The settings and costumes have been designed and created by Peggy Clark and Motley; with the orchestrations and musical arrangements by Trudi Rittman.
With the new organization, Agnes will have freedom to experiment in what may well turn out to be a new form of dance entertainment, setting a group of theatre dances both balletic and otherwise, with her own personalized type of dance movement, and a group of ballad singers, all in a distinctly native idiom.
In New York City, on the 15th January, 1954, I plan to inaugurate a trans-continental tour of the Roland Petit Ballet Company, from Paris, with new creations, and the quite extraordinary Colette Marchand, as his chief ballerina.
In February, 1954, I shall extend my international dance activities to Japan, when I shall bring that nation’s leading dance organization, the Japanese Dancers and Musicians, for their first American tour. With this fine group of artists, I shall be able to present America for the first time with a native art product of the late Seventeenth century that is the theatre of the commoner, stemming from Kabuki, meaning “song-dance-skill.”
The autumn of 1954 will see a still further extension of my activities, with the introduction of the first full Spanish ballet to be seen on the North American continent.
We have long been accustomed to the Spanish dancer and the dance concerts of distinguished Iberian artists; but never before have Americans been exposed to Spanish ballet in its full panoply, with a large and numerous company, complete with scenery, costumes, and a large orchestra. It has long been my dream to present such an organization.
At last it has been realized, when I shall send from coast to coast the Antonio Ballet Espagnol, which I saw and greatly admired on my visit to Granada in the summer of 1953.
On the purely musical side, there is a truly remarkable chamber ensemble from Italy, which will also highlight the season of 1954. It is I Musici, an ensemble of twelve players, ranging through the string family, including the ancient viola di gamba, and sustained by the cymbalon; and specializing in early Italian music, for the greater part. This organization has the high and warm recommendation of Arturo Toscanini, who vastly admires them and their work.
I have reserved, in the manner of the host holding back the most delectable items of a feast until the last, two announcements as climactic.
I have concluded arrangements with England’s Old Vic to present on the North American continent their superlative new production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, staged by Michael Benthall, with really magnificent settings and costumes by James Bailey.