British Liaisons: The Australian Ballet Flowers From Its British Roots by Andrew Miller
Ballet is very much an international art form, its artists often experience wanderlust. It was Catherine de Medici who brought Renaissance Italian balletto from Florence to Henri II's court and encouraged theatrical dance there. In the following centuries, Louis XIV defined the French national ballet style a gave it a permanent home. Then over four generations, four french choreographers, Didelot (Pushkin was a fan), Perrot (Giselle), Saint-Léon (Coppélia) and Petipa (Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake with Lev Ivanov, and Nutcracker), each left France after completing their training, for St. Petersburg to do wonderful things for the Imperial Ballet. In the 20th Century, to finish a satisfying historical palindrome (see Margot Fonteyn's book The Magic of Dance), four Russian dancers and choreographers immigrated to the west: Fokine, Massine, Nijinksy and Balanchine, all thanks in part to Serge Diaghilev. They, and other Russians traveled beyond Europe; Pavlova indefatigably spread her art over the globe, reaching Australia. This sloshing back and forth of Europe's creative ballet talent kept the national styles fresh when they tended toward artificiality without destroying or making uniform their unique characters, often by sharing foreign folk dancing and inspiring a rediscovery of the local vernacular.
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Alan Miller

