Graduation Ball
Encyclopedia
"Graduation Ball" is a ballet
, choreographed in 1940 in Australia by David Lichine
during the 1939-1940 tour of the Original Ballet Russe
. The single-act, light-hearted comic ballet was premiered on Friday, March 1st, 1940, in Sydney
. The music is by Johann Strauss II
, compiled and arranged by Antal Doráti
.
and James who perform a beautiful pas de deux before the sylphide disappears behind the curtain at the back and James follows her, looking upwards indicating that she has flown away. Pigtails gets up, believing that the whole thing was real and looks behind the curtain. The dancers have gone so she assumes that the Sylphide flew away. The others refuse to believe her and she goes crazy trying to convince them. Embarrassed by her friend, the Romantic Girl tries to pull Pigtails away from the group but instead Pigtails performs a provocative Pas Seul in which the General gets out of his seat and tries to pursue her. Pigtails feints at the end of her variation. The Romantic Girl also dances a Pas Seul. After the Romantic Girl has finished, the Fouetté Competition begins. The girls first warm up on barres which the cast are holding and then they each perform their best tricks before it is announced that there is no clear winner so it is a tie. Next, a box is passed around and the girls and boys each write love letters and place them in the box. The General reads a particularly naughty one and disciplines the boy with the box. This leads into Perpetuum Mobilé or the Dance of the Three Wise Monkeys
. It is a fast-paced dance for five dancers in which the three supporting girls depict "Hear No Evil", "See No Evil" and "Speak No Evil". Once this has finished the students are told to go and eat dinner. Once they have left, the General and the Headmistress embark upon a flirtatious Mazurka which ends in a passionate embrace. The children catch them and dance a Galop
in mock. The night ends and all the students are told to go to bed. The girls give each of the boys a flower or a ribbon of theirs and then wave the them off as they leave. The girls go to bed. Once everyone has left Pigtails and a Cadet sneak back into the ballroom as do the General and the Headmistress. The General and the Headmistress catch Pigtails and the Cadet and disguising their own intentions, lead them offstage clearly indicating that they will be punished. The curtain closes.
took some less-familiar works of Johann Strauss II
and incorporated them into a full ballet. These included "Acceleration Walzer", "Trisch Trasch Polka" and "Perpetuum Mobilé". Several different Polkas and Galops are heard in the final Galop.
during the tours of troupe Original Ballet Russe. The artist of statement was Alexandre Benois
who worked in troupe Original Ballet Russe. Executors of roles: David Lichine
as the Junior Cadet and Tatiana Riabouchinska
as the Junior Girl, Borislava Runanine as the Headmistress, Igor Schwezoff as the General, Natasha Sobinova as La Sylphide, Paul Petroff as the Scotsman, Alexandra Denisova
(a Canadian dancer, real name: Patricia Denise Galian) and Genevieve Moulin in the Dance-step Competition, Nicolas Orloff as the Drummer, Alison Lee (performing under the name Helene Lineva) as the Mathematics professor, Maria Azrova as the Natural History professor, Marina Svetlova
as the unfortunate pupil.
The ballet was a big success. The Sydney Morning Herald reporting twenty-five curtain calls on opening night.
Ballet Graduation Ball also was included at once into troupe repertoire. In September 1940 the troupe of Original Ballet Russe (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo) has left Australia, having gone on tour to the USA, and then across Europe. But the comic divertissement Mathematics and Natural History Lesson was cut from the ballet in following performances. (see this divertissement photo at Russian article and here)
Ballet made such success that has soon been included in repertoire of other theaters.
etc
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, choreographed in 1940 in Australia by David Lichine
David Lichine
David Lichine / Дэвид Лишин was a Russian/French/US ballet dancer and choreographer; he was born as Давид Лихтенштейн David Lichtenštejn / David Lichtenstein ....
during the 1939-1940 tour of the Original Ballet Russe
Original Ballet Russe
The Original Ballet Russe was a ballet company established in 1932 by René Blum and Colonel Wassily de Basil as a successor to the Ballets Russes. The company assumed the new name Original Ballet Russe after a split between de Basil and Blum...
. The single-act, light-hearted comic ballet was premiered on Friday, March 1st, 1940, in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. The music is by Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
, compiled and arranged by Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...
.
main characters
- The Headmistress
- The Junior Girl, a.k.a. The Romantic Girl
- The Pigtails Girl
- La Sylphide
- The Rival Ballerinas (fouetté competition)
- The General
- The Junior Cadet, a.k.a. The Shy Cadet
- The Drummer Boy
- James the Scotsman
corps de ballet
- Graduating Seniors
- Intermediates
- Juniors
- Cadets
in short
The ballet follows the happenings of a Graduation Ball of a Viennese young ladies college to which cadets from a military college are invited. At first the girls and boys are timid but soon begin to dance with each other. Soon a series of divertissements ensue including a Pas de Deux between La Sylphide and James, a Drummer Boy and a Fouetté Competition. Soon after the students are told by the Headmistress of the Girls' School to go and have dinner, the students re-enter the ballroom to find the General and the Headmistress hugging and kissing. The Galop that follows mocks both the General and the Headmistress before the night ends and all students must go to bed. After the Ballroom has emptied, the Pigtails Girl and a Cadet sneak back in to see each other again. The General and the Headmistress have also re-entered to see each other but when they see the children, the cadet is led out by the ear and Pigtails is spanked offstage. The curtain closes.detailed
The curtain opens on a Viennese Ballroom. Four mischievous girls sneak in to check out the Ballroom. They leave. Four more mischievous girls sneak in and leave. The original four girls come back in - three girls pursuing the first girl who has a mirror and is unwilling to share with the others. The other four girls come in with a powder puff and start getting ready for the ball. When the original four catch the others with the powder puff, they scare them and a fight begins. The Headmistress enters and demands the powder puff and tells the girls to leave the room. The two rival ballerinas enter, each girl on a side. After the Senior girls enter (with all the other girls in awe), the General enters, followed by some cadets. The General and the Headmistress leave the room and at first everyone is too shy to do anything but of course, Pigtails makes the first move. She sneaks over to the boys who have now formed in a circle and are talking and taps one on the shoulder. He turns around suddenly, frightening her and she falls into the splits. The boys apologise and carry her back over to the girls' side of the room before going back over to the other side. The boys then decide to push the Shy Cadet over to the girls. He is resistant but the Romantic Girl soon starts waltzing in front of him and everyone begins waltzing with each other. The first divertissement is a young cadet with a drum. The next divertissement is La SylphideLa Sylphide
La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
and James who perform a beautiful pas de deux before the sylphide disappears behind the curtain at the back and James follows her, looking upwards indicating that she has flown away. Pigtails gets up, believing that the whole thing was real and looks behind the curtain. The dancers have gone so she assumes that the Sylphide flew away. The others refuse to believe her and she goes crazy trying to convince them. Embarrassed by her friend, the Romantic Girl tries to pull Pigtails away from the group but instead Pigtails performs a provocative Pas Seul in which the General gets out of his seat and tries to pursue her. Pigtails feints at the end of her variation. The Romantic Girl also dances a Pas Seul. After the Romantic Girl has finished, the Fouetté Competition begins. The girls first warm up on barres which the cast are holding and then they each perform their best tricks before it is announced that there is no clear winner so it is a tie. Next, a box is passed around and the girls and boys each write love letters and place them in the box. The General reads a particularly naughty one and disciplines the boy with the box. This leads into Perpetuum Mobilé or the Dance of the Three Wise Monkeys
Three wise monkeys
The Three Wise Monkeys , sometimes called the Three Mystic Apes, are a pictorial maxim. Together they embody the proverbial principle to "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"...
. It is a fast-paced dance for five dancers in which the three supporting girls depict "Hear No Evil", "See No Evil" and "Speak No Evil". Once this has finished the students are told to go and eat dinner. Once they have left, the General and the Headmistress embark upon a flirtatious Mazurka which ends in a passionate embrace. The children catch them and dance a Galop
Galop
In dance, the galop, named after the fastest running gait of a horse , a shortened version of the original term galoppade, is a lively country dance, introduced in the late 1820s to Parisian society by the Duchesse de Berry and popular in Vienna, Berlin and London...
in mock. The night ends and all the students are told to go to bed. The girls give each of the boys a flower or a ribbon of theirs and then wave the them off as they leave. The girls go to bed. Once everyone has left Pigtails and a Cadet sneak back into the ballroom as do the General and the Headmistress. The General and the Headmistress catch Pigtails and the Cadet and disguising their own intentions, lead them offstage clearly indicating that they will be punished. The curtain closes.
Music
Antal DorátiAntal Doráti
Antal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...
took some less-familiar works of Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
and incorporated them into a full ballet. These included "Acceleration Walzer", "Trisch Trasch Polka" and "Perpetuum Mobilé". Several different Polkas and Galops are heard in the final Galop.
- Introduction - Waltz of Girls
- Arrival of Cadets
- Announcement of the Show
- Drummer Boy
- La Sylphide and the Scotsman
- Pigtails
- Virtuoso Polka Girl
- Rival Ballerinas (Fouette Competition)
- Love Letters
- Perpetuum Mobilé
- Mazurka
- Grand Galop
- Finale
Ballet
The premiere of ballet has passed on March 1, 1940 at the Theatre Royal of SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
during the tours of troupe Original Ballet Russe. The artist of statement was Alexandre Benois
Alexandre Benois
Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois , an influential artist, art critic, historian, preservationist, and founding member of Mir iskusstva , an art movement and magazine...
who worked in troupe Original Ballet Russe. Executors of roles: David Lichine
David Lichine
David Lichine / Дэвид Лишин was a Russian/French/US ballet dancer and choreographer; he was born as Давид Лихтенштейн David Lichtenštejn / David Lichtenstein ....
as the Junior Cadet and Tatiana Riabouchinska
Tatiana Riabouchinska
Tatiana Mikhaylovna Riabouchinska was a Russian-born prima ballerina.She was born in Moscow in 1917. She was trained by the great Mathilde Kschessinska, and was later a prima ballerina in France. Together with Irina Baronova and Tamara Toumanova she was the third of Colonel W. de Basil's "baby...
as the Junior Girl, Borislava Runanine as the Headmistress, Igor Schwezoff as the General, Natasha Sobinova as La Sylphide, Paul Petroff as the Scotsman, Alexandra Denisova
Alexandra Denisova
Alexandra Denisova , real name Patricia Denise Meyers Galian, is a Canadian ballerina.Born in Canada, she started taking classical ballet lessons in childhood....
(a Canadian dancer, real name: Patricia Denise Galian) and Genevieve Moulin in the Dance-step Competition, Nicolas Orloff as the Drummer, Alison Lee (performing under the name Helene Lineva) as the Mathematics professor, Maria Azrova as the Natural History professor, Marina Svetlova
Marina Svetlova
Marina Svetlova was a French ballerina and ballet instructor.-Biography:Svetlova was born in Paris, France with the name Yvette von Hartmann to Russian parents. She began studying dance as a young child and made her professional debut as a child performer in Paris in 1931 with the experimental...
as the unfortunate pupil.
The ballet was a big success. The Sydney Morning Herald reporting twenty-five curtain calls on opening night.
Ballet Graduation Ball also was included at once into troupe repertoire. In September 1940 the troupe of Original Ballet Russe (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo) has left Australia, having gone on tour to the USA, and then across Europe. But the comic divertissement Mathematics and Natural History Lesson was cut from the ballet in following performances. (see this divertissement photo at Russian article and here)
- Youtube: Dance of the drummer
Ballet made such success that has soon been included in repertoire of other theaters.
- 1944 — Ballet Theatre (the future American Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet TheatreAmerican Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
— ABT); the ballet some times renewed - 1952 — National Theatre Ballet
- 1954 — BorovanskyEdouard BorovanskyEdouard Borovansky was a Czech- born Australian ballet dancer, choreographer and director. After touring with Anna Pavlova's company, he and his wife settled in Australia where they established the Borovansky Ballet company...
Ballet - 1957 — London Festival Ballet
- Polski Balet Narodowy
etc