Balanchine Catalogue Archive
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107. Dances for Sir Oswald Stoll's Variety Shows 1931
- Choreography
George Balanchine
Performance Type
Concert Works
Note
In addition to these works documented from programs of Sir Oswald Stoll’s variety shows at the London Coliseum (February 16- March 21) and Alhambra (April 6-May 30), reviews and conversations with dancers identify the following: Tango (Sonne and Briggs); Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee (Gregorova, Sonne, Gaya); can-can from Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers for a corps of girls in front of the curtain; a short jazz number for four women to the recorded music of Jack Hilton and His Dance Orchestra, performed in front of the curtain; an ensemble number to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture; a pas de deux for Briggs and Betty Scorer to Lord Berners’ Scottish Rhapsody; and a ‘futuristic Scottish-American reel’ for a group. Mention is made of the ‘Balanchine Girls . . .dancing to the strains of modern foxtrots and later to Borodin’s Nocturne.’ Publicity material suggests that costumes were designed by Hedley Briggs and scenery by Frederick Stafford, but Natasha Gregorova remembered that Barbara Karinska was also involved with costuming. Dennis Stoll (son of Sir Oswald) conducted some of the performances. Balanchine’s group of sixteen women (Hedley Briggs was the single male performer) was variously billed as the Balanchine Ballet, Balanchine’s Girls, Balanchine’s Sixteen Novelty Dancers, George Balanchine’s Sixteen Delightful Dancers, and 16 Delightful Balanchine Girls 16.
Source Notes
Balanchine, Elizabeth Baron [Betty Scorer], Natasha Gregorova Cookson, Alicia Markova, Doris Sonne Toye, Barbara Newman, and brief reviews in Era and The Performer.
140. Dans l'Élysée 1933
- Music
Jacques Offenbach
- Choreography
George Balanchine
- Production
Presented by Edward James
- Premiere
July 3, 1933, Ballets Serge Lifar, Savoy Theatre, London. Conductor: Alexander Labinsky
- Cast
Felia Doubrovska
Performance Type
Concert Works
Note
Neither Balanchine nor Doubrovska remembered this piece, but a program for the Lifar engagement at the Savoy lists Dans l’Élysée, danced by Doubrovska, with choreography uncredited. A review of Lifar’s London appearances (Dancing Times, August 1933, pp. 439-40) mentions a ‘solo sur les pointes to music of Offenbach choreographed by Balanchine’ for Doubrovska.