_ Western ballerina to

Dancers such as Galina Ulanova and Nikolai Fadeyechev

are a testimony to the superiority and inspiring tradition
of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. «

BOOKS

Beryl Grey’
of Soviet ballet

"HERE was a feeling of com-

plete dedication which I
have met nowhere else. Main-
ly this came from the mem-
bers of the organization who
were doing something so sup-
erlatively that it marked them

out from the rest of the ballet

world.

“Part of the feeling, too,
stemmed from tradition; and
another part from the realiza-
tion that in their country they
were regarded as people mak-
img a special contribution to
society,

“This last factor was nat-
urally one of the things which
impressed me most when I
looked at the Bolshoi as a
dancer interested in the stand-
ards of her profession.”

This is Beryl Grey, the first
have
danced at the Bolshoi Theatre
in Moscow, giving, in her
(wholly unpolitical) new book
Red Curtain Up (available
here at the People’s Co-op
Bookstore, 307 West Pender,
price $6) an account of ballet
in the Soviet Union which will
cause every dancer and every
ballet lover in her own coun-
try, Britain, to take a deep,
envious sigh.

Miss Grey’s observations are
sO penetrating, and expressed
with such a fine combination
of economy and enthusiasm,
that I cannot do better than
quote one or two key passages

to illustrate some of the dif-

erences which this -widely-

travelled and experienced bal_

lerina found between ballet in

the USSR and in the West:

“The Bolshoi system is help-
ed by two things: first, the un-
stinted state support, and sec-
ondly, the fact that the pres-

__tige and security attaching to

Ss VIEW

a dancer’s life in Russia make
it possible to draw recruits
from a much wider field than
in Britain.”

This book must surely scotch
once and for all the false fa-

“miliar notion that state sub-

sidies for the arts means the
destruction of individual ex-
pression in the Russian ballet:

“In company classes all dan-
cers are shown the same en-
chainement, but the interpreta
tion of the steps is left to the
individual.

“That is what provides a
great deal of color in Soviet
ballet. I got the impression
that the dancer’s interpretation
are genuinely from within.
Certainly they appeared to be
deeply felt and carried con-
viction with all the audiences
I watched.

“There was no slavishness
about their tradition. Because
the Bolshoi is so confident —
and that is something quite
different from being arrogant
—it is all the more prepared
to be flexible artistically. That
is something I have not always
found in Western theatres.”

I have said nothing about
the first half- of Miss Grey’s
book, a chatty day-to-day rec-
ord of her five-week tour of
Russian ballet theatres, of
meals, hotels, journeys, health
—a record not without its ir-
ritations and discomforts, but
everywhere illumed by the
spontaneous affection and gen.
erous cooperation of Soviet
dancers and public.

There are excellent accounts
of Soviet ballet productions,
including Chabouklani’s Oth-
ello at Tiflis, and Joan of Arc,
Ulanova’s recent excursion into
choreography.

‘JANE KING

OPEN FORUM

Night session
FRANCES SEDGWICK, Vic-

._ toria, B.C.: The thousands of

unemployed who are walking
the streets with empty stom-
achs, and housewives who are
trying to feed their families on
meagre resources, will assure
you that action must be taken
NOW on unemployment.

But to listen to the plump,
full-stomached figures of the
government discussing unem-
ployment at the special night
session of the legislature, one
would get the impression that
it was no more important than
discussing the latest fashions.

Premier W. A. C, Bennett,
as usual, gave a fancy, hand-
swinging speech on what his
government had contributed to
unemployment (omitting what
it had contributed to unem-

ployment). He gave a false im. :
pression of the rea] situation

and evaded taking any direct
action to alleviate the crisis.
The lack of seriousness in
discussion was appalling. Most
of the time was taken up in-
sulting the opposition, laugh-
ing and smirking at demands
for action. One cannot but con-
clude from this that the Soc-
reds are not seriously con-
cerned about unemployment. -
Decision to throw the mat-
ter back into the lap .of a
special committee set up last

‘year brought this comment

Harding (CCF,
“Here we are,

from Ron
Kaslo-Slocan):

‘one full year after, throwing

the same resolution to the

same committee which is going
to bring the same group of
businessmen before it that it
heard last year.”

An interpretation

D. McLEAN, Vancouver, B.C.:
The great novel and movie,
The Old Man and the Sea,
clearly portray to the workers
how we suffer from stupidity
rooted in individualism.

Whereas the few among us
get the lucky break, hook the
big catch; then the battle is on
to make the kill. And with
half a-chance we do. Then,

Old Man

when all is secure, the sharks
appear. Again we*give battle.
But as individuals we lose the
big fish — that is, our job, our
home, etc. Business sharks
feast on our individualism,

So, we toilers from the sea
must unite as never before
to meet the challange the world
is demanding, and our historic
role moves us to the helm of a
planned society.

Such an ambition is no
longer a dream. Capitalism is
now moving from its twilight
abode to the end of its jour-
ney. 2

Tracy

loses to the camera

HE DRAMA of The Old

Man and the Sea doesn’t
lie in its story but in its extra-
ordinary visual beauty.

Beneath a dark sky streaked
with the faint pink of early
dawn, shadowy fishermen
carry their nets down to the
beach. As they put out to sea
in little boats, the whole har-
bor becomes flecked with tiny
pinpoints of light from their
lanterns.

Sea and sky are shown in
many moods and colors, and
there are tenderly handled

MIGHTY

Mighty China!
Friend of man!

And look!

Iron!

Steel!

Tron!
Steel!
Mighty China!

Friend of man!

Speed-on!

By W. J. BROWN :

In full voice sing of this bounding land,
And its people now tip-toe.

But thunder and steel to the foe—

_From Southern borders North to Peking _
See its surging, leaping power.

People aswarm, green fields abound,

Skyward its flaming towers.
Red glows the native furnace lines, ~
People’s iron pouring pure and sic
Rising from China’s farmland soil.
Stirring our hearts to song.
Iron of the people pouring on,
Oh, hear its prcunting roar.
Spelling peace and the peoples, arian
Spelling death to the fools of war.

_ May your “Big Leap’
Mankind here has a friend of steel,

Ahead the sky dawns Red.

CHINA!

* bound ahead,

February 6, 1959 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5

close-ups of seabirds, and fish,
and the young lion cubs of the
Old Man’s dreams.

As if intoxicated by the
magic eye, director John Stur-
gis and director of photog-
raphy James Wong Howe have
allowed the camera to domi-
nate the film; the people and
the action take second place.

That fine old actor Spencer
Tracy, with rugged, lined
face, stubbly beard and snow.
white hair, makes a splendid
picture of an old fisherman
against an every-changing sky.

He looks every inch the. part
but he has no opportunity to
live it.

The story, based on the book
by Ernest Hemingway, is a
somewhat whimsical one of
the old man’s. triumphant
struggle to hook the biggest

fish he has ever seen. It also ©

tells his defeat after a hope-
less battle against the perils
of the sea.

It’s quite a technical feat to
be able to hold the audience’s
attention for so long in a film
that consists almost entirely
of shots of the Old Man and
the sea, sky and the giant fish
(although once the Old Man
accepts his defeat, the rest is
-anti-climax).

But: it makes you doubt if

. this is rally the proper stuff

of the movies..

The Old Man talks aloud to
his fish, -in terms of the
brotherhood which he has
come to feel for it in his long
struggle.

In addition, a spoken com-
mentary is used for most of
the narrative, adding to the
impression. that yeu are not
watching a film, but an im-
aginative piece of sh'adow-play;
a long short story, told against
a film background, beautiful
but remote.

NINA HIBBIN

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