Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-12
CALL THE POLICEl
THOSE DREADFUL
RUSSIANSl

When Serge de Dlaghilen superbly re.
marked america Is saved" he did not not
count on the American newspaper. W uWe
impresario of the Russian Ballet had pee,,
ordered to change certain moments VI il,' u,
production of Scheherezade and The Hlt,
nrnnon Of a Faun-moments which had
passed in the first instance, without CON
nent and in the second with n manuiaC-
tured uproar. before hundreds OF tnou-
sands of Europeans. In America thiisS
, were different
In Boston NJ. de DIaghileff was called
on to save America again, this tlme py
clothing his dancers in tights-up 10 tIle
ankle. Those severely classical art crltlcS
who are enthroned on Beacon HUI were
really quito shocked, So again America
was saved And presently the RUSSIAN
Ballet will be here.
Turn in riot call!
The first bit of nonsense concerning the
Ballet Russo is that its work embodies
n new and powerful philosophy OF NE
This has been urged by critic on the DC
fense. If he Is right then all the morallsts
who cnmor for an art devoid OF eNvIS
reference to life are right. The baiiet
Russo has no more to do with PM
losophy than 1t has to do with sex
Whereby enters the second point
To sneak of sex and the Russian Ballet
In the same breath is as apt as to SPEAK
of lemons and the Sahara Desert. Both
exist. no doubt. Both are facts, as tliou-
ern thinkers are fond of saying. But they
haven't the slightest thing to do win one
another The Russian Ballet Is not TEXT
hook II is n combination of the three
arts of dancing, music and scene paintins
for the purposc of producing Single Ell
feet of dramatic representation. III Ger
tain cases the drama so produced lhVoiVeS
the principles of black magic. net no one
has suggested that the Russian Ballet is
80 the normal human
belief in the principle of the indestrucll
biIitv of matter one of the loVellcst OF
the balets Is concerned with rural Ccle-
bration in Russia. The ballet has not neeh
asked to repeat this number for the Dehe-
III of classes in Russian sociology Ana
the two ballets previously mehtioheu-""'
there's the rub.
Tho point Mt present Is that the ballet
can be criticised on certain grounds ana
cannot be criticised on others. You may
say that their dancing in inferior, al
though you probably will not, and you
may say that you do not like their cholce
of music. You may deplore the use of
Dcbussy for the Faun dance. You may
say that the performance of Schehcrezade
is vulgar or that OF the Faun repulsive.
incidentally the truth about the harem
scene" in the former ballet is that it is
dull. 1t nowhere approaches the reVelry
and abandonment of the Gertrude Hoff-
man version. and the sight of lovely Rus
sian men and women dancing mincingly
is really neither voluptuous nor orgas-
tic)
The thing you cannot say is that the
Russian Ballet will bring up the question
of how far art can go in its discussion of
the relations between the sexes, because
the Russian Ballet does not discuss these
relations. 1t has as much to do with dis
cussion n problem play has with para
bolas or Cmphyteusis. Like many normal
men and women the Russian Ballet aC-
Cepts life fully. 1t doesn't have the te-
merity to discuss sex nor any desire to
discuss anything. In that it differs
vastly, oh, vastly. G. V. S.