' The author of· 15. - ballets. super with some of the companies. hear something which appeals to you , "One year I was working for a and you analyse it, break it down, un- week with Anton Dolin who was ap­ ti! the plot of a story, _or the pearing with the American Ballet rudiments of an idea begin to emerge Company. In the middle of the week in your mind· in terms of visualized Tod Bolender who was in Sleeping movement. Some choreographers Beauty slipped and injured his elbow work in reverse. They first work out and Dolin had to go .on and replace the movements which express their him. Rosella Hightower substituted ideas and then commission a com­ for him at the class that night and poser to supply the music to fit them. she told me the company had an With me the music has always come MONTREAL-BORN Fernand Nault, opening in the corps de ballet and first." associate artistic director and resident asked if I would like to audition. When the idea does come; is he choreographer of Les Grands Ballets "Three days · 1ater I was on my able to know immediately how many Canadiens, shared a , precious, hour­ way to Boston in the back line of- the dancers will be involved'? long noontime break recently while corps. That was in · 1944 and I stayed "Yes, along with the l<ind of lunching on yogurt and a fresh orange with the company for 21 years costumes, colors and sets." to chat briefly about his early career, travelling all over the world. I was in-· I asked if· he was ever influenced the manner in which he creates his the corps for about 10 years then I by the economics of a production. For choreography and to explain why qid character dancing, taught and instance if he knew there was little there are still so few native-born prin­ eventually became ballet master. money to mount a particular ballet cipal dancers in Canada's three major "Those ·' were fantastic years, would that play any part in his con­ ballet companies. meeting and working with people like ception? Would he keep it on a small "When I began to study dancing in Balanchine. He , was doing scale? the late 1930s there were no ballet choreography for the company and "Never. It doesn't work like that. I companies in Canada at all. My first his wife, Maria Tallchief, was dan­ have an idea and if it happens to be teacher was an amazing man to cing: and Jerome Robbins who was on a grand scale and the company whom I owe everything. His name, at just starting out. 1 can't afford it,' then that's too bad. least his professional name, was "I came back to Montreal in 1965, We don't do it. My new ballet, for in­ Morris Morenoff and he had a little to work with Madam Chiriaeff, who stance, is a big ballet and it's been studio on Sherbrooke St. Actually, he by that time had the basic structure delayed because of the cost of the set. ·, was a French Canadian whose real of the company established, and I've The first design that the archit�t name was Lacasse but in those days been here ever since." worked out would have been much too anything connected with the ballet In the nine years Nault has been expensive. Now he's come up with had to have a Russian aura to it. with Les Grands Ballets he has done something a little less expensive and "Morenoff's father was a ballroom the choreography for 14 new ballets more within our means." dancing teacher. He learned first for the company, including The Nut­ He showed me sketches of a com­ from hirri and then I think he had cracker Suite, The Firel;>ird, Les plex steel structure backed by about five or ten ballet lessons in the Sylphides, Carmina Burana, Sym­ elaborate sets of stairs. United States. The rest h'e learned out phony of Psalms, Tommy, Hip and . "I'm tremendously pleased with of books. He and his wife, Carmen, Straight and Ceremony. these," he said with pride as he were acrobatic ballet dancers on the At the: moinent he is putting the carefully re-wrapped them and 'tucked· nightclub ·circuit, but he Joyed final touches to rehearsals for his 15th them a_way. classical ballet and he was deter­ ballet, entitled Quintessence which, "I particularly like working with mined to start a school, • no matter along with his Ceremony and Brian \'ocal music," he admitted.· "Quin­ how small. The only professional MacDonald's The Shining People of tessence has been · based on four of ballet we used to see was the Ballet. Leonard Cohen will make up the the Ruckert songs by Mahler." Russe which used to come here once program to open at Place des Arts I pointed out that from time to every three or four years. · After that next Friday in the first of five perfor­ time one hears complaints about the we began to get Lucia Chase's mances stretching over two weekends. number of non-Canadian born dancers American Ballet Theatre. This summer, when the company there are in the company. Since ballet "I used to practise at Marjorie plays four �veeks at the Expo theatre, \ is largely dependent on government Davis' studio at the corner of Peel follo"wing a trip to Paris in June, it grants and subsidies from Canadian and St. Catherine. Remember, it used will give the world premiere of his foundations and business corporations to be above, the old Child's Song of Songs, a major work lasting did he feel these complaints were in restaurant? Whenever there were dan­ over an hour. any way justified? cers in town, either with a ballet Before discussing Song ·of Songs, He gave me one of those patient, company, or appearing at . clubs like on which Nault has been working for long-suffering smiles, as though he the Samovar, they also used to work the past two years, I asked him how had heard the complaint 9 hundred out there. I used to meet them all he went about creating the. times himself. and because I had my nose choreography for a new work. "People who say things like that every,vhere I used to. get jobs as a "It begins with the music. You simply do not understand that it takes i Tirnrn&T rnrn _ ,_. to accept trained dancers from out­ side the country to help us gain a reputation and the rP.spect of the public. "And what( is a Canadian? Does that only apply to somebody who was born here? What about naturalized Canadians who have actually spent more of their lives in Canada than anywhere else? They pay their taxes like everyone else and belped pioneer the ballet in Canada. "Take· a ballerina like Sonia Taverner; it's true she was born in England and got her early training with the Royal Ballet in London, but she came to Canada when she was 16, spent nine years with the Royal Win­ ivpeg company and the past ,seven with Les Grands Ballets. Would you not call Sonia a Canadian? "The sam·e thing applies to someone like Vince Warren who was born in the United States, trained in New York during his early years and has been with us for the past 15. "And there are many others whq came here when they were only guaranteed three or four moJ)ths work each year and stayed with us and helped us grow. • "What would these complainers have us do? Kick such people out? I think that's carrying chauvinism to t�e point of absurdity. Fortunately I don't think the general public shares this point of view. "You have no idea what it meant to us when dancers like Sonia and Vince were greeted with entrance ap­ plause during our last appearance at Place des Arts. It meant that we ·re slowly beginning to arrive and the public we've built up is beginning to show its appreciation. .f"ernand Nault ·'In New York soloists are greeted with screams and shrieks. but up un­ a very long time to develop dancers she too had been athletic . til recently our dancers came on to the point where they can become "But in the ideal situation the stage to dead silence and used to soloists and we haven't been training student, after a few years in a ballet sense a feeling emanating from the dancers in this country long enough. school, might possibly join the corps audience which seemed to say, 'O.K. "The Royal Winnipeg and the de ballet and eventually become a we're here. Now show us what you National Ballet are faced with the soloist . but not all students are can do.' After all the work and the same situation. The ideal situation is potential soloists. excitement the dancers have built up when a dancer starts to learn at "If you add those years up you'll that cold wall of. silence has a about eight or 'nine, tak_ing perhaps see, . as I pointed out before, we deadening. effect and can be very dif- one lesson a week. Then,. as he grows haven't been in the business of f\cult to penetrate. ,, older, the lessons should increase training dancers in Canada that long. "Dancers are very 'Unique. They're year by year to two, three, or four a It"s only beginning to- happen now.