"Graduation Ball" is a ballet, choreographed in 1940 in Australia by David Lichine during the 1939-1940 tour of the Original Ballet Russe. The single-act, light-hearted comic ballet was premiered on Friday, March 1st, 1940, in Sydney. The music is by Johann Strauss II, compiled and arranged by Antal Doráti.
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The ballet follows the happenings of a Graduation Ball of a Viennese young ladies college to which cadets from a military college are invited. At first the girls and boys are timid but soon begin to dance with each other. Soon a series of divertissements ensue including a Pas de Deux between La Sylphide and James, a Drummer Boy and a Fouetté Competition. Soon after the students are told by the Headmistress of the Girls' School to go and have dinner, the students re-enter the ballroom to find the General and the Headmistress hugging and kissing. The Galop that follows mocks both the General and the Headmistress before the night ends and all students must go to bed. After the Ballroom has emptied, the Pigtails Girl and a Cadet sneak back in to see each other again. The General and the Headmistress have also re-entered to see each other but when they see the children, the cadet is led out by the ear and Pigtails is spanked offstage. The curtain closes.
The curtain opens on a Viennese Ballroom. Four mischievous girls sneak in to check out the Ballroom. They leave. Four more mischievous girls sneak in and leave. The original four girls come back in - three girls pursuing the first girl who has a mirror and is unwilling to share with the others. The other four girls come in with a powder puff and start getting ready for the ball. When the original four catch the others with the powder puff, they scare them and a fight begins. The Headmistress enters and demands the powder puff and tells the girls to leave the room. The two rival ballerinas enter, each girl on a side. After the Senior girls enter (with all the other girls in awe), the General enters, followed by some cadets. The General and the Headmistress leave the room and at first everyone is too shy to do anything but of course, Pigtails makes the first move. She sneaks over to the boys who have now formed in a circle and are talking and taps one on the shoulder. He turns around suddenly, frightening her and she falls into the splits. The boys apologise and carry her back over to the girls' side of the room before going back over to the other side. The boys then decide to push the Shy Cadet over to the girls. He is resistant but the Romantic Girl soon starts waltzing in front of him and everyone begins waltzing with each other. The first divertissement is a young cadet with a drum. The next divertissement is La Sylphide and James who perform a beautiful pas de deux before the sylphide disappears behind the curtain at the back and James follows her, looking upwards indicating that she has flown away. Pigtails gets up, believing that the whole thing was real and looks behind the curtain. The dancers have gone so she assumes that the Sylphide flew away. The others refuse to believe her and she goes crazy trying to convince them. Embarrassed by her friend, the Romantic Girl tries to pull Pigtails away from the group but instead Pigtails performs a provocative Pas Seul in which the General gets out of his seat and tries to pursue her. Pigtails feints at the end of her variation. The Romantic Girl also dances a Pas Seul. After the Romantic Girl has finished, the Fouetté Competition begins. The girls first warm up on barres which the cast are holding and then they each perform their best tricks before it is announced that there is no clear winner so it is a tie. Next, a box is passed around and the girls and boys each write love letters and place them in the box. The General reads a particularly naughty one and disciplines the boy with the box. This leads into Perpetuum Mobilé or the Dance of the Three Wise Monkeys. It is a fast-paced dance for five dancers in which the three supporting girls depict "Hear No Evil", "See No Evil" and "Speak No Evil". Once this has finished the students are told to go and eat dinner. Once they have left, the General and the Headmistress embark upon a flirtatious Mazurka which ends in a passionate embrace. The children catch them and dance a Galop in mock. The night ends and all the students are told to go to bed. The girls give each of the boys a flower or a ribbon of theirs and then wave the them off as they leave. The girls go to bed. Once everyone has left Pigtails and a Cadet sneak back into the ballroom as do the General and the Headmistress. The General and the Headmistress catch Pigtails and the Cadet and disguising their own intentions, lead them offstage clearly indicating that they will be punished. The curtain closes.
Antal Doráti took some less-familiar works of Johann Strauss II and incorporated them into a full ballet. These included "Acceleration Walzer", "Trisch Trasch Polka" and "Perpetuum Mobilé". Several different Polkas and Galops are heard in the final Galop.
The premiere of ballet has passed on March 1, 1940 at the Theatre Royal of Sydney during the tours of troupe Original Ballet Russe[1][2]. The artist of statement was Alexandre Benois who worked in troupe Original Ballet Russe. Executors of roles: David Lichine as the Junior Cadet and Tatiana Riabouchinska as the Junior Girl, Borislava Runanine as the Headmistress, Igor Schwezoff as the General, Natasha Sobinova as La Sylphide, Paul Petroff as the Scotsman, Alexandra Denisova (a Canadian dancer, real name: Patricia Denise Galian[3]) and Genevieve Moulin in the Dance-step Competition, Nicolas Orloff as the Drummer[1], Alison Lee (performing under the name Helene Lineva) as the Mathematics professor, Maria Azrova as the Natural History professor, Marina Svetlova as the unfortunate pupil[2].
The ballet was a big success. The Sydney Morning Herald reporting twenty-five curtain calls on opening night.[1]
Ballet Graduation Ball also was included at once into troupe repertoire. In September 1940 the troupe of Original Ballet Russe (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo) has left Australia, having gone on tour to the USA, and then across Europe. But the comic divertissement Mathematics and Natural History Lesson was cut from the ballet in following performances.[2] (see this divertissement photo at Russian article and here)
Ballet made such success that has soon been included in repertoire of other theaters.
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