In the last blog, I wrote about the first Broadway show I saw. In this blog I share the first ballet I saw, and it was one of the best. I am not sure what my exact age was but I hunch I was about seven. Doing a little research on the Internet I found out that the Sadler’s Wells Ballet made its first tour to the United States in 1949. The tour was highly successful and yearly tours continued in the early 50’s. Since the ballerina I saw was Moira Shearer in Swan Lake and she retired in 1953, it was somewhere during these four years.
A little history about the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. During its first tour the company traveled with 75 people and 7,000 items of scenery and costumes for 12 ballets. Both Moira Shearer and Margot Fonteyn were ballerinas with the company at that time. My mom decided to take me to see a matinee of Swan Lake when Moira Shearer was dancing the lead role of Odette/Odile. I don’t remember much about the experience but I do remember that my good childhood friend Regina also went to see the production of Swan Lake but in the evening and the ballerina she saw was Margot Fonteyn. The result was a lively discussion of which ballerina was better.
Reviews praise both of them highly and of course we know that Margot Fonteyn went on to a very long career as a ballerina while Moira Shearer’s fame was mainly for her role as Victoria Page in The Red Shoes. The Red Shoes premiered in 1948 and is still one of the classic dance films. While I don’t think I saw it until my teens, it is a film that I love to return to every now and then and I do marvel at the beauty, grace and passion of Moira Shearer’s dancing.
How wonderful to have been exposed to such an outstanding first ballet, with a recognized ballerina by a first-rate company. I did get to see Fonteyn dance while I was a student at Juilliard when she had just begun a partnership with Rudolf Nureyev. Alas the ballet I saw them do was Marguerite and Armand choreographed by Frederick Ashton based on a book by Alexandre Dumas called La Dame Aux Camalias. I would have preferred to see another ballet with less pantomine. We were encouraged to attend by one of our ballet teachers at Juilliard and we were given free standing-room tickets to the old Met on 39thstreet. I found this review of the ballet which pretty much says it all.
The finished ballet capitalized on Fonteyn’s natural talents as an actress, and its depth lay less in the choreography than in the performances, the character and electric connection of the two lovers, played by the volatile 24-year-old in Nureyev, whose raw charisma unleashed a new wave of passion and freedom in the poised, 43-year-old English ballerina.
On opening night, the ballet was greeted with a rapturous response and 21 curtain calls, and it went on to become a signature piece for the couple and was performed around the world. (Royal Opera House website https://www.roh.org.uk/news/how-fonteyn-and-nureyevs-electric-ballet-partnership-made-marguerite-and-armand-into-an-icon)
Marguerite and Armand
Fast forward to many years later when our daughters were around seven and nine and we visited New York City. I took them to see Alicia Alonso at the Met (by then at Lincoln Center), dancing Giselle. I remember their surprise when the very large chandeliers of the Met automatically lifted up right before the ballet began. Of course Alicia Alonso was quite wonderful even though she was well into her fifties and this was her last tour to the United States. Many Cubans were in the audience and the curtain calls at the end were a show unto themselves with so many bows and flowers being thrown onto the stage.
I stand in awe of these three outstanding ballerinas and am very honored that I got to see each of them in person. Do you have a favorite ballerina and/or a performance you particularly remember?
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