A chapter from Following Sir Fred's Steps - Ashton's Legacy, the published proceedings of the conference on the choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton and his work, held at Roehampton University in 1994, and edited by Stephanie Jordan and Andrée Grau.
Solo from Birthday Offering
Workshop
Monica Mason explained that Ashton had choreographed Birthday Offering to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first full evening of ballet performed by the then Vic-Wells Ballet. It was a pièce d’occasion created for seven of the company’s ballerinas: Margot Fonteyn, Beryl Grey, Violetta Elvin, Nadia Nerina, Rowena Jackson, Svetlana Beriosova and Elaine Fifield, and their partners. Mason remarked that when teaching and performing any of the roles one had to bear in mind the qualities of the dancers who created them.
The solo that Mason taught was performed by Beriosova, a Lithuanian dancer who received some of her training in the West, yet retained elements of Russian training, including an expansive movement quality and an expressive back. It is a slow variation, which contains particular elements of Ashton’s style. The solo does not mean anything in a literal sense, yet itdoes have a specific kinetic quality. The costume worn by Beriosova was bell-shaped; the arm lines should echo this shape.
The solo begins in the left diagonal back corner, and contrasts the languorous qualities of deep ronds de jambe using a ‘long lean twist in the body’ with sharp retiré relevé. The rond de jambe ‘should describe a very large circle’. Mason emphasised that everything in the solo was governed by direction, and when performing the rond de jambe the dancer should watch her foot. The body should be curved forward on the retiré, giving a ‘feeling of the knee being under the chin’.
Mason explained that Ashton adored renversés, and used them in many of his ballets. She suggested that the dancers think of flamenco when performing renversé, and leave the face towards the audience. Performing the step in this manner means that the audience never loses sight of the dancer’s face. Mason directed the dancers’ attention to the music, which would allow them to emphasise and contrast the slow renversé with the following quick piqué steps.
Mason indicated that Ashton wanted the dancer gradually to fold the upper body forward when performing seven piqués en arrière, until the dancer’s face could no longer be seen. The solo ends with two sissonnes over, sissonne en avant, a run forward towards the audience, and a pas de chat gathering ‘all the flowers thrown to you and then letting them drop through the hands’ as the arms are raised to an open fifth.
Throughout the solo Mason contrasted the ability to flow the arm gestures with the intricate and faster moving feet. She reminded the dancers that in classical ballet the spectators watch the upper body; they will not watch a dancer’s feet unless or until the dancer leads their gaze to the feet by her focus.