Sylphides and wilis, white gauze and moonlit glades: these are the stereotypical images of the Romantic ballet. A cursory look at the lithographs of the period leaves the viewer with visions of an airy-fairyland far removed from industry, labor, colonialism, or any of the bigger and beastlier concerns of the early nineteenth century. But despite its bias towards otherworldliness, the Romantic ballet was not entirely divorced from the concerns of its time. It shared many interests with the drama, literature, and fine arts of the period and like them drew many of its themes from the material world, although it tended to select and exploit these themes for their color and spectacle rather than utilize them to convey sociological truths or instigate reform. An example of such a "realistic" ballet is Jules Perrot's Catarina, whose protagonist is a more robust creature than the sylphs and fays that dominated the period: a female bandit. Catarina, ou la Fille du Bandit was first performed at Her Majesty's Theatre in London on March 3, 1846, with the Danish ballerina Lucile Grahn in the title role. Perrot himself played the role of her faithful lieutenant Diavolino and Louis Gosselin played Salvator Rosa, the seventeenth-century Italian painter. Louise Taglioni, a cousin of the immortal Marie, made her London debut as Salvator's principal model. The ballet was later revived by Perrot in St. Petersburg in 1849. The plot purportedly derives from an actual incident in the life of Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), the painter whose wild and desolate landscape scenes ravished the sensibilities of the Romantics.
In 1953, we sat in a small, harshly lit room in the old High School of Performing Arts building on 46th Street and Broadway, our legs hanging, perched or straggled on chairs in front of us. We were tired from hours of technique and rehearsals, coming straight from the studio in our worn tights and warmers. A small woman with red curls and glasses spoke intensely about Louis XIV's court ballets; she evoked a world of magic, opulence, and beauty. I remember looking around me and thinking that if I had lived then, things would be very different. And I also remember thinking how kind of this woman to let us sit in such an unladylike way in her Dance History class.Selma Jeanne Cohen has always understood her purpose in the world, and she tolerated many mishaps for her goal—to create an academic discipline out of this amusing art form. Tired as we were, we were transfixed by the clarity of her detailed descriptions of the seventeenth-century ballet form. She was straightforward, substantive, and loving.
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