At the Ballet: Poor Relations

Extract

Since Diaghilev no one has achieved so close a fusion of the three elements of music, painting, and dancing, a fusion in which, for him, lay hidden the secret of the “perfect ballet.” Before looking at some recent works given by the Sadler's Wells Opera-Ballet, the Ballet Rambert, and the Sadler's Wells Company at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, it may be useful to glance for a moment at that truly alchemic process by which the mediums of different arts may be fused into one. This can only be accomplished by a knowledge of those primary elements which are the life-source of every art, whatever its means of expression.