The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-01-14

Its Artistic Side Eclipsed BY COM
Observation-Disclosures Sacrifice
Beauty to old Traditions.

/
To declare that art IN the ballet is
/ practically nonresident may appear
somewhat OF a paradox; yet I find my
self strongly tempted to do so, judging
1.-The subject under review from the high
lstam1point of its possibilities ossibili-
tiles which have honestly endeavored
to develop and strengthen in every ball
Il let I have been called upon to illustrate.
Perhaps, however. It would be wiser
ITO adopt a less severely condemnatory
tone; and to modify the assertion I
started with. by regretful recognition
lot the hesitation displayed by the ballet.
as compared with other forms OF the
atrical entertainment, in emanc;pating
itself from the shacl1les of tradition.
If the ballet is to survive as an art,
or II. to put it in another way, the fine
arts are to be awarded more generous
recognition in ballet, it should be re-
formed altogether and purged of the.
many absurdities that must vex and
lperplex the soul of the spectator with
weird problems. Why should the pre-
miere danseuse start her acrobatic gyra-
tions from the angle of the usual s'hol-
low square with beseeching chances.
and oUStretched palms; why should she
lsnatch up her skirts "a. quite sliperffu-
GUS action, thistle bestow a snnirk of
surprised recognition on the foot other
that the supporting one; following up.
this inspiriting exercise with a series
| OF hopping plunges, alternated with q
movement compounded in equal parts
I OF actions suggesting a swimmers side
lstrol1e, and a cat performing its toilet.
The business" is a little difficult of
description, but anyone who has suf-
fered q use the term advisedly), the.
exhibition of it. will be email led to fill
UP the blanks. The whole action of the
ballet is suspended for the purpose of
these gambols, which are INDUCED in
with greater or less precision and grace
by every prina ballerina assoluta, ire
spective of place and period, and the
character she is supposed by a popular
Idelusion to be representing Meanwhile,
the corps de ballet, disguised as a rule,
IN wigs of a uniform color that halts
! halfway between ginger and mustard,
stand around and look on unmoved; it
does them great credit, and is a thrill
! ing spectacle.
| To touch on my own personal expert
ence as designer of spectacular ballet,
l may say that they have to no great
| extent differed from those already re-
counted by other writer's in previous
pages; though with perhaps the sundry
additional vexations and inseparable diff
| ficuities to be encountered when coping
with the fads of the danseuseAnore
often than not over-generously lowered
! by nature as to her physical proper
tions-Whose lbeau-ideal of costume for
| all occasions is an abbreviated perver-
sion of a modern debutante's ball. dress,
Shorn of tWo-thirds of it's length and
decollete to eXaggeratien.
The dancer. is, OF all performers, the
most VIGOROUSLY tickle and inconsistent;
and it is rare indeed to find one with a
soul above conventionality, and with a
sense of the fitness of things When she
/ or he (for when ne is a votary of Terp-
sichore he falls under the same spell,
and has it badly, condeScendS to offer
any reason for condemnation of an art
lists design which has been prepared
with a due knowledge OF its limits,
with absolute Indifference TO his picto-
rial intentions, it is usually SO absurd
and frivolous as to nullify itself When,
for distance, a dancer assures one SOL
EMMY that she cannot dance if her
limbs are to be clad in any color save
I the regulation 'blottting-paper pink, one
feels almost speechless before the auda-
cious emptiness Of the excuse.
The argument as to the utility Of the
male dancer, pure and simple, is quite
indefensible from an artistic point of
NItN- w llell he 10 IlOI SlSdSEu i'll ASSIST
ing the aforesaid prima baHerina asso-
luta (they are all thaD to assume some
painfully wobbly position at an awk-
ward angle, so difficult it would seem of
accomplishment as to foster the heart
felt desire it were impossible, he spends
his time as sort of "spring-heeled
Jack" or in cumming aimlessly
round the stage.
Any attempt to reconcile them picto-
rally with the rest of the ballet is labor
lost, they are both hopelessly out of the
picture; and SO long as this state of
things is tolerated, and until they can
contrive to invest their dances with SO
much of dramatic significance as Will
warrant their retention, one can only
feebly suggest that they should be given
an empty stage to disport themselves
on, and an exclusive turn" on the lines
of other eccentrlcs. writes c. Wilhelm
in the Magazine of Art
Design for the ballet and the various
spectacular advertisements and enter
tainments akin to it-pantomime, ex-
traVaganza, what you will-calls for a
special skill in device other than his
tOrical drama requires; and in addition
to very necessary knowledge and cor
rect Judgment of all for possibilities Of
combination of color together With a
sufficient, if not necessarily an intimate
or exhaustive, acquaintance with the
archaeology of the modes and manners
of various periods, invaluable as basis
Of fact for the more airy fabric of fancy
one may desire to rear thereon.
And it will, I think, be readily granted
that this class Of entertainment emphat-
ically demands a far greater exercise of
ingenuity and freshness of invention
than any more serious appeal to "a Gull
tured audience; inasmuch as the reason
ing powers and sympathies being less
stimulated by ballet and spectacle, the
appeal to the more superficial sense of
sight is the more direct imperative and
absorbing than when the stage situation
insists on due recognition of-let us
say-the heroine's fortunes rather than
her frocks.
The Moravian church is an ohtact=