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The Cambridge - Les Ballets des Champs
Elyseés
The success of the current season of French Ballet at the Cambridge is due in no small measure to the magnetic dancing of Wladimir Skouratoff. This young artist has travelled a long way since he appeared as a dance-recitalist at the Adelphi a year or two ago.
He is now in a position to challenge the leading male dancers in any of the existing major ballet companies in Europe or America. He has become a highly sensitive artist and acquired a poise rare in one so young. Our own British ballet would be wise to strengthen its ranks by recruiting so elegant and versatile a dancer.
Last Monday’s programme displayed three different phases of M.Skouratoff’s artistry. His Young Man in the Underworld ballet “Le Rendez-vous” offered scope for melodramatic characterisation. This dancer uses restraint and all the subtle means at the disposal of a finished artist to convey the impression of a man doomed to die.
As the Choreographer in Lichine’s silent ballet “La Création”, M.Skouratoff took on a romantic Byronic appearance, becoming the artist who can never hope to see the full realisation of his dreams. His eyes were for ever in search of an unattainable ideal. Finally, in the “Don Quichotte” pas de deux with Jacqueline Moreau, he treated this show-piece as something more than an elaborate classroom exercise. While his dancing had all the essential flourish, his face, far from being a lifeless mask, had a mobility of expression which transformed the occasion into a highly satisfying artistic experience.
From an article of The Stage, London, August 23, 1951
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With Sonia Arova en
La création
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With Sonia Arova in La création
Photo: Duncan Melvin
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