Scottish Ballet, 23/09/2021

 Starstruck

Choreography : Gene Kelly, Christopher Hampson

Music : Chopin, Gershwin

Artists of Scottish Ballet

Lynda Cochrane, piano

Scottish Ballet Orchestra

Jean-Claude Picard

It's in 1960 that Gene Kelly was invited to create a work for the Paris Opera Ballet, and specifically for their étoile Claude Bessy, with whom he had already performed in America.  The result was Pas de Dieux, set to the Gershwin Piano Concerto, and it was, apparently, a big success at the time, but I have not heard of it being performed since, until 2014, when the Ballet Nice Méditerranée decided to revive it (and it was filmed and is available commercially).  Nice collaborated with Bessy on that revival, but in 2019 Kelly's widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, suggested to Scottish Ballet's Artistic Director, Christopher Hampson, that it might be of interest to the company, a suggestion which Hampson, by his own account, accepted with alacrity.  What emerged, however, is what might be termed an expanded version of Kelly's ballet, with the original (more or less) Pas de Dieux set in a framing story of a ballet company working on a new creation, and the show begins and ends backstage, with the arrival and departure of the performers.

In this version, a Choreographer arrives for the day, mind on steps for his new work.  The company Pianist, a playful fellow, shows up next, and the rest of the company trickles in for morning class, in various groupings.  There's a newbie girl, unsure of her place, a couple of Sweethearts very much in the honeymoon stage of their affair, and finally, the Star Ballerina, the Choreographer's muse.  The company begins rehearsals for the new ballet.  This is a frothy affair; the goddess Aphrodite (the Ballerina), feeling neglected by her husband Zeus (the Choreographer), and encouraged by her impertinent friend Eros (the Pianist), decides to alleviate her boredom with a little trip to the seaside on Earth, and a fling with a handsome Lifeguard (the male Sweetheart) she's spotted.  The Lifeguard has a girlfriend, Girl with Ponytail (the female Sweetheart), but that's not a problem for the gods; Eros fires an arrow, and distracts her, leaving a disconsolate Lifeguard ripe for the plucking by Aphrodite.  Zeus, displeased, disentangles these two couples, and Aphrodite, pouting, decides to seek entertainment elsewhere.

At this point, Kelly's ballet has her going to a louche bar and Zeus getting into a fight with another customer for Aphrodite's attention, which he wins, and which leads to the deities reconciling.  Hampson allows 'life' to intrude on 'art' here, and steps out of the ballet back into the studio, where it's the Choreographer who ends up in a fight with a Stagehand to whom the Ballerina has been giving some encouragement, feeling neglected by the Choreographer.  However, the actual steps remain mostly the same, and produce the same duet of reconciliation.  The last movement, in Pas de Dieux, was pretty much just a big, flashy jamboree much in the way so many of the big 19th Century Russian ballets ended, no plot but lots of dancing.  Hampson turns it into the first night of the new work, with the Palais Garnier looming large on the backdrop, until the curtain falls, and the dancers, weary but satisfied, wander off home for the night.

Kelly's own choreography is, as you would expected, strongly rooted in Broadway and in jazz dance.  Only the two female leads use pointe shoes, and you can see Kelly himself in quite a lot of the male choreography, particularly that sort of rolling leap he favoured so often.  He evokes the Charleston very clearly at one point in the first movement, but in other places, the steps are very much of their time, and occasionally a little repetitive.  However, there are other hints that are interesting, suggestions of Jerome Robbins (who was virtually an exact contemporary of Kelly's), and some pointers towards Bob Fosse, who was a decade younger, and a fast-rising star by the time of the creation of Pas de Dieux.   Hampson has taken these echoes and run with them; his opening section is set to Chopin, three of the orchestrated pieces that appear in Les Sylphides, which means that you're almost looking for Fokine, at first.  

When the Pianist arrives, though, with a characteristic leap which is part of the Kelly choreography, juxtaposed on the Chopin music, I was suddenly reminded of Robbins's The Concert.  There's a cheeky, fleeting nod towards Balanchine (who might be called the father of American ballet), too, in a pose straight out of Apollo.  I wasn't too sure about the strings on the Lifeguard/Ponytail Girl at the start of the second movement.  I don't recall those in the Nice revival, and the resultant cat's cradle business had distinct undertones of Ashton and his Fille mal gardée that didn't quite seem appropriate.  The backstage setting, though, with its big stage lights, and the ladder at the back, is immediately reminiscent of the setting for "You were meant for me", from Singin' in the Rain, while the colourful backdrop is a copy of the Chagall-inspired André François curtain from the original production of Pas de Dieux.  In short, Starstruck abounds in theatrical and choreographic clins d'oeil to keep you entertained.

Design by Lez Brotherston for the opening of Starstruck
Scottish Ballet, September 2021
(photograph by the author)

Opening night tonight was the first time Scottish Ballet has performed on stage to an audience in eighteen months.  It was not quite a full return - the ballet itself is only an hour long (Pas de Dieux in itself is about 45 minutes), and there was no orchestra in the pit, the music being from a recording made by the company orchestra specifically for the purpose.  Nevertheless,  there was certainly a high level of zest from all concerned.  Sophie Martin was the Ballerina/Aphrodite, gladly eschewing purely classical ballet steps for a more provocative style, while Evan Loudon smouldered persuasively as the Choreographer/Zeus, and showed a nice elevation in his jumps, as did a very lively Bruno Micchiardi, ebullient, and looking to be enjoying himself thoroughly as the irrepressible and irreverent Pianist/Eros.  It's a high-octane piece generally, with that bluesy pas de deux at the heart of it for contrast, and the company threw itself into it with clear enthusiasm.  Once or twice I felt a small degree of precision, in the group numbers, was lacking.  Kelly lines up his dancers very sharply, so even the slightest deviation becomes immediately apparent, and you're almost looking for the kind of Busby Berkeley accuracy there, but the verve of the whole carried it off nevertheless.  

I do think that the rapturous reception Starstruck received was perhaps somewhat influenced by the equal excitement of the audience to finally be back in the theatre too, but it's a pleasing show, good-humoured and good-hearted, that should do well, especially once the right 'partner' is found for a full-length performance. 

[Next : 1st October]