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"Soviet" Ballet: Le Pas D'acier and Its Relationship to Russian Constructivism*

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LESLEY-ANNE SAYERS SERGEI DIAGHILEV'S "SOVIET" BALLET: LE PAS D'ACIER AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO RUSSIAN CONSTRUCTIVISM* In 1924-25 impresario Sergei Diaghilev, director of the Ballets Russes, expressed the earnest desire to put before his public a ballet that would represent the theatrical and social innovations of post-revolutionary Rus- sia. To this end, he commissioned a score from Sergei Prokofiev, designs from Georgii Yakulov, and choreography from Leonide Massine: the bal- let became known as Le Pas dacierl and was performed in Paris and London during the summer of 1927. There is a certain irony in the notion of a ballet, inspired by the new Soviet republic, being produced by Di- aghilev's Ballets Russes. After all, the company was a focal point for White Russian emigres, most of whom were far from sympathetic to the Soviet Union, and it depended for its patronage on aristocrats and high society.2 Although Diaghilev was never afraid to bite the hand that fed him, the late 1920s witnessed a growing fear of Bolshevism in Western Europe, particularly after England's General Strike in 1926. How paradox- ical it would be, therefore, if Le Pas d'Acier proved to be the finest Russian or, rather, Soviet Constructivist ballet of the 1920s, one pro- duced not in Moscow but in Paris!3 *This essay represents my work in progress from a longer study exploring the influences of Constructivism on Western theater dance. This is registered with Bristol University, Eng- land (Department of Art and Design, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Educa- tion, England) under the title: "Doctoral research into the interactions of Constructivism and Western Theatre Dance in the 1920s." 1. The title, Le Pas d'Acier, was not decided upon until shortly before the premiere. Be- tween 1925 and 1927 the ballet was referred to by Prokofiev's neologistic Ursignoli, but this was dropped as sounding too much like a parody of Stravinsky's Rosignol. In the French program for Le Pas d Acier the ballet is dated 1920. 2. Diaghilev's attitude towards the Russian Revolution is described generally as one of ambivalence. Unlike many of his associates, he never disapproved overtly of the Soviet Union and in 1917 he even insisted on dying the red flag at a production of Le Oiseau de Feu. a gesture that caused a furore. See S. Lifar, Serge Diaghilev: Nis Life, His Work, His Leg- end (London: Putnam, 1940), pp. 444-47. 3. In her 'Soviet Ballet and the Influence of Con structivism," Soviet Union/Union Sovie- tique (Tempe), 7, Pts. 1-2 (1980), 19, Elizaveta Surits writes: 'Judging by descriptions, the most 'Constructivist' of the 1920s ballets [was] the Yakulov/Massine Le Pas D'Acier of 192 7." By and large, this short-lived ballet has been ignored by dance histori- ans or dismissed at least as a mere flirtation with Soviet ideas.4This view is largely in keeping with that of Jean Cocteau who castigated Massine for "turning something as great as the Russian Revolution into a cotillion- like spectacle within the intellectual grasp of ladies who pay six thousand francs for a box."5 Since the 1980s however, the growing body of re- search into Constructivism in the early Soviet theater and ballet, has aroused renewed interest in Le Pas d'Acier, leading to a partial reexamina- tion of the ballet and of its place in dance history.b Any new appraisal of Le Pas d'Acier is impaired by the fact that so lit- tle of the ballet has survived. The music is available for study as are Yakulov's drawings and model set (Figs. 36-39), but the researcher lacks the original notation, film clips, and even the benefit of subsequent re- vivals. The few photographs that have come down to us do not show the actual set or any of the ensemble sections and while at least two members of the cast, Alexandra Danilova and Dame Alicia Markova, are still alive, the ballet has not been performed for seventy years and the force of living memory dwindles with every passing moment. Moreover, relying exclusviely on contemporary descriptions, memoirs, and relevant biographies is fraught with a particular set of problems and limitations. Nevertheless, careful study of the extant materials does reveal a work of great historical interest: the primary aim of this essay is to discuss the available information about the making, performance, and reception of Le Pas d'Acier and the relationship of these components to the Russian Con- structivist movement. The initial idea for a spectacle resembling Le Pas d'Acier dates back to the early 1920s. The flowering of Constructivism in the arts of the Soviet Union coincided with a renewed contact with the West following the disruption of World War i, the October Revolution, and the Civil War. In the 1920s the vibrancy of Russian artistic developments was again a sub- ject of growing interest in Western Europe-and to Diaghilev who had been cut off from his homeland since 1914.홢 In 1923 Diaghilev saw Moscow's Chamber Theater on a tour in Paris and the bold stage designs of Soviet artists, including Alexandra Exter and Yakulov, under Alexander 4. In The Pan Book of Ballet and Dance (London: Pan Books, 1970), p. 86, Peter Brin- son and Clement Crisp devote one line to Le Pas dAcier, a "late, unsuccessful flirtation with Soviet ideas.' 5. Letter to Boris Kochno from Jean Cocteau dated June 13, 1926 (misprint for 1927?), reproduced in B. Kochno, Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes (London: Allen Lane, The Pen- guin Press, 1971), p. 265. 6. See C. Lodder, Russian Constructivism (New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1983) and, specifically in relation to dance, Surits, 'Soviet Ballet and the Influence of Construc- tivism* and E. Souritz, 5oviet Choreographers in the 1920s (London: Dance Books,1990). 7. For some discussion of the cultural links between the Soviet and Western avant- gardes, see G. H. Roman and V. hl. Marquardt, eds., The Avant-Garde Frontier. Russia Meets the West (Gainesville: Univ Press of Florida, 1992). .
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