Strictly, Romantic Ballet. By Uncle Monty.

Strictly, Romantic Ballet.
By Uncle Monty.
Cuba Photos By Alex Albion.
***
Browsing thru a rundown old bookshop while visiting Cuba’s

Old Havana last May, I came by accident across Sacheverell

Sitwell’s 1948 book entitled “The Romantic Ballet” with 16

beautiful coloured 8” x 11” engraved plates of noted ballet

dancers and famous ballets. I wasn’t looking particularly for

old ballet books, but when I flipped thru Sitwell’s classy book

I just couldn’t turn it down for the equlivent of one US dollar

or about 85 English pence! So I bought the book, of course.
***
My lovely and dear friend Bronwyn Curry, a former English

ballerina herself at The Royal Ballet, also thought the book was

lovely when I showed it her during her last visit in September

to London with her Italian artist partner Franco Benini.

Please don’t tell her, I now plan to give the book

to Bronwyn for this Christmas.
***
But in the meantime, I thought it would be nice to present

just a few of the magnificent plates I found in “The Romantic

Ballet” published - and now long out of print - by B. T.

Batsford Ltd of Malvern Wells, and printed in The Netherlands

by L. van Leer & Co. Bronwyn also told me that classical ballet

has always been fondly supported in Cuba for donkeys' ages

despite the 50 year-old Castro Revolution and its communist

tyranny it then replaced of the old rightist Fulgencio Batista

regime. I suspect Sitwell's gem was brought to Cuba either

from England or America by some Anglo affectionado -of

European ballet after perhaps the Second War World.
***

Plate 15.

Madame Celeste as The Arab Boy.

***
Plate 7.

Carlotta Grisi and Jules Perrot in La Polka.

***
Plate 14.

Flora Fabbri in Le Diable A Quatre.

***
There is nothing like abit of culture, now and again,

that something like ballet can bring to us all even to

those of us who aren’t particularly into ballet per se

or professional dance. Years ago, when I worked as

a teenager as the scullery boy after school for the

wonderful English baritone Francis Loring and his

endearing wife Gloria at their cultured-filled St.

John's Wood mansion house, I can recall how I was

taken to The Royal Ballet by them. Years later, I

was to also meet British choreographer Sir Frederick

Ashton; the Queen's gay dress designer Hardy Amies;

the prima ballerina herself Margot Fonteyn and her

wheelchair-bound Panamanian husband and diplomat

Roberto de Arias. And with Dame Margot, I also met

Rudolf Nureyev twice, who later blamed his own co-

dancers when he himself had made dance missteps

or key mistakes as he grew older and became less

agile and more clumsy as the world's foremost male

ballet dancer of the 20th century. He had earlier sought

political exile in England after he fled from the rigid and

cruel communist rule of the USSR. Rudolf Nureyev

came over to me as a prig, quite frankly!!

***

British Baritone Sir Francis Loring.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-francis-loring-1405084.html*

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Sir Sacheverell Sitwell Dies at 90,

Last of Trio of Literary Eccentrics.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/03/obituaries/sir-sacheverell-sitwell-dies-at-90-last-of-trio-of-literary-eccentrics.html
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Prima Ballerina Absoluta -Dame Margot Fonteyn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margot_Fonteyn
Her husband Roberto de Arias and her famous

dance partner Russian exile Rudolf Nureyev.
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Plate 5.

Shown above, as my story caption image,

is that of Carlotta Grisi and Jules Perrot in

La Esmeralda. Sitwell's book also include plates

showing ballerinas Fanny Elssler, Marie Taglioni,

Fanny Cerrito, Lucile Grahn, Marie Guy

Stephan, and Anne Fairbrother Hill.
***
Do have yourself a good day, Uncle Monty.

+Eve of St. Edmund, 2oo9.
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Uncle Monty with some "Cuban fans" of his!!

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