Australia Dancing - Fokine, Michel (1880

Fokine, Michel (1880 - 1942)

Donderer, J.: Michel Fokine with Tatiana Riabouchinska as the Golden Cockerel taking a curtain call for 'Le Coq d'or', Ballets Russes, c. 1939

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Dancer and choreographer, Michel Fokine, is credited with revitalising classical ballet in the early 20th century. Fokine was an advocate of natural and expressive choreography, believing that the whole body should express meaning and emotion through the integration of mime, gesture and dance movement. He also believed in the artistic unity of dance, music, drama and design. Fokine's progressive ideas brought him into Serge Diaghilev's circle of artists, writers and musicians and he was invited to become chief choreographer of Diaghilev's Ballet Russe in 1909.

With the Ballet Russe, Fokine was able to put his ideas into practice and he created some of his most famous and enduring works, such as Les Sylphides (1909), which was a reworking of his earlier choreography Chopiniana, The Firebird and Scheherazade (1910), Le Spectre de la rose (1911) and Le Coq d'or (1914). Fokine ended his collaboration with Diaghilev in 1914 and worked as a freelance choreographer and performer in Europe and the United States for many years, eventually settling in New York.

Australian audiences had their first view of Fokine's choreography in 1913, when the visiting Imperial Russian Ballet performed Les Sylphides. It was performed again in Australia by Anna Pavlova's company in 1926 and 1929, under the title Chopiniana. The Dandre-Levitoff Russian Ballet toured Australia in 1934, staging Fokine's Prince Igor and Le Carnaval. During their 1936-37 Australian tour, Colonel de Basil's Monte Carlo Russian Ballet staged Les Sylphides, Prince Igor and Carnaval, along with Australian premieres of Fokine's The Firebird, Petrouchka, Scheherazade, Le Spectre de la rose and Thamar.

Fokine noted the success of his works overseas and took legal action against de Basil. The law suit was settled amicably and Fokine joined de Basil's Ballets Russes in 1937. Both he and his wife, dancer Vera Fokina, accompanied the Covent Garden Russian Ballet on its tour of Australia and New Zealand from September 1938 to April 1939. Many of Fokine's works were restaged alongside Australian premieres of Cendrillon, Le Coq d'or and Papillons, but this time all of Fokine's choreographic works were staged under his personal supervision.

The presence of Fokine created a buzz in Australia and many sought opportunities to watch company rehearsals. Newspaper critic Geoffrey Hutton made the following comments after watching Fokine at work:

'Fokine in conversation is affable, witty and approachable; Fokine conducting a rehearsal is a despot working with the intense energy of a sculptor in quick-drying clay ... This concentration gives to his ballets a precision and sparkle which they often lack in other hands.'

The dancer Algeranoff worked with Fokine during the tour to Australia and later commented that 'It was very inspiring to work for such a master whose constant demand was perfection, and whose commands one could obey without hesitation. His presence in the audience always gave that added excitement to the atmosphere, and although nobody ever thought of giving less than their best, when he was there we seemed to have more strength, and were empowered to perform even better'.

While in Australia, Fokine choreographed and rehearsed the ballet Paganini, set to music by Rachmaninov. Theatrical entrepreneurs, the Taits, arranged a stage rehearsal in Melbourne and hoped to also stage the world premiere. Fokine, however, declined to stage the ballet without costumes and scenery and Paganini premiered at Covent Garden Opera House in London a few months later. The work was first performed in Australia the following year by the Original Ballet Russe.

Bibliography:

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) ; Harcourt Algeranoff, Fokine came to Australia in Papers of Harcourt Algeranoff, National Library of Australia (MS 2376) ; Geoffrey Hutton, 'Fokine at work', The Argus, 31 January 1939, p. 4.

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Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
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