BALLET: Stanley Peskin=20
IT has not been established whether Emma Livry’s costume=20 caught fire while dancing the title role of Taglioni’s=20 Papillon (1860) or during a rehearsal of Auber’s opera=20 La Muette de Portici, in which the role of the dumb girl=20 was traditionally played by a ballerina. =20
Whichever account of her death is true, the chief=20 element in both life and art is fire. In Taglioni’s=20 ballet, the butterfly’s wings are burnt away and=20 Papillon, restored to her human self, marries the=20 prince. In Ronald Hynd’s version (1979), she is burnt to=20 death, but enjoys an apotheosis in which she is reunited=20 with the shepherd she loves.=20
As Hynd recycles a number of 19th century ballets, there=20 are teasing glimpses of Coppelia (magical=20 transformation), Swan Lake (the dual nature of the=20 heroine) and exotic kingdoms (Le Corsaire and La=20 Bayadere). Hynd’s ballet, then, is a witty brew of=20 classical dance, pantomime and burlesque set in ancient=20
Papillon bears about as much resemblance to that empire=20 as a peacock does to a squirrel, but at the centre of=20 Pact Ballet’s production on opening night was the=20 supremely exotic Leticia Muller. Both as mortal and the=20 butterfly, Muller was enchanted and enchanting. After an=20 uneasy start, Johnny Bovang was an amusingly pompous=20 Shah and a neat foil to Iain MacDonald’s sweetly tender=20 shepherd boy.=20
Apart from the influence of romantic obsessions, Hynd is=20 also indebted to later works such as Frederick Ashton’s=20 La Fille Mal Gardee (1960). The last mentioned is a=20 great ballet which we will be given an opportunity to=20 see early next month. Artistic director Dawn Weller- Raistrick has interestingly enough decided to present=20 three quintessentially English ballets — including=20 Hynd’s own Rosalinda — in the first third of the year.=20 So far, watching the company immerse itself in a=20 particular genre of ballet has proved to be an=20 interesting and worthwhile experience.=20