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Anthony, Gordon: Portrait of Leonide Massine, c. 1938
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Russian born Leonide Massine commenced studies in ballet at the Imperial Theater School in Moscow. In 1913 Serge Diaghilev invited him to Paris to join his Ballet Russes. Massine made his choreographic debut with the company in 1915 with Le Soleil de Nuit and was thereafter elevated to the role of principal dancer and choreographer. Massine went on to choreograph Parade (1917), the landmark collaboration with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie, The Rite of Spring (1920) and The Three Cornered Hat (1919).
From 1932 to 1937 Massine was chief ballet master for Colonel Wassily de Basil's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. During this time Massine created a new genre known as the symphonic ballet, which sought to visualise the musical content of symphonic works through movement. His theory was realised in works such as Les Presages (1933), Choreartium (1933) and Symphonie Fantastique (1936).
Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes companies staged many works by Massine on their three tours to Australia from 1936-1940. The first of these to be performed was La Boutique Fantasque at the premiere performance of The Monte Carlo Russian Ballet in Adelaide on 13 October 1936. Also included in the first season were Massine's Le Beau Danube which was to become an audience favourite, and Les Presages, set to Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony.
In Melbourne the company added Massine's Contes Russes, Scuola di Ballo and Le Soleil de Nuit to the repertoire. Les Presages met with particular acclaim, with The Argus describing it as 'virile, provocative and iconoclastic'. Its reception was reported thus:
'What with the polite applause of the fashionable audience that packed the stalls and dress circle and the stamping and shouting of the reckless balletomanes under the roof - a demonstration that brought the blushing and perspiring principles to the curtain half a dozen times - it would seem that much as Melbourne's theatregoers may be charmed by the languor and graces of the traditional story ballet it takes a thorough-going piece of calisthenic abstraction to rouse them to a pitch of frenzy.'
After a falling out with de Basil, Massine left to form his own ballet company. The two parties fought a legal battle in 1937 over the ownership rights of Massine's choreographic works, with de Basil losing the rights to stage Massine's pre-1932 works. The second of de Basil's Ballets Russes tour brought to Australia premieres of Massine's Symphonie Fantastique set to the music of Berlioz, The Good Humoured Ladies, Jeux d'enfants, Choreartium and Union Pacific, the first ballet to be based on folklore of the Americas. Between 1939-40, the third Ballets Russes tour staged Massine's divertissement Cimarosiana. A further copyright battle ensued after de Basil staged Le Beau Danube under the name Le Danube Bleu with no reference to Massine as the choreographer.
Massine relocated to the U.S. in 1939 and became a citizen in 1944. He went on to work for the American Ballet Theatre and a number of European companies, and also created the dual role of the choreographer Ljubov and the Shoemaker in the influential film The Red Shoes (1948). Massine came to Australia in 1971 to stage his Mam'zelle Angot for the Australian Ballet.
Bibliography:Leslie Norton, Leonide Massine and the 20th Century Ballet (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2004) ; Kathrine Sorley Walker, De Basil's Ballets Russes (London: Hutchinson, 1982) ; Edward H. Pask, Enter the colonies dancing: a history of dance in Australia 1835-1940 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1979) ; 'Les Presages Amazes', The Argus, 9 November 1936, p. 4; Mark Carroll, ''Let's Stage a Fight!': Massine's symphonic ballets in Australia', Brolga 26 (June 2007), pp. 15-26.
See also: Ballets Russes Australian tours ; Beau Danube, Le ; Boutique fantasque, La ; Choreartium ; Cimarosiana ; Contes russes ; de Basil, Wassily ; Jeux d'enfants ; Presages, Les ; Scuola di ballo ; Soleil de nuit ; Symphonie fantastique
Moving picture | Oral history | Picture | All
Baron: Leonide Massine in 'Le Tricorne', Ballets Russes, 1930s
Wadsworth, Eric: Leonide Massine with Peggy van Praagh at a press conference, Melbourne, 1971
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