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French company dances
tribute to Opera conductor
By Josh Nichols
Staff writer
Like everything else, ballet has changed in
the past century.
Some of the significant performances that
helped change the face of dance will be per
formed this evening at the Lied Center for
Performing Arts.
The Ballet de l’Opera de Bordeaux, a promi
nent French dance company for more than two
centuries, will present ‘Tribute to Diaghilev” a
performance in tribute to Sergei Diaghilev, a
famous Russian opera conductor who has been
called the originator of modem dance.
The piece includes well-known perfor
mances such as “Les Sylphides,” “L’apres-midi
D’un Faune,” “Le Spectre de la Rose” and
“Petrouchka.”
The ballet is an innovative one.
“These performances changed how we look
at ballet,” said Lisa Fusillo, a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln professor of dance.
Mark Moore, senior events coordinator at the
Lied, said viewers will see some “really classical
stuff” at tonight’s show.
He also said this performance is unique in
that local dancers will be taking part in die per
formance.
The local performers will be able to take part
in a performance that brings back the dances
going on when the century began.
The first performance, “Les Sylphides,”
originally called “Chopiniana,” is a dance classic
that doesn’t tell a basic story.
Instead, it involves dancers in long white
dresses and a “danseur,” which is a male ballet
dancer wearing white and black velvet
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The danseur’s romantic movements to the
classical music tell a story of wondrous creatures
who dance in the moonlight
Presented for the first time in 1909,
“Chopiniana” was a restoration of ballet.blanc, a
style of ballet that was lost midway through the
19* century.
Brushed away by an emphasis on elaborate
stage spectacle, ballet blanc was a return to
dancers’ romantic movements that told a story of
their own. ^
The second performance, “L’apres-midi
D’un Faune” (The Afternoon of a Faun), opens
with an innocent faun relaxing on a hot summer
afternoon.
Dressed in dotted brown tights, the half faun,
half person soon encounters seven beautiful
maiden sisters who are in awe of the creature.
When the faun begins to leap about die maid
ens are scared away, but return shortly.
The faun once again tries to befriend them,
scaring all but one of the sisters away.
Feeling an attraction to the girl, die faun tries
to embrace her, but scaring her away in the
process. As she flees, she drops a scarf, which the
faun cherishes.
At this time, the faun handles the scarf in a
provocative manner, which upset many people in
1909, Fusillo said. The other contemporary
aspect of this early 20*-century performance
was the static movements of the dancers in a flat,
two-dimensional scene.
In dance, people were used to smooth/flow
mg movements by dancers in a soft, round curve,
Fusillo said.
The last one-act performance in the group,
“Le Spectre de la Rose,” is about a lovesick girl
who returns home from a ball carrying a rose.
When die falls asleep, the rose slips from her
hand and falls to the floor where the spirit of the
rose suddenly appears dancing about die room.
She dances with the spirit until the morning
light peers into the room and the spirit sneaks
away.
^Ballet de L’Opera de
ordeaux, “Tribute
o Diaghilev”
WHERE: Lied Center for
mamm
Performing Arts,
J31 12th & R streets
| | 1 WHEN: Feb. 2,8 p.m.
HU COST: $28, $32 and $36,
half price for students
Up THE SKINNY: French
® dancers perform early
20th Century ballet.
She wakes up and sees the rose lying on the
floor beside her, picks it up and then cherishes the
memory of her night at the ball and dream that
followed.
The final performance, “Petrouchka,” con
tains four scenes and is set at a carnival in Russia.
It is a love story centered around Petrouchka
and his battle with a rival to win over the love of
a ballerina.
In the beginning, the three characters are
puppets controlled by a charlatan playing a pup
peteer. It seems as if the puppets become human,
taking on characteristics of living people.
The audience is shocked in the end when
Petrouchka is struck over the head with a sabre
by his enemy.
When Petrouchka’s supposedly dead body is
picked up, the beholder discovers that
Petrouchka is only a puppet.
At this time, die charlatan says, “It’s only me
being a puppeteer.”
But after that, Petrouchka’s soul reappears,
leaving the audience to question the meaning of
the piece.
Fusillo described Petrouchka as “a psycho
logical insight into personality.”
Fusillo said people need to look at these per
formances with a sense of history and think
about seeing them in 1912.
“We are delighted to have this in Nebraska
for people to experience the tradition in
ballet history” Fusillo said. “People will
see a wonderful reflection of early
20th-century ballet.”
Scott Eastman/DN