THE TEACHING OF VICTOR GSOVSKY IN BERLIN, 1926–1936, AS SEEN BY LILIAN KARINA

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article is the culmination of a long project which could have been accomplished only thanks to the dedication and collaboration of Lilian Karina, whose explanations, suggestions, and unfailing encouragement and support have made it possible. I also owe a great debt of gratitude to Professor Bengt Häger, who personally supported my research, and to the Carina Ari Foundation of Stockholm, which awarded me two grants, in 1995 and 1996, to reconstruct the teaching of Victor Gsovsky in Berlin. I also wish to thank Frank Manuel Peter, who provided me with printed sources kept in the Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln related to Gsovsky's work as ballet director in Munich and Dusseldorf; Elizabeth Souritz, for information on Claudia Isachenko; and Michael Heuermann for some details on Tatiana Gsovsky's life.

Lilian Karina wishes to thank Boris von Düren (Boris von Düren de Marvé, the German dancer and balletmaster at the Berlin Staatsoper, the Stockholm Kungliga Oper, and the Stockholm Balletstudio), a student of Gsovsky in Paris who greatly admired his teaching, for encouraging her and helping her to remember Victor and Tatiana. She and Francesca Falcone wish to thank Ellinor Larsson, von Düren's pupil, for demonstrating examples of Gsovsky's teaching.

Notes

^* These included Terpis' Die fünf Wünsche (The Five Wishes) in 1929. A photo of Gsovsky partnering Dorotea Albu is published in Quander, George; Ed. Apollini et Musis:250 Jahre Opernhaus Unter den Linden; Propyläen: Berlin-Frankfurt am Main, 1992; 317.

† An important time in Gsovsky's life in Paris is recalled in a recent biography of the Vienna-born ballerina Lia Schubert, a dancer and choreographer who went on to found important dance schools in Sweden, such as the Balletakademi in Stockholm and Göte- borg, and a similar institution in Haifa, Israel. According to her biographer, in 1943 the seventeen-year-old Schubert, who was Jewish, had to flee first to Marseilles and then to Paris because of German persecution. At the Studio Wacker she met Gsovsky, who had already been her teacher. At the risk of his own life Gsovsky gave Schubert the address of some members of the resistance who hid her until the end of the war (Goldman, Lotta. En dröm ett liv; Tre Böcker Förlag: Goteborg, 1995; 20–23, 28. For further information, see also Karina, Lilian; Kant, Marion. Tanz Unterm Hakenkreuz, 2nd Edition; Henschel Verlag: Berlin, 1999; 102–107.

^* A Swan Lake consisting of excerpts from the production given in St. Petersburg was staged at the Paris Opéra-Comique on November 30, 1935, starring Solange Schwarz and Constantin Tcherkas. Two months later a second version, still consisting of excerpts (possibly the same ones), was performed at the Opéra with Ludmila Semenova and Serge Lifar, who is credited with the staging after Petipa and Ivanov. After Gsovsky's version, it was the Sadler's Wells Ballet with Margot Fonteyn that staged the integral version on October 5, 1954, and the Opéra finally mounted its own four-act production, staged by Vladimir Bourmeister, in 1960.

† Chauviré studied with Gsovsky in Paris from 1946 to 1948. A vivid description of Gsovsky's teaching in Paris is in Chauviré, Yvette. Hommage à Victor Gsovsky. Les Saisons de la danse 1974, No. 64, and in Chauviré, Yvette; Mannoni, Gérard. Autobiographie; Le Quai: Paris, 1997; 71–75.

^* Eugenia Davidova, née Eduardova, from St. Petersburg, who had been a coryphée at the Maryinsky Theatre, immigrated to Berlin in the 1920s, where she opened a school with the help of Joseph Lewitan, her lover and also her manager. Lewitan, from its inception until the Nazis removed him, owned and edited Der Tanz, a magazine that supported ballet, modern dance, and ballroom dancing at a time when they were strongly opposed to one another. At the invitation of Rolf de Maré, he was allowed to leave Germany in 1937 and Eduardova joined him in Paris. Leading a rather miserable life there until fleeing again when the Germans took Paris, they eventually escaped to North Africa, where they were married in Casablanca in 1943 and Lewitan worked for the American Office of Strategic Services. After the war, he settled in New York and held an important post in the United Nations (see Karina, Lilian; Kant, Marion. Tanz Unterm Hakenkreuz, 2nd Edition; Henschel Verlag: Berlin, 1999; 61–66). During the 1920s many expatriate Russian dancers gave ballet lessons in Berlin. In 1930, when Eduardova's school celebrated its tenth anniversary, its roster of some five hundred pupils included Max Terpis, Dorotea Albu, the film director and actress Leni Riefenstahl, Margarethe Wallmann (later a famous choreographer and opera director in Europe and South America), Wy (Sonia) Magito (later a performer in some Futurist pieces in Italy and France), and Sabine Ress (a choreographer with UFA) (see Schrifttanz November 1930, 3 [[3]]). The Moscow ballerina Catherine De-villiers also gave well-attended classes in Berlin. “A great enthusiasm for dance swept Berlin after World War I; dance was everywhere, not only in the theatres, which featured ballets, but also in some of the leading music halls, where splendid, half-naked girls paraded with feathers and paillettes, while in concerts and dadaist cabarets dancers like Valeska Gert and Anita Berber made a great sensation” (LK).

^* Karina has written several pedagogic texts, including Balettskolan(with Birgit Cullberg, 1960), Ungerska danser(1977), Dansen, kroppen, rörelsen (1978), Jazzdanser (1979), Dansanatomi(with David Crawford, 1990), Modern Dance, Geschichte Theorie Praxis (with Lena Sundberg, published in Sweden in 1989 and in Germany in 1992), and, most recently, with Marion Kant, Tanz unterm Hakenkreuz.

† “He later developed serious eye trouble from malnutrition and hardship. He was almost blind when a delicate operation in Berlin gave him back sight in one eye” (LK).

‡ Sokolova's pupils included Pavlova, Karsavina, and Spessivtseva, some of the new generation of dancers whom Diaghilev was to hire for his company. Karsavina tells us that Sokolova's teaching was “full of vivacity, grace and charm, she composed her classes almost entirely of rather fast adages with pirouettes and fast-moving enchaînements. ‘We are going to work for velocity,’ she used to say. The enchaînements in themselves were charming but as there had been very little barre work and no exercise in the center, our limbs and bodies lagged behind our best intentions” (Karsavina, Tamara. Classical Ballet—The Flow of Movement; Adam and Charles Black: London, 1962; 65). As we shall see, Sokolova's preference for a fast and intricate enchaînement was shared by Gsovsky, although her disdain of the barre was not. Gsovsky thought that the barre was important for achieving balance and for developing resistance, essential elements for effective work in the center.

^* He was helped by a Gypsy who became his lover, and Karina told me that “he soon shared the Gypsies' love for singing and dancing. Since I was also interested in character dance (having studied with Eduardova), I asked Gsovsky to give me lessons in Gypsy dances. And he did, and showed to me that he possessed a very wide and analytical knowledge also in this field. I would even say that beside classical ballet, the Gypsy romances with their typical style of songs and movement became his main artistic expression” (LK).

† In 1901, under the name of Sokolova, Claudia Isachenko had entered the so-called “scenic classes” at the Moscow Theatre of Popular Art, where acting, makeup, singing, and dancing were taught. As an actress she played important roles in some productions of the Novy Vasileostrovsky Theatre of St. Petersburg between 1906 and 1908, later de- voting herself to the “plastic” dance, about which she wrote in No. 9–10, 1909, of B mire Iskusstva. She founded a school and in 1913 invited Meyerhold to see a performance there (which the annual Ves' Peterburg mentions several times between 1914 and 1916). Her article “Le Ballet plastique et la culture physique esthétique” appeared in November 1935 in an issue of Archives Internationales de la danse devoted to her dance technique.

^* Every Sunday, around 3:00 in the afternoon, auditions were held for dancers and actors wanting an engagement in concert-halls, cabarets, festivals, and casinos. All the entertainment world, including important managers, directors, and choreographers, could be met there. After one of these auditions, Vassia Vassilev, later Karina's partner, was engaged by Erik Charrel, a former assistant to Max Reinhardt and a famous director, for an important show at Reinhardt Grosses Schauspielhaus. Another Russian ballerina, Valentina Belova, was engaged by Yuri Jushny for his famous cabaret Der Blaue Vogel (The Blue Bird).

† “The dance repertoire that the couple were to bring to Germany was likely the same they had in Russia. Later on, Gsovsky rearranged these dances for recitals, where he partnered Dorotea Albu. Lack of real success soon stopped him from a dancing career.” (LK)

^* This information is partly contained in the interview Tatiana gave Ursula von Kardoff in 1981. By that time her hearing was very bad. The interview thus took on the nature of a long monologue during which, according to the interviewer, Tatiana sang, mimed, and acted out her whole life story.

† After the October Revolution, around 300,000 Russian refugees went to Berlin, mainly settling in the district of Charlottenburg, then nicknamed “Charlottengrad.” The first migratory flow, around 1918, included several dancers of the Imperial Theatres, including Eduardova, Karsavina, Preobrajenska, Trefilova, and Boris Romanov, among others. A second wave, starting 1920–21, involved many of the defeated White Army soldiers who had performed as dancers (music and dance even now being important elements in Russian military life), including Boris Kniasev and Konstantin Alperov, as well as Alicia Vronskaya. The third migratory wave was provoked both by the disastrous consequences of World War I and the subsequent civil war, which brought about widespread famine.

^* Gsovsky had been engaged by the Berliner Staatsoper as Lehrer(teacher) and not as maître de ballet, as commonly believed (LK). See Document no. 6 of 2.12.1929, Gestapo Archiv, Merseburg, Ballet Allgemeines(now in the Document Center, Berlin).

† “When I studied with Gsovsky, Tatiana gave lessons for about one month in her Russian `free, modern style,' which was not accepted by pupils with a Laban-Wigman education” (LK).

^* Spies (who danced on pointe in the 1926 version of Schlemmer's Triadisches Ballett, in the role of Weissetänzerin) had trained in “plastique” dance in Russia, whereas Albu, Keith, and Kölling had very probably trained with Laban. Köstler, one of the youngest ballerinas at the Staatsoper, already had a classical training, while Stahl was a pupil of Terpis (LK).

† “Later Tatiana would regularly give classes to children” (LK).

^* Other representatives of the Russian ballet avant-garde, such as Goleizovsky and Lupokhov, also sought for a movement stripped of conventionalities. Like them, Gsovsky cultivated an interest in elongated lines, albeit not sharing (we can assume) the choices that sometimes led Goleizovsky, in particular, to move away from academic language. We might relate Gsovsky's path to that of Balanchine, three years younger than he. Both lived in the same artistic atmosphere in Russia with regard to dance, and for both modernism implied an effort to renovate the classical syntax. What the one tried mainly in the pedagogical field, the other tried mainly in choreography.

^* “Nor would it have been possible, considering how she used to teach: she would appear in class wearing high-heeled shoes. As I saw her in Paris in 1930, Bronislava Nijinska never used to demonstrate steps in her lessons either” (LK). Two methods for dance teaching enjoyed general recognition at the time: teachers either took an active part in class, showing the correct execution, as Gsovsky did, or they hinted at movements using only their hands. Enrico Cecchetti was a fervent supporter of the former system and was openly critical of the latter (see his Manuel des exercises de Danse Théâtrale à pratiquer chaque jour de la semaine à l'usage de mes élèves; St. Petersburg, 1894; New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dance Division, Cia Fornaroli Collection [^*MGTM-Res.]).

† As Karina remembers, this lovely dancer, like other colleagues at the Deutsche Oper, was later invited (probably on the occasion of the 1936 Olympiade) as Hitler's personal guest for nonofficial performances at the Reichkanzlei Wilhelmstrasse. After the war she had difficulties remaining as a dancer at the Deutsche Oper, where she returned after one or two years (LK).

^* Karina notes, however, that “Outside his regular lessons, Gsovsky mastered all phases of the classical ballet, as he later would prove in Paris. He was generous with suggestions and advice even on aspects of technique which did not belong to his style” (LK).

^* This ability, possessed to an extraordinary extent by Nijinsky, had greatly astounded the audience of Le Spectre de la rose. Dancing the leading role in a costume covered with silk rose petals, he had demonstrated not only lightness, but almost seemed to possess the actual substance of a petal, subject to the least possible force of gravity.

† Pavlova's interpretation, like that of other Russian artists, possessed a kind of fluid energy pervading even the smallest parts of her body, transforming it into the highest form of dance (LK).

^* In Gsovsky's opinion, the study of the classical ballet begins with the adagio(LK).

† Typical of Gsovsky's style was the expressive use of “auxiliary” movements. The ritenuto of the tombés, the accelerando of the glissades or pas de bourrée, even every movement between balance and falling depended on following movements (LK).

^* Or the “Schwünge” of Laban-Wigman technique (LK).

† He was profoundly convinced that ballet contained all the possibilities of movement of the human body. He became very cross when he caught one of his pupils exercising with movements of other motor disciplines.

^* It could happen that Gsovsky's students exercised at the barre and in the center without their feet being in a complete “turnout.” Alexander Gorsky and Kasyan Goleizovsky, whose choreographic experiments were already advanced, were using movements where the legs were not completely turned out.

† For more information, see Karina, Lilian; Crawford, David. Dansanatomi; Naturia Förlag: Stockholm, 1990; 11, figure 2.

‡ Gsovsky preferred the sequences of the grands pliés at the barre. The grands pliés were exercises in themselves, with their own specific placement of the body. They could also be used as the start of a pirouette or as a descent from a jump.

^* Notes written in 1994 by LK.

† “The movements of the hip joint are much more limited than they appear. Pure hip movement forward stops at about 60 degrees, sideways at 40 degrees and backward at 15 degrees” (Sparger, Celia. Anatomy and Ballet; Adam and Charles Black: London, 1949; 26, figure 10).

‡ The limit of the en dehors when passing from the second to the back position seems to be “neutralized” in the fouetté en dedans (par tour lent) for a quarter turn, thanks to the changed direction of the body from second position to the arabesque. Despite the greater difficulty in changing the position of the body, in the fouetté en dedans (par tour lent) the student manages to avoid that sense of “frustration” in the grand rond de jambe when bringing the leg from second position to the arabesque.

^* In this exercise the positions are spelled out in the stops, rather than observing the fluidity of the battement développé movement.

^* From the codification of the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661 onward, dance teachers stressed the importance of the posture of the lumbar area and particularly the separation between chest and hips, fundamental for obtaining stability and balance. This principle was considered valid up to the beginning of the twentieth century. Cecchetti and Vaganova, as documented in their writings, also paid great attention, albeit with different emphasis, to the aforesaid “strength in the lower spine.”

^* There are different ranges of movement in the three spinal curves. Bending occurs most completely in the cervical, upper chest, and lumbar region. Stretching is easier in the cervical and lumbar regions, whereas the spinal processes in the chest limit it. Lateral bending is extensive in the cervical and lumbar region, whereas it is limited in the chest area (because of the ribs). Rotation reaches its maximum in the neck and chest and is considerably reduced in the lumbar region.

^* For more information about the back and chest, see Karina, Lilian. Dansen, kroppen, rörelsen; Prisma Förlag: Stockholm, 1978.

^* Gsovsky required his students to make extremely ample and flowing movements of the arms and upper body, as these fitted his own height and shape. In an interview with the author in Stockholm on September 23, 1998, Kari Sylvan reminded us (and Karina remembered) that Gsovsky had very long and expressive arms. Sylvan, the present principal of Danshögskolan in Stockholm and a student of Karina's, also studied for brief periods in the late 1950s with Gsovsky in Zurich and Paris.

^* Gsovsky made dancers execute battements frappés with three different heights of cou-de-pied: with the toes resting on the floor; with the foot completely stretched and the toes brushing the floor; and, a higher position, with the point resting on the anklebone. It is clear that battements frappés starting from these different heights of cou-de-pied serve as a preparation for three different levels of jumps; for the sauter sans sauter, battements frappés start from the cou-de-pied position with the toes resting on the ground (cf. Cecchetti cou-de-pied position), the working leg straight at the side, raised about 10 cm above the floor, on the frappé.

† This perceptive ability is very useful when the dancer has to move around a dark stage.

^* This rise on the points is characteristic of the French school. The other procedure, rising on the points with a little jump, belongs to the Cecchetti method.

† For example, in a series of enchaînements performed with the principle of sauter sans sauter, in any tempo, the third changement can end with a deeper plié to fill the fourth pause. This plié acquires its own specificity in the context of the sequence, and Gsovsky claimed it had no relation to the dynamics of the steps before and after it.

† To give vivacity to the movement he varied the speed of the music or halved the length of the movement within an enchaînement. Kari Sylvan told me that when he composed an enchaînement, Gsovsky wanted it executed at three different speeds: medium, fast, and slow (interview by the author in Stockholm on September 28, 1998).

^* The pas de chat, performed with both legs bent in the air, should be done without a real jump in this case. To perform it correctly “sans sauter,” entrust yourself to the sensation of gravity and do not raise the pelvis as in a normal jump. The glissades could also be executed in the croisés and effacés directions.

^* This was how Gsovsky taught the use of space for executing the requested steps in the room or on the stage. This was useful when the dancers had to move together in an extremely limited space.

^* An equally “explosive” way (“like a shot from a revolver”) of rising onto the points was adopted later by Balanchine. See Schorer, Suki. Balanchine Pointework; Society of Dance History Scholars: New York, 1995; 18.