Word: ballets
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...Ballet in Orbit. Another scientific faction, typified by Lloyd Berkner, former chairman of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences, deplores the race-with-Russia aspect of the space program but yearns for the moon just the same. "Human society," says Berkner, "rises out of its lethargy to new levels of productivity only under the stimulus of deeply inspiring and commonly appreciated goals. In the conquest of space, men, ideas and materials are pushed beyond previous limits and capabilities. The seemingly impossible is brought within the range of daily employment...
Sophomoric Sycophants. Sir Frederick Ashton, slated to succeed Dame Ninette de Valois as the Royal Ballet's director, knew that everyone from Verdi to Garbo had taken a whack at Dumas' story since it first appeared in 1848. He redistilled it in his own mind into a prologue and four concentrated scenes. Still he could not decide on the music. Then he heard Liszt's B-minor sonata. To most classicists, the piece is sadly second-rate, but it was the answer to Ashton's yearning. He assigned the orchestration to Humphrey Searle, got Cecil Beaton...
...result is a ballet the like of which has never been seen on any stage. The curtain rises on Marguerite, lying on a chaise longue in her nightie, and dreaming. Of what? Of Armand, of course. And to leave no doubt, Nureyev's face, a hundred times lifesize, flashes on a giant screen. Next come the flashbacks...
Ashton has combined his choreography with the acting. Fonteyn has always been one of ballet's greatest actresses, and now that she is 43, the rest of her body is even more expressive than her articulate legs and feet. For one exquisite moment in their carefree love scene, as Rudolf carries Margot downstage, holding her high, the bones seem to melt out of her joints and she becomes more limp than a rag doll. Nureyev is inspired by her virtuosity. In scene after scene, they act out the passionate affair of Marguerite and Armand. Denied an opportunity to show...
Chance to Dance. But is it a great ballet? The steps are modern and functional, with never a tour jeté, never an entrechat or a grand fouetté. Manhattan first-nighters, who sat through its half-hour length with scarcely a rippling interruption of applause, demanded 16 curtain calls, with Jacqueline Kennedy clapping energetically enough for two. Nureyev's magnetic personality demands an audience's attention. In Swan Lake, he disclosed some of his enormous technical facility, and in Marguerite, with less chance to dance, he demonstrated that he can also act. But so much...