Word: shearer
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When she was picked as the only successful candidate in a group of 15 auditioning for the Sadler's Wells ballet school last week, Heller, nine-year-old daughter of Mary Martin, announced that her new idol was Moira Shearer. Furthermore, she said, "I want to be the greatest ballerina in the world. I don't want to sing and act like my mother...
London ballet fans who argue happily over the relative merits of Sadler's Wells' ballerinas Margot Fonteyn and Moira (The Red Shoes) Shearer, had the rare chance last week to compare both dancers in the same ballet. Moira, ready to dance the lead in Symphonic Variations after a four-month layoff, switched plans just before opening, when one of the two other girl dancers fell ill. Since no one else knew both parts, Moira stepped down to take it; Margot was called in to dance the lead. Said the critics next day: "Moira is taller, more girlish...
Despite such voices as Robert Rounseville's in the title role, the impeccable playing of Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic, and a charming first act in which Moira (The Red Shoes] Shearer dances as Olympia, the lifelike doll, the bulk of the picture is slow, obscure and pretentious. The script and direction, which borrow from Dali, Cocteau and Cecil B. DeMille, compound the vague symbolism of the Offenbach opera, leave the story line frayed and dangling. Whenever they are audible in the upper operatic range, the English lyrics sound banal. And the much-touted spectacle of Tales...
...clear voice that is excellent for the role. Most of the other voices are dubbed in, however, with generally good results. The dancing in "Tales of Hoffmann" is all good, but it suffers by being fragmented; Frederick Ashton's choreography consists chiefly of short interludes, beautifully danced by Moira Shearer, Leonide Massine, Ludmilla Tcherina, Robert Helpmann, and the Sadler's Wells Chorus. Miss Shearer's best work is shown in the "Dragonfly Ballet" of the prologue, and in the automaton's dance of Act I. Helpmann appears successively as Lindorf, Coppelius, Dappertutto, and Dr. Miracle--Hoffmann's magnificently sinister enemy...
Tales of Hoffman, a new film with dancers Moirs Shearer and Leonide Massine, moves into the Bijou Wednesday...