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(A reminder of the history. Rambert started her school in 1920 and from this in 1926 grew a performing group initially known as the Marie Rambert Dancers, then Ballet Club, then Ballet Rambert. Ashton first had classes with her in 1924, passed on by Massine. His earliest significant choreographic work was A Tragedy of Fashion staged by Rambert’s dancers at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1926. In 1927 Rambert’s playwright husband Ashley Dukes bought Horbury Hall, a ragged school in Notting Hill, for a performing and rehearsal space. This later became known as the Mercury Theatre. Ballet Club was founded in 1930, giving Sunday evening performances at the Mercury to a list of subscribers, its performers being members of Rambert’s group. The company name was changed to Ballet Rambert in 1935, the year in which Ashton joined Ninette de Valois in the Vic-Wells ballet. Ashton choreographed 22 works for Rambert between 1926 and 1936, then 40 years later, Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan. Full details of all these, including pictures, are on the Rambert website: www.rambert.org.uk

In total we were shown about an hour’s worth of film, which is probably all the Ashton-related dance material that there is remaining from the 1930s. The films were from the Marie Rambert film collection, now held in the National Film and Television Archive (UK). There are also copies in the Jerome Robbins Collection in the New York Public Library. They were shot by “a pair of balletomanes”, Pearl and Walter Duff, during rehearsals or photo-calls or after performances. This was an informal project, undertaken for fun rather than posterity, and little care was taken to preserve the films. Marie Rambert, looking at them in the late 1940s, commented that the choreography held up even if some of the dancing did not.

 


The Royal Ballet's Tamara Rojo in
Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan
© John Ross

None of the films had sound, which makes one realise how much music adds to the comprehensibility of dance. Pritchard discussed the feasibility of adding music. Apart from the expense, in some cases the music is not known and, where it is, there are still the problems of placing the dance action in the score and synchronising the two.

Pritchard spoke about various influences on and aspects of Ashton’s choreography which had struck her when researching and watching the films. It was noticeable how elements from the early works on film reappear much later in larger pieces – old ideas being renewed. Some could be seen as sketches for ideas that were better worked out in later, larger works –  this may be one reason why Ashton was reluctant to revive his early pieces.

Ashton’s use of space is important. Much of his work was tailored very carefully to the stage on which it was created. The Mercury Theatre was tiny. It’s stage was 18 feet (5.5m) across and it seated 150. (The stage area was marked out on the floor of the Clore and there was surprised laughter when the audience realised how small it had been.) At the back of the stage was a staircase up to a dressing room. These stairs were much used in ballets choreographed there. Rambert said of the Mercury that, because of its small size and the closeness of the audience, choreographers had to use every inch available and also be “totally honest” in what they were doing. It was a workshop space as much as anything else and Ashton made five pieces there.

During the 30s Ashton danced and choreographed on stages of many sizes (Lyric, Hammersmith; Paris Opéra; La Scala; London Coliseum; Palace, Manchester; Bristol Hippodrome; Trocadero). The ‘legibility’ of his work in theatres of different sizes was of great concern and Pritchard feels that he choreographed for spaces as much as for individual dancers – this may have been another reason for his reluctance to revive works in later years.

Another striking feature coming out of these early films was Ashton’s use of épaulement, his “bend, bend, bend” of the upper body. Ashton derived this from Cecchetti, Pavlova, Duncan, Nijinska, but markedly amplified it. Twenty years before Ashton the dancers would have been “stiff as boards”, using their arms gracefully but not the trunk (presumably not allowed by their tight and inflexible costumes). Ninette de Valois said that in her childhood the dancers didn’t use the upper body and just waved props around. Ashton’s audience would have found his épaulement very new.

A thread emerging from the films was the influence of France. Ashton joined Nijinska in the Ballets Ida Rubinstein in August 1928 for about nine months. They were based in Paris but also toured Europe. None of the letters from Ashton, William Chappell or Edward Burra from Paris mention going to see ballet at the Paris Opéra but Pritchard thinks it is inconceivable that they did not. Assuming they did, then Ashton would likely have seen La Péri, Soir de Fête (the Staats ballet which has similarities to Les Rendezvous) and Les deux Pigeons. Ashton certainly proved Francophile in the choice of some of his music, and that may relate to this period.

The lecture’s title, Alchemist Ashton, comes from the idea of Ashton as a sponge who had the ability to imbibe influences from many sources and make them his own by alchemical transformation. Pritchard quoted from the diary of Lionel Bradley who wrote detailed descriptions of the ballets he saw in the 1930s and 40s and saw the influence of Massine, Nijinska, even Laban. William Chappell wrote similarly: “He imbibed the teaching of Nijinska and Massine, being affected by them, not in a purely derivative way, but receiving the things that pupils of genius take from their masters.”

The films:

Mars and Venus (Ashton, 1929) with William Chappell, Pearl Argyle, Andrée Howard and Prudence Hyman. This piece began life within the play Jew Süss in which form it had some 360 performances: that must make it one of Ashton’s most performed works. It was remodelled in 1931 as a standalone piece. Various elements pre-figure later works, especially the entanglement of Mars with skipping ropes (Ashton’s first “ribbon dance”), an idea he may have taken from the Paris version of Les deux Pigeons – assuming he had seen it.

The Lady of Shalott (Ashton, 1931) with Pearl Argyle. In this solo there is a free-flowing style of movement perhaps influenced by Isadora Duncan.

Pompette (Ashton, 1932) with Andrée Howard. This solo was apparently inspired by a dress that Howard was wearing to a party. She clutches a green liqueur glass – rather a Toulouse-Lautrec figure.

Foyer de Danse (Ashton, 1932) with Ashton, Markova, Walter Gore. This is a choreographic transformation of Degas’ dancer pictures, both in terms of costumes and poses. Ashton danced the Ballet Master, Markova the Étoile.

Les Masques (Ashton, 1933) with Ashton, Maude Lloyd, Pearl Argyle, Walter Gore. A stylish and stylized piece about a masked ball, designed by Sophie Fedorovitch in black, white and silver.

Two short clips were shown of Ashton as dancer in classical roles. Marie Rambert was important in schooling the Russian classics, especially Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. Her classes often contained extracts from classical variations – every member of her company had to learn the Dance of the Little Swans! Ashton first learned these roles from her.

Swan Lake (filmed 1931) with Ashton and Markova. This pas de deux from Act II was rather disconcertingly screened back to front (i.e. left and right transposed), apparently a common fault when film is copied!

Aurora’s Wedding (filmed 1933) with Ashton and Pearl Argyle. When staged by Ballet Club this piece was a variable feast, with different variations depending on which dancers were available, and including bits of Nutcracker as was Diaghilev’s practice.

Cinderella (Andrée Howard, 1935) with Pearl Argyle and Ashton. The Ugly Sisters (female) are reminiscent of Ashton’s own. Howard was a choreographic influence on Ashton, her Mermaid pre-figuring Ondine in some of its images and movement.

The last film clip was of Les Rendezvous (Ashton, 1933), a coda to this collection of films, which takes him out of Ballet Club and into the Vic-Wells Ballet. The film was from the late 30s.

Questions:

The fate of Mercury Theatre: this was converted into a private house (“very posh”). There are plaques commemorating Rambert and her husband Ashley Dukes.

First time he used the “Fred Step”: Markova said that the first time she danced it was in Marriage à la Mode (1930). The first time it was captured on film was in Les Masques.

Other early film of Ashton’s work: Jane Pritchard said that she had searched as far as possible for all available film, though it would be wrong to say that there could be no more.

The music for Foyer de Danse: in these early years there was no money to commission original scores. Lord Berners’ music was originally for a C.B. Cochrane review, Luna Park, choreographed by Balanchine.

This was a fascinating and tantalizing event. Brief glimpses of dancers long dead and irretrievable works. The Rambert company should be congratulated for its attention to history and making the most of the available material. Their website is well worth a visit: www.rambert.org.uk, click on “archive”.