It is not, in any sense, a classical work, for Ashton, in order to portray the contorted and writhing spirits, went to the “free” or “modern” dance for appropriate movements. While, in the wide open spaces of America, it did not fulfil the provincial audiences’ ideas of what they expected from ballet, nevertheless it had some twenty-nine performances in the United States and Canada.
The second American season opened at the Metropolitan Opera House, on Sunday evening, 10th September, 1950. Again it was hot. The full-length Le Lac des Cygnes (Swan Lake) was the opening programme. The evening was a repetition of the previous year: capacity, cheering houses, with special cheers for Fonteyn.
The demand for seats on the part of the New York public was even greater than the year before, with a larger number consequently disappointed and unable to get into the Metropolitan at all.
From the company’s point of view, aside from hard work—daily classes, rehearsals, and eight performances a week—there was a round of entertainment for them, the most outstanding, perhaps, being the day they spent as the guests of J. Alden Talbot at Smoke Rise, his New Jersey estate.
The last night’s programme at the Metropolitan season was The Sleeping Beauty. The final night’s reception matched that of the first. Ninette de Valois’ charming curtain speech, in which she announced another visit on the part of the company to New York—“but not for some time”—couldn’t keep the curtain down, and the calls continued until it was necessary to turn up the house lights.
Following the New York engagement, Sadler’s Wells embarked on the longest tour of its history, and the most successful tour in the history of ballet.
The New York season extended from 10th September to 1st October. The company appeared in the following cities: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Birmingham, New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Denver, Lincoln, Des Moines, Omaha, Tulsa, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Memphis, St. Louis, Bloomington, Lafayette, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, Winnipeg, Boston, White Plains, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec.
Starting on the 10th September, in New York, the tour closed in Quebec City on 28th January, 1951.
In thirty-two cities, during a period of five months, the people of this continent had paid more than two million and one-half dollars to see the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. On Election Eve in London, David Webster had asked me if I could guarantee them their expenses and a profit.
On the first tour the company covered some ten thousand miles. On the second tour, this was extended to some twenty-one thousand.