Evening star., 1938-01-15
Schoop Ballet
Rich in
Satire
"All for Love"
More Witty
Than Kind.
BY ROBERT b. PHILLIPS, Jr.

BY ROBERT b. PHILLIPS, Jr.
~ LANDLY disguised as a comic
x entertainment, new ballet
entitled "All for Love" was
- presented at the National
Theater yesterday afternoon by Trudi
Schoop and her troupe of dance pam
tomimists. Wearing the benign mask
Of humor, Miss Schoops latest crea-
ton is rich in cruel, almost savage,
caricature, and makes one wonder
whether the most famous Of dancing
comedians has turned hef fine, sharp
talents definitely toward social satire.
As "All for Love" made its Ameri-
can debut here even the title became
more and more q hideous joke as the
seven episodes Of the ballet ripped into
so much shredded wheat and raw meat
the hearts of crowds, school children.
family life, the romanticists and the
judiciary. Not content with prodding
the false stufings out of those sub
jects, Miss SchoOp wound up with a
giddy parody on the traditions of the
musical comedy, the music hall and
the revue, and capped her jibes with a
dulcet sneer at the happy ending"
Because OF her great skill in pam
tomime and delicate feeling for the
perfect balance between humor and
pathos. Miss Schoop has in the past
been described as Chaplinesque Her
present performance retains an essence
Of the qualities that earned so flatter-
ing sobriquet, but reveals a state Of
mind that is something of a cross be-
tween Ben Hecht and Reginald Gardi-
ner. The choreographic inventions in
"All for Love" distinctly parallel Mr..
Hecht's vicious Slapstick technique in
the drama and cinema. Like the bad
boy Of Hollywood, Miss Schoop also
does not strive for especially original
or fresh narratives on which to
sharpen her knives. She chooses trite
themes, freshens them with wit, i'm
agination, viewpoint. In so doing she
borrows from the theater, from jour-
nalism and, to mild extent, from the
classical ballet The result is more
of show than concert. although
Lotha Perls music for the current
production is q vivid backdrop for
action.
To many Of our classical theorists
today, the Schoop dances would seem
an adulteration of the art of the bal
let. Her work may not, indeed, be
defined strictly as ballet, but whatever
name is invented for the form, it still
has satisfying emotional content, the
ability to convey ideas and the saving
grace OF humor, virtues the classicists
frequently forget in their desire to
transcend the human equation in the
dance and walk upon the stills of
theology.
Accepting "All for Love" as a word
less drama, with music and ideas and
things, We would expect its most full
some episodes to be Under the Christ
mas Tree" tragi-comedy OF domestic
life; "At the Night Club" built on the
premise that jealousy is the affliction
of a fool; The Masked Ball." highly
melodramatic business about q beau
tiful girl who Is stabbed during a gay
celebration, or perhaps In Court"
which gives an unmerciful beating to
the hollow horrors of criminal justice
as administered to the poor All the
skits named are effective and sound
in their own way, but for some reason
the high point Of the seven move
ments in the ballet, the moment Of
sheerest impact, comes in the first
number. Miss Schoop appears in that
episode only at the end, when she
wanders on and attempts to shoulder
her way into q crowd gathered about
to hear the serene Establishments Of
q soap-box disciple. Rebuf1ed by the
crowd, she turns away weeping. Just
before the lights black out, a friendly
cop on the corner pats her on the
shoulder. Finis. So what? So you
will have to see Miss Schoop to know
what an artist can do with an incident
like that.
At the risk of writing book about
the matter, we must add one more
paragraph here to give credit to Edith
Garcia, Otto Ulbricht, Ralph Ray,
Meta Krahn and Marin Raae for the
uniformly splendid interpretations
they gave the many roles allotted to
them. Indeed 1t Is practically painful
to report that we could not discover
. first-clsss carping point in the whole