acquired without labour; and no success is won without technique. That much therefore can be taken for granted in any great artist. But persistent practice and the acquisition of a fine technique may still leave a dancer merely an exquisite automaton if she has not “personality”; a quality not readily defined, but which undeniably marks her as different from others. Perhaps that is, after all, the truest definition—a differentiation from others.

Endowed with the royal gift of personality, Mlle. Génée had worked incessantly before she made her first appearance in London at about the age of seventeen. Born in Copenhagen of Danish parents, the famous dancer began her training when only eight years old, under the tuition of her uncle and aunt, Mons. and Mme. Alexander Génée, both of whom (the latter as Mlle. Zimmermann) had won considerable reputation as dancers, and producers of ballet, at various continental opera-houses and theatres in the ’sixties and ’seventies. They had appeared at Copenhagen, Vienna, Dresden, Munich, Budapest, and at Stettin, where Mons. Alexander Génée had a theatre for some years, and where Mlle. Adeline made some of her earliest appearances as a child. Subsequently she went to Berlin and to Munich, and it was while dancing in the latter city that she was called to London by Mr. George Edwardes on behalf of the Empire management.

Her first appearance here was emphatically a success. But it was her performance as the Spirit of the “Liberty of the Press” in the famous Empire ballet, “The Press” (invented and designed by Mr. Wilhelm with the choregraphic support of Mme. Lanner and music by Mons. Wenzel), on February 14th, 1898, that first marked her—and for many years to come—as a London “star.” The ballet gave her scope for some wonderful pas, and proved immensely popular. It was a novel idea, artistically carried out, and illustrated the history and power of the Fourth Estate. A number of charming coryphées were ingeniously attired as representatives of the various newspapers, boys’ costumes indicating the morning and girls’ the evening journals. The venerable Times was typified by a man in the guise of Father Time, with hour-glass and other symbols of his ancient office, and accompanied by a retinue. Mme. Cavallazzi represented Caxton, Father of the Printing Press; Mlle. Zanfretta, the Spirit of Fashion; and there were typical costumes for The Standard, The Daily Telegraph, The Globe, The Daily Mail (then two years old!), The Illustrated London News (who announced that she was “Established 1842”), The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, The Lady’s Pictorial, The Sketch, The Referee, and others too numerous to name. So popular did the ballet prove that this also ran for months, and it was not until October of the same year that a new production, “Alaska,” was staged, the scenario of which was by Mr. Wilhelm, the choregraphy by Mme. Lanner, and music by Mons. Wenzel.

The production which a contemporary critic described as “one of the most gorgeous ballets ever produced at the Empire,” is another example of the influence of topical events on the history of the Ballet, for it was due to the discovery of the Klondyke goldfields, the first news of which had come to us the year before, that is, in Jubilee year, but the real wonders of which only began fully to reveal themselves in the summer of 1898, when everyone talked and dreamed of little else than “Klondyke”! The ballet opened with a blinding snowstorm, and the scene, laid in the snow-bound regions of the North-West, glowed, as the storm ceased, with the grandeur of the Aurora Borealis. The story dealt with the adventures of one Alec Wylie (Mme. Cavallazzi), leader of an expedition to Klondyke, who, tempted by the Demon Avarice, quarrels with and leaves for dead his partner, Frank Courage, whose life is saved by the ice fairies and who is vouchsafed a vision of golden realms by the Fairy Good Fortune. The production was rich in striking scenes and stage effects, and once again Mlle. Génée further confirmed her growing capacity to “endear” herself to London audiences by her performance as the Fairy Good Fortune.

On May 8th of the following year, 1899, “Round the Town Again,” by Mme. Lanner, Mr. Wilhelm and Mons. Wenzel, was produced. This was entirely different from the original “Round the Town,” and with a second edition, also further altered, in January, 1900, ran until the end of August, 1900, that is, for fifteen months! Mlle. Génée, Mlle. Zanfretta and Mr. Will Bishop were the leading dancers, with a change of cast for a time when Mlle. Edvige Gantenberg took up Mlle. Génée’s part of Lisette, a French maid, during the latter’s absence on a brief holiday. A revised edition of “By the Sea,” under the title of “Seaside,” came on in September, 1900, the cast including Mlle. Génée, Signor Santini, Mr. Will Bishop and also Mr. Frank Lawton, whose whistling had so long been one of the attractions, elsewhere, of the “Belle of New York.”

Next came a fascinating ballet “Les Papillons,” the scenario and staging of which were by Mr. Wilhelm. Of this an enthusiastic critic declared: “It is, indeed, a beautiful butterfly ballet that the Empire Theatre is just now able to boast. With it the management draws crowded houses, and sends them away delighted—delighted with the colour, exhilarated by the movement, charmed by the fancy, and ready to sing the praises of all concerned in a truly marvellous production, and particularly of Mr. Wilhelm, whose designs have given further proof of the taste which governs his fertile imagination and invention, and of Mme. Katti Lanner, for whom the dances and evolutions mean another veritable triumph.” Mlle. Adeline Génée, as lead, played “Vanessa Imperialis,” the Butterfly Queen, who was “discovered” at the opening of the ballet fast asleep in the lovely realm over which she reigned. A glow-worm patrol guarded her slumbers, which ended with the coming of dawn, when she joined her subjects and the flower-fays in dances, and the revels of a fairy midsummer’s day dream.