Dance~The Jewish C~o~n~n~e~c~t~i~o~n             by Sheila Orysiek

A Nod of the Head: A Turning Point(e) in
Artistic Time – 98 Years Ago this Month..

In May 1909, Nicholas II was still “Emperor of all the Russias,” the Imperial theaters had had a glittering dance season and the dancers of the Imperial Ballet had departed in many directions ostensibly “on leave” – on vacation.  But young dancers at the height of their careers don’t like to take vacations away from their dancing – they simply dance elsewhere.  On the night of May 19, 1909 they were in Paris and the curtain was about to go up at the Theatre du Chatelet. The exceedingly skeptical Parisian audience doubted that these dancers from a Russia perceived as semi-barbaric, could possibly be a success in the city that had given birth to the ballet.

Serge Diaghilev, a Russian who had been dismissed from his position as Assistant Director of the Imperial Theaters several years before, had spent the intervening years bringing a bouquet of Russian paintings, music and opera to Paris with great success. This encouraged him to bring the Tsar’s own dancers from the Russian Imperial Ballet.  Immediately he ran into obstacles. 

Since the dancers were in fact civil servants, they were engaged to dance for the Imperial Theater through the winter social season and at various command performances.  Unfortunately, by the month of May, when the dancers were free, the social whirl in Paris was over and people – the people who mattered – often left the city.  But that was only the first of several problems.

Though the ballet had matured from a folk dance to an  artful child of the theater in France, had been codified, and had been under the auspices of the French royal court for three hundred years and more, by the late 1800’s it had decayed into an entertainment presented at the end of an evening of opera. To some extent it continued to exist at the sufferance of the male half of the suitably wealthy as a framework for providing them with the opportunity to observe a feminine ankle – or even a curved calf.  Choices were then made for the balance of the evening’s activities.  The Salon de la Danse, made famous by Degas, was the exhibit hall.  In short, the ballet was no longer the art form it once had been; Parisians had no memory of its past glories but they were jealously protective of the fact that the ballet was considered totally French.

However, the greatest of Diaghilev’s problems was money.  His life was spent on the edge of a fiscal abyss.  For that reason the lesser of the theaters – Theatre du Chatelet - instead of the larger and much more prestigious Paris Opera, had been engaged.  Use of the smaller theater helped to rob the evening of the all important cachet that captured Parisian hearts.

(So, where’s the Jewish connection?  Read on, read on…..)

It is not often that a turning point in history, or in an art form, can be recognized with such precision as what happened on that evening of May 19, 1909.  All the old conceptions (and misconceptions) of dance, music, costume, sets, lighting, choreography, libretto, were swept away in the blaze of color, sound and truly magnificent dancers and production.  The glory of the ballet, which had been moribund in Paris, had been incubating in Russia for two hundred years and now burst forth in a kaleidoscope of triumph.  Paris was overwhelmed by the Russian art storm. 

Fashion in clothing and furnishings were influenced, standards of what one should expect from the theater were expanded and artists of every genre were affected.  The success was so complete that Diaghilev brought the Russian Ballet – The Ballet Russe – back year after year expanding the touring to include the rest of Europe, England, South America, North America, eventually touching every continent, year after year until Diaghilev’s death in 1929.  Following his death The Ballet Russe continued to live and tour under different direction and names - such as The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo – until the 1950’s.

(The Jewish connection is coming up – I promise!)

During Diaghilev’s time as impresario he introduced to the world (or encouraged) the following artists:

Dancers:  Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska, Tamara Karsavina, Fokine, Bolm, Mordkin. Baldina, Kosloff, Ida Rubenstein (Jewish), Danilova, Massine, Spessivtseva, Sokolova, Doubrovska, Dolin, Lifar, Lopokova, Marie Rambert (Miriam Ramberg – Jewish), de Valois, Prima Ballerina Dame Alicia Markova (Lillian Alicia Marks – Jewish).

Artists - set, scene and costume designers: Benois, Bakst (Lev Samoilovich Rosenberg – Jewish), Picasso, Matisse, Derain, Dali.

Choreographers:  Fokine, Massine, Nijinska, Balanchine, Nijinsky – altogether over 40 major productions, many of them still performed today.

Composers: Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, Poulenc, Satie, Auric, Ravel, Debussy, R. Strauss, de Falla, Respighi, Prokofiev.

The above list is partial – only a small – tiny – segment of the great artists discovered, presented and/or encouraged by Diaghilev. 

As time went by the dancers (alas) aged and retired in various cities around the world and opened schools and started companies such as Ninette de Valois founder of the Royal Ballet (London) and Balanchine (with Lincoln Kirstein – Jewish) founder of New York City Ballet.  Two of them, Alexandra Baldina and Theodore Kosloff opened a famous school in Southern California and my first ballet teacher was their devoted student.  Today, almost every well taught dancer is likely to trace his/her pedigree back to these Ballet Russe foundations.  Theater as we know it has been profoundly affected – and ballet totally affected – by the performance of May 19th, 1909.

(So – in addition to the artists above noted as being Jewish…..as I promised the Jewish connection is coming up….)

At the very last moment before the curtain could rise, Diaghilev faced the first of a series of continuing financial crisis that was to plague him throughout the decades.  But in this case, the curtain would definitely not go up unless he could secure financial backing as security.  Fortuitous application was made to the Baron de Rothschild and – prescient as always – he guaranteed the financial guardrail and the performance went on.

The glories of that evening and its subsequent seminal impact on theatrical art, dance, music, composition, production, design, choreography, lighting and all the artists and lovers of the arts down through the decades hung on the nod of the head of the Baron de Rothschild.

The quiet gift behind the glitter – the name you never see on the program.  This May we will celebrate the 98^th year since that seminal performance.

Some historians date that turning point(e) to May 18, 1909 – because sometimes the dress rehearsal (in front of a select audience) is considered a “first performance.”  It’s the way dancers fool themselves into thinking that the first night is really the second. night, and so the hurdle of a first night has already been overcome.