Evening star., 1952-08-14

VSANSA / OAAoA1 SAA1 ID dbOul
Miss Novak is dancing again
plete that she has not thought to
ask more of life. To dance is to
live. This is enough and she
thinks it always will be.
AS child growing up in War
saw before World War II, Miss
Novak felt this is the way it would
be. What she did not know then
was that her dedication to the
ballet would be this intense.
This she learned from Hitler's
Nazi army which. although she
was but a child, threw her into a
concentration camp and turned
her into a slave laborer in a fac
tory making what she thinks were
airplane parts. This was near the
end of the war, in 1914. Her father
left Warsaw the same day, on
different train. bound for Dachau
from which he never returned.
II was fortunate in a way to
have escaped so long" Miss Novak
says. MY Imprisonment was rela-
lively short. less than a year. We
worked IA hours day, and existed
on a diet of meatless soup-mostly
vegetableS-and one piece of bread
which we made last a week. Some
of us lived, I don't know how, but
I was sure should never dance
again."
When she was freed in 1945,
her condition was such that doc
tors confirmed her suspicion that
her dancing days were ended.
Neither she nor the wrath of a
girl she saw in her mirror were
willing to accept this verdict. They
went ferociously to upset it. A
year later, Miss Novak was dane
ing again-well enough to be a
ballerina in the remnant of the
Warsaw Opera ballet that rose out
OF the ruins Of six-years' war.
Miss Novak has no time now to
brood upon the physical and
spiritual scars of that experience.
She is back in the ballerina's
world of princesses, swans, and
sugar plum fairies and this she
would make more perfect than it
has ever been. When she thinks
back upon suffering it is in the
classic Slavic tradition that it may
be part of the artists destiny.
= + +
Miss Novak, the public's and
critics choice to succeed the be-
loved Alexandra Danilova as the
Ballet Russe's prima ballerina,
is a classicist to the tips of her
enchanting fingers. She is not
a Stuffy one, however. Dedicated
Is the far more descriptive word.
Since she came here in 1947.
Miss Novak has not stopped dane
ing.
II can't" she says. II don't
know why unless it is the endless
delight of just dancing again. I
have not stopped in five years, not
even for brief vacation. I have
nothing against vacations; it's lust
that I find my work more fun"
On the days when she is not
dancing in concert, and many
when she is, Miss Novak works
out for several hours, the most
rigid application of the theory
OF practice making perfection this
correspondent ever ran across.
Does she work with records?
mo. mostly a pianist" Miss
Novak says. Is she a pianist her.
self? Il am a kind of pianist" 3"
she explains. mot a very good
kind"
This devotion to her art, Miss
Novak explains, is not entirely
a personal thing. It is part of
her conditioning as a dancer.
This process began when she was
a Spindly child of eight, as a
beginner in the Warsaw opera
ballet.
School was from eight in the
morning until five at night. or
more often midnight" she recalls.
1--WE learned everything, music
and languages and department
and manners. We were given the
broadest possible base, including
even such a training as stage