Australia Dancing - Union Pacific

Union Pacific

Seymour, Maurice: Marian Ladre and Sono Osato in 'Union Pacific', Ballets Russes, 1930s

Leonide Massine's one act ballet, Union Pacific, was the first ballet based on the folklore of the Americas to be created by an international company. Set to a libretto by American poet Archibald MacLeish, it was first performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo on 6 April 1934 at Philadelphia's Forrest Theatre. The score was based on American folk songs of the 1860s, composed and arranged by Nicholas Nabokov, with scenery designed by Albert Johnson and costumes by Irene Sharaff. Dancers at the premiere included Massine, Tamara Toumanova, Eugenia Delarova, Sono Osato and André Eglevsky.

Devised to appeal to the American market, Union Pacific was based on the building of America's first trans-continental railroad in 1869. The railroad was constructed in two directions by rival capitalists; the section from West to East was built by Chinese workers and the East to West section by Irish crew. The final stages of construction accelerated into a competitive race ending at Promontory Point, Utah. The workmen were followed by itinerant saloons, where much of the action within the ballet takes place.

The work was conceived and choreographed while the company was touring the United States and rehearsals often took place after performances in hotel ballrooms, lobbies and even train corridors. Massine was initially hesitant about the work, believing that the construction of a railway was not a suitable subject for a ballet. He explains in his autobiography:

'One insurmountable problem, I was sure, would be the presentation of the actual laying of the wooden sleepers and rails ... Then, one day, I suddenly saw dancers, absolutely rigid, being carried on stage like planks ... the scene suddenly made sense. I got excited about the whole project, and now felt that I could make something highly original out of it.'

In this way, the corps de ballet, and sometimes even friends of the company, wore brown sacks and were carried on stage to represent railway sleepers. Massine incorporated stylistic elements of the step dance, cake-walk and the strut and shuffle into his Barman's solo, which proved to be the highlight of the ballet. Elsewhere he drew on movements from square dancing and the jarabe tapatío, or Mexican Hat Dance.

Union Pacific was first staged in Australia by de Basil's Covent Garden Russian Ballet on 3 November 1938 at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne. Roman Jasinsky performed the role of the Surveyor of the Irish Crew alongside Paul Petroff as the Surveyor of the Chinese Crew. Irina Baronova appeared in her celebrated role as Lady Gay with Tamara Grigorieva as the Mexican Girl and Yura Lazovsky as the Barman. Sono Osato reprised her role from the original cast, appearing as the Barman's Assistant. Union Pacific was staged for Sydney audiences in December 1938 and in Adelaide the following April.

Upon its Sydney premiere, the Sydney Morning Herald described Union Pacific as 'a clamorous piece of modernism.' While the work endured artistic criticism it greatly appealed to audiences and as Edward Pask commented, 'it provided the dancers with a much-needed opportunity to let their hair down as they worked'. In her autobiography Irina Baronova recalls that she was thrilled with the new role, aiming to portray Lady Gay as saucy, tarty but not vulgar. She writes, 'It was wonderful not being a princess or sylph for once!' Union Pacific remained a novel addition to the company's repertoire for many years.

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) ; Vicente Garcia-Marquez, The Ballets Russes: Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo 1932-1952 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990) ; Leslie Norton, Leonide Massine and the 20th Century Ballet (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2004) ; Irina Baronova, Irina : ballet, life and love (Camberwell, Vic. : Penguin Group, 2005) ; 'Russian Ballet : two new works', The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 1938, p. 13

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