''Grand Pas de Quatre'' is a ''
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
divertissement ''Divertissement'' (from the French 'diversion' or 'amusement') is used, in a similar sense to the Italian 'divertimento', for a light piece of music for a small group of players, however the French term has additional meanings.
During the 17th and ...
'' choreographed by
Jules Perrot
Jules-Joseph Perrot (18 August 1810 – 29 August 1892) was a dancer and choreographer who later became Ballet Master of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. He created some of the most famous ballets of the 19th century including ...
in 1845, on the suggestion of
Benjamin Lumley, Director at
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, ...
, to music composed by
Cesare Pugni
Cesare Pugni (; russian: Цезарь Пуни, Cezar' Puni; 31 May 1802 in Genoa – ) was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orche ...
.
On the night it premiered in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
(12 July 1845), it caused a sensation with the critics and the public alike. The reason for this was that it brought together, on one stage, the four greatest ballerinas of the time – in order of appearance,
Lucile Grahn
Lucile Alexia Grahn-Young (30 June 1819 – 4 April 1907) was the first internationally renowned Danish ballerina and one of the popular dancers of the Romantic ballet era.
Grahn studied from a young age at the Royal Danish Theatre School in ...
,
Carlotta Grisi
Carlotta Grisi (born Caronne Adele Josephine Marie Grisi; 28 June 1819 – 20 May 1899) was an Italian ballet dancer. Born in Visinada, Istria (present-day Vižinada, Croatia). Although her parents were not involved in the theatre, she was broug ...
,
Fanny Cerrito
Francesca "Fanny" Cerrito (11 May 1817 – 6 May 1909) was an Italian ballet dancer and choreographer. She was a ballerina noted for the brilliance, strength, and vivacity of her dancing. She was also one of few women in the 19th century to be r ...
, and
Marie Taglioni
Marie Taglioni, Comtesse de Voisins (23 April 1804 – 22 April 1884) was a Swedish-born ballet dancer of the Romantic ballet era partially of Italian descent, a central figure in the history of European dance. She spent most of her life in th ...
. (The fifth great Romantic ballerina of the time,
Fanny Elssler
Fanny Elssler (born Franziska Elßler; 23 June 181027 November 1884) was an Austrian ballerina of the Romantic Period.
Life and career
She was born in Gumpendorf, a neighborhood of Vienna. Her father Johann Florian Elssler was a second ge ...
, had been invited to take part but declined to do so; she was replaced by the young Lucile Grahn who accepted without hesitation.)
''Pas de Quatre'' captured the essence of the
Romantic style
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
as the ballerinas danced with demure lightness, delicacy, and poise. The steps demand that each area of classical ballet technique is executed. These areas include adagio movements, petite allegro, grand allegro, fast footwork, graceful changes of position, and the elegant and fluid arm movements that have become a signature element of ''Pas de Quatre.''
Each ballerina has an individual variation, which are performed in succession between an opening and finale that are danced by all the ballerinas together. These variations were choreographed for the ballerina premiering in each role, and were designed to display the best features of each.
History
The order of appearance of the ballerinas was done by age, from youngest to oldest, to squelch further confrontations between them. The original cast of ''Pas de Quatre'' only danced four performances together;
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
and
Prince Albert were in attendance on 17 July 1845, at the third of these four performances.
Dolin's version
Nearly one hundred years later, in 1941, a new version of ''Pas de quatre'' was staged by
choreographer
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...
Anton Dolin Anton Dolin may refer to:
* Anton Dolin (ballet dancer)
Sir Anton Dolin (27 July 190425 November 1983) was an English ballet dancer and choreographer.
Biography
Dolin was born in Slinfold in Sussex as Sydney Francis Patrick Chippendall Healey ...
. The dancers he used were, in order of appearance:
Nathalie Krassovska
Nathalie "Natasha" Krassovska (1918–2005) was a Russian born prima ballerina and teacher of classical ballet most noted for her work with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Following her decades-long career, she moved to the U.S., where she founde ...
as Lucile Grahn,
Mia Slavenska
Mia Slavenska, née Čorak (20 February 1916 in Brod-na-Sava, now Croatia, then Austria-Hungary – 5 October 2002 in Los Angeles, United States) was a Croatian-American soloist of the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo in 1938–1952 and 1954–1955 ...
as Carlotta Grisi,
Alexandra Danilova
Aleksandra Dionisyevna Danilova (''Russian'': Александра Дионисьевна Данилова; November 20, 1903 – July 13, 1997) was a Russian-born prima ballerina, who became an American citizen. In 1989, she was recognized fo ...
as Fanny Cerrito, and
Alicia Markova
Dame Alicia Markova DBE (1 December 1910 – 2 December 2004) was a British ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring international ...
as Marie Taglioni. Since then many ballet companies have performed the piece.
The sole and exclusive rights to perform Dolin's ''Pas de Quatre'' were left to
Festival Ballet
English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish B ...
(now
English National Ballet
English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish ...
) dancers
Belinda Wright and
Jelko Yuresha
Jelko Yuresha (9 May 1937 – 8 July 2020) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He and his wife, ballerina Belinda Wright, toured internationally as “Ambassadors of Dance” for the United Kingdom from 1966 to 1977.
In 1959 he p ...
, husband and wife. Wright and Dolin had known each other since Wright was a young dancer. She had won a Pavlova Award and caught Dolin's attention. Wright was a principal with Dolin's Festival Ballet after years with the
Royal Ballet
The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...
, and her husband Yuresha was a soloist. When Dolin died, his estate, run by his nephew Phillip, bestowed the rights to ''Pas de Quatre'' to Wright and Yuresha. Dolin's ''Pas de Quatre'' may not be staged, performed, produced or recorded without their permission and their doing the staging.
The music
The original music was composed by
Cesare Pugni
Cesare Pugni (; russian: Цезарь Пуни, Cezar' Puni; 31 May 1802 in Genoa – ) was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orche ...
but only used for the four performances in July 1845 at Her Majesty's Theatre with the great ballerinas Grahn, Grisi, Cerrito and Taglioni. No further performance took place in the next decades.
The publisher Julien issued Pugni's piano version immediately following the sussessful premiere. Pugni's autograph orchestral score is preserved in the archives of the
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
. Nevertheless, the new choreography of Anton Dolin made use of an orchestral arrangement prepared by composer
Leighton Lucas
Leighton Lucas (5 January 1903 – 1 November 1982) was an English composer and conductor. Born into a musical family (his father, Clarence Lucas, was also a noted composer and his mother Clara Asher-Lucas a concert pianist), he began his career ...
from the original piano score.
[ ]American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual ei ...
, Repertory Archive. Since then several other composers created orchestral versions from the piano score of Cesare Pugni, like
William McDermott,
Daniel Stirn or
Peter March.
References
{{Authority control
Ballets by Jules Perrot
1845 compositions
Ballets by Cesare Pugni
1845 ballet premieres