1975
It was the year of the Russian emigrants: in London alone, Nureyev danced 15 roles with 3 different companies, as well as mounting his own production of 'Sleeping Beauty' for Festival Ballet; Makarova danced 10 roles with the two Royal Ballet companies; and Baryshnikov made his debut with the Royal Ballet. Also in London were Valeri and Galina Panov - almost forgotten now, but at the time two of the most famous dancers in the world after his application to leave Russia for Israel had resulted not only in refusal but also in his expulsion from the Kirov. The whole dance world in the West had united in their support, and they had recently been allowed their freedom. Ballet of the Year Was Paul Taylor's Esplanade, a wonderfully life-enhancing work to music by Bach - seen here during Taylor's tour of English towns. Calendar January    The Royal Ballet danced their 500th performance of 'Sleeping Beauty' at Covent Garden (Sibley and Dowell in the leads) Noriko Ohara danced Swanilda in Festival Ballet's 'Coppélia' - the first Japanese ballerina to dance a classic lead with a British company The RB's female corps de ballet were presented with the Evening Standard award for ballet for their performance in Nureyev's production of the Shades scene from 'La Bayadère'. February    The Irish Ballet Company was in Cork, starting its second year with a programme including 6 pieces new to its repertoire. March    On successive nights, the RB premièred Jerome Robbins' 'The Concert' (a huge success) and Kenneth Macmillan's 'The Four Seasons' (less so). April    The National Ballet of Canada were at the London Coliseum, with a programme including John Neumeier's 'Don Juan'. On the last night of their season they did a historic performance of 'Coppélia', with Nureyev as Franz and the the great Dane Erik Bruhn as Dr Coppélius - 'a sublime experience', said one critic. Ballet Rambert were at the Round House - a converted train shed in North London - with a repertoire which included Lindsay Kemp's 'The Parades Gone By': a Hollywood-based fantasy with a cast list including Rudolph Valentino, Dietrich and lots of others. Festival Ballet did their first performances of Nureyev's 'Sleeping Beauty' - he danced the first few himself; the Panovs appeared at later performances. May    The Tokyo Ballet were at Sadler's Wells Theatre - the first major Japanese classical company to appear in London. They brought their productions of 'Symphony in C', 'Les Sylphides' and 'Paquita'. June    The two RB companies had planned a joint season at the Coliseum, but cancelled it in protest at the exorbitant 'get-out' charges demanded by the stage crew. Instead, they put up a large tent in Battersea Park and had a very successful season there - low prices, new audience... The RB School performance, also given in the Tent, was of Ashton's 'Two Pigeons', starring Nicola Katrak and Stephen Beagley; Ashley Page was the Gypsy Lover. July    London Contemporary Dance Theatre opened a 5 week season at Sadler's Wells - they had a widely varied repertoire in those days and could easily put on 5 weeks' worth of interesting programmes, attracting an enthusiastic audience. The RB revived Kenneth Macmillan's Shostakovich 'Symphony', killing it stone dead for me by replacing Yolanda Sonnabend's dark, mysterious set and costumes by bright-white-and-primary-colours. August    First rumours were heard of a possible merger between the touring Royal Ballet and Northern Dance Theatre (now NBT) - the resulting company to be based in Manchester. This rumbled on for months and eventually came to nothing, as did several similar proposals in these years - it began to seem that there was no combination of RB2/NDT/Rambert/Festival Ballet that had not been considered for merging. October    A new role for Fonteyn, in Scotland, where the national company mounted Peter Darell's Beardsley-inspired 'The Scarlet Pastorale'. Darrell had really wanted to create a piece based on 'Chéri' and starring David Wall as well as Fonteyn, but the RB wouldn't release Wall for the necessary time - but in the event they had to manage without him anyway as he got injured and was off for all the time he would have been in Scotland. November    The great Paul Taylor Dance Company visited 4 locations in England (including Paignton (Paignton?) and Preston) on a tour deliberately put together by the Regions so as NOT to include London. Repertory included the wonderful 'Esplanade' and his newest creation, 'Runes'. December    Donald Macleary, one of the RB's finest partners and classical dancers, gave his last scheduled performance before retiring to become the company's ballet master. Fortunately that wasn't the last we saw of him as he came back to the stage several times to cover in emergencies. They Did Things Differently The first of the Trockadero companies to hit London - not the Monte Carlo version (who recently had such a huge success here) but their deadly rivals, the Trockadero Gloxinia Ballet Company. The Dancing Times described their season as 'the disaster of the year' - they came for 3 weeks, but folded after only one, got seriously terrible reviews, and 'the public stayed away in their hundreds'. Next Month ...we'll be looking at 1938 - any input welcome! {top}
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