News of the Century.

Great Moment from the pages of Dance Magazine

These excerpts from historic news articles from the pages of Dance Magazine retain their original spelling and punctuation. Unless noted, photos are from Dance Magazine's archives.

1946

MAY--After being obliterated under radio ether for a quarter of a century, dance is about to assume its rightful place on the airwaves via improved television.... Judging from the files at Columbia Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company, dance programs promise to become as popular as good music on the radio....

JUNE--The premiere of "Cinderella" a new ballet by Serge Prokofieff, was recently performed at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.... The role of Cinderella was alternately performed by Olga Lepeshinskaya and Galina Ulanova....

SEPTEMBER--Serge Lifar's appearance with the New Monte Carlo Ballet was marked by an uproar in the audience when boos and cries of "collaborator" were about evenly mixed with cheers of "bravo Lifar."

OCTOBER--After a summer of rumors, counter-rumors, intrigue and violent cries of "betrayal," there will emerge this fall three major American ballet companies.... Most spectacular in number of dancers and size of repertoire will be S. Hurok's Original Ballet Russe.... Hurok's season at the Metropolitan (September 29 to October 23) will practically overlap Ballet Theatre's run at the Broadway Theatre (September 30 to November 2). Ballet Theatre, under the codirection of Lucia Chase and Peter Lawrence since its split with the Hurok management in early summer, will feature premieres of ballets by Jerome Robbins and Frederick Ashton.... Sergei Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, unruffled by the turmoil in other companies, preceded its national tour with a ten day season at the City Center September 4 to 15....

DECEMBER--The most recent! addition to the baffle of the ballets is Ballet Society, a non-profit making organization which has George Balanchine as artistic director....

1947

AUGUST--Much coveted ballerina role for the film "Red Shoes" has at long last been tossed to 22 year old Scottish dancer of the (English) International Ballet, Moira Shearer ...

1948

JULY--Dates have been set for a festival at Connecticut College which promises to be the most important representation to date of the work of leading choreographers and dancers who are exponents of contemporary American dance. Such dancers as Martha Graham (and full company), Jose Limon and company, Doris Humphrey (as choreographer) and the Dudley-Bales-Maslow Company, among others, will be seen at the Palmer Auditorium.

1949

FEBRUARY--35,000 souls jammed a stadium built to hold 11,000 people in Havana, Cuba, when the Ballet Alicia Alonso appeared there recently sponsored (and paid for) by a local beer company, no less....

There is also a not-quite-mature plan to book the New York City Ballet company for a tour in the Fall through the Hurok office, for which tour Balanchine may stage a new ballet for the Stravinsky "Firebird" suite, with Tallchief as the Firebird.

MARCH--The 92nd Street Y is a landmark by any reckoning in the American dance world. If you are a dancer, or hope to be one, it represents a concert theatre without peer for recital; it also represents a professional acknowledgment of your stares as a dancer....

APRIL--Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris had a successful season at London's Princes Theatre during February and March.... Carmen was the hit of the season. It is ... danced to a Bizet medley with nothing short of inspiration by Renee Jeanmaire and Roland Petit....

JULY--Paul Haakon is at the Edgewater Beach Hotel's Boardwalk, and the De Marcos in the Palmer House's Empire Room. Bob Fosse, recently of Make Mine Manhattan, follows next in the Empire Room....

SEPTEMBER--Jose Limon's new work for his own company is called The Moor's Pavanne....

DECEMBER--The San Francisco Ballet Guild will present the San Francisco Ballet, under the direction of Lew and Willam Christensen in the complete ballet CASSE NOISETTE (The Nutcracker) on December 26....

1950

FEBRUARY--ALIVE AND KICKING ... proved to be of little interest save for the presence of Jack Cole.... He appears in this revue with a new and remarkable partner, Gwenneth Verdon....

A new film called BALLERINA is under production in Paris, under the direction of Ludwig Berger ... The star is a Berger find, one Violette Verdy, daughter of a ballet dancer ...

APRIL--An association of fourteen years standing between two of America's leading figures in modern dance comes to an end with the dissolution of the partnership of choreographers Lester Horton and Bella Lewitsky, both of the Dance Theater of Hollywood....

Death came for Vaslav Nijinsky in London on April 8, 1950--a merciful death, thirty-two years after the curtain had run down with finality upon Vaslav Nijinsky, the dancer. Such was the destiny of one of the chosen--thirty-two years behind the curtain of partial amnesia and madness, a token, for those who care to remember, that this is how the gods treat those they love....

AUGUST--A seventeen year old Negro dancer, Carmen de Lavallade, sponsored by screen star Lena Home, has been presented by Lester Horton as the new solo dancer with his Dance Theatre company....

SEPTEMBER--Leslie Caron, formerly with Ballets du Marquis de Cuevas, goes to Hollywood to appear in AMERICAN IN PARIS with Gene Kelly....

OCTOBER--A tiny contretemps in the affairs of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo has held its coming national tour in the balance ... only late in September were differences between the company and its negotiating union, American Guild of Musical Artists, resolved.... The issue was unemployment insurance and minimum wages.... A.G.M.A. won on all counts for its members, first time they have ever been in line for unemployment insurance benefits since the company's beginnings....