In the early 20th century, before the age of Ballet Rambert and the Vic-Wells Ballet, British ballet was mostly based at two London theatres: the Empire and the Alhambra. These theatres were music halls primarily, but a large portion of an evening’s programme would be dedicated to ballet, and both theatres employed a full corps de ballet.

But, coming between the times of Romantic Ballet in London and the fledgling British companies of the 1920s, this period is not as well known. As such, many of the ballets produced at these theatres are non-extant, even though they were produced by names that are still well-known. One of those, is The Dance Dream, which premiered on the 29th May 1911.

Alhambra

The Alhambra Theatre began its life as the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art. At the time, the Great Exhibition of 1851 was being held in London, and industrial advancements were progressing further and further. As people were coming to see these advancements, the Panopticon was hoping to draw crowds to their exhibits too.

But this wasn’t to be. The Panopticon closed in 1856, just two years after it was opened, and was put up for auction. Its name became the Alhambra Circus, which was then changed to the Alhambra Music Hall, and also had multiple other names throughout the venue’s lifetime.

Ballet was not always a permanent fixture of the theatre; for the first years, dancers were employed ad hoc, just like everyone else. it was in 1863 that a permanent troupe of Italian dancers were engaged, led by Signora Marianna and Signor Giuseppe. In 1864 ballets started being produced in earnest, although since the theatre had no license from the Lord Chamberlain (which was required for London theatres if they wanted to produce plays) they had to stick to divertissements.

Multiple ballets were produced over the years, with some of the most frequent choreographers being John Milano, Henri Dewinne, A. Bertrand, Joseph Hansen, Eugenio Casati, Carlo Coppi and Alfredo Curti. The reputation of ballet at the theatre improved during the 1870s, and the 1880s brought about the rise of the narrative ballet at the theatre.

And some of these ballets were so successful that they would stay in repertoire for weeks. Dewinne’s Les Fleurs de Jardin (1870) managed 35 weeks in repertoire, while his Flock and Flock (1873, adapted from Paul Taglioni’s ballet of the same name) had 36. Hansen’s The Swans (1884) most likely adapted from the original 1877 Moscow production of Swan Lake (Hansen had worked in Moscow and revised the ballet in 1880 and 1882) stayed in the repertoire for 49 weeks.

The turn of the century ushered in a whole new load of successes. Carmen (1903), choreographed by Lucia Cormani, lasted 47 weeks in repertoire; Curti’s The Entente Cordiale (1904), 67. But then a new group appeared on the horizon. Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes had opened in Paris in 1909. Suddenly, Russian ballet became the hot topic, and London theatres sought to employ any groups they could. And, as such, we come to our choreographer and leading dancers.

Gorsky, Geltzer and Tikhomirov

Born in Saint Petersburg, Alexander Gorsky (1871-1924) studied at the Imperial Ballet School, graduating into the Imperial Ballet in 1889. While there he danced important roles, and worked alongside legendary ballet masters like Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. He originated a leading role in the Chinese Dance (The Nutcracker, 1892), as wells as Boreas, the God of the North Wind in Petipa’s Awakening of Flora (1894) and a Satyr in Petipa’s The Seasons (1900).

In the early 1900s he became Balletmaster at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. At the time the company had many promising dancers, but their repertoire was in decline. Gorsky restaged and revived many ballets from St Petersburg, and his stagings are what many modern productions of the classics are based off. His productions were sometimes controversial, angering many, including Marius Petipa.

…Gorsky staged [Jules] Perrot’s Esmeralda, and [Arthur] Saint-Léon’s The Little Humpbacked Horse and The Goldfish, and my ballets Don Quixote and The Pharaoh’s Daughter, and had the impertinence to cripple them and lower them in the estimation of the public, by meaningless innovations and changes.

Marius Petipa on Gorsky, Russian Ballet Master: The Memoirs of Marius Petipa, P85

But it cannot be denied that Gorsky did help the situation at the Bolshoi, and many of his changes were popular with audiences (if not with critics), and have lasted until today. And a good balletmaster, needs good dancers.

Vasily Tikhomirov (1876-1956) and Yekaterina Geltzer (1876-1962) both trained at the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet School. Geltzer was born to a distinguished dancer, Vasily Geltzer. During his training, Tikhomirov was sent to Saint Petersburg, to study under Pavel Gerdt. The pair, who were married for some time, had long careers with the Bolshoi Ballet, and danced many of the leading roles.

A danseur noble, Tikhomirov was offered a soloist position at the Imperial Mariinsky Ballet, but denied, preferring to return to Moscow. While the repertoire was scare, Tikhomirov got many chances to shine, dancing Franz in Coppélia, Colas in La fille mal gardée, and multiple other roles. He was a trailblazer in Moscow, utilising both his Petersburg training and Moscow tradition to wow audiences.

Geltzer also took advantage of Saint Petersburg. After dancing with the Bolshoi for two seasons, she was transferred to the Mariinsky. While there she performed soloist roles in works like Coppélia and Raymonda, and learned Sleeping Beauty’s Diamond Fairy variation from Marius Petipa himself. She returned to Moscow in 1898, but like Tikhomirov, had to be content with a constricted repertoire. But they knew in Moscow they could reign supreme, as opposed to the Mariinsky’s series of ballerinas and danseurs.

Gorsky’s ideals did not always line up with what Geltzer and Tikhomirov favoured. Tikhomirov wanted to dance, while Gorsky was choreographing roles for him where all he had to do was walk around the stage and pose ‘nobly’. Geltzer, on her part, was known to take Gorsky’s choreography and give it her own flair, infusing Petipa-like movements into her dancing.

The repertoire Gorsky built included his own stagings of the classics, alongside his own works, like Salammbô (1910), a role that became Geltzer’s greatest achievement. A large majority of Tikhomirov and Geltzer’s career overlapped with Gorsky’s tenure at the Bolshoi, and they became highly regarded, and supported Moscow ballet.

The Dance Dream

Back in London, theatre managers were fighting over the chance to get ‘up-to-date’ (that is, Russian) ballets produced at their venues. In 1910 Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin, Tamara Karsavina, and Olga Preobrazhenskaya had all appeared at London theatres, dancing works never seen in the city before. In particular, Preobrazhenskaya brought a truncated Swan Lake to the London Hippodrome, the famous ballet’s London premiere.

The Alhambra was eyeing up two offers for the 1911 season: one was a company under Mikhail Fokine, and a company from Moscow headed by Geltzer and Tikhomirov. Of course you know that the latter offer was accepted, but the former was initially the most intriguing. Fokine was straight from the Ballets Russes, who had caused a whirlwind in Paris; his name was known.

Alfred Moul, the General Manager of the Alhambra at the time, got in touch with C. Ercole, a Paris theatre agent. They discussed both offers, but found, from their end, that the Russians were difficult to deal with.

…Respecting your friend’s criticism regarding the Russians contained in your letter of the 26th I agree: they are perfectly correct. They are the most unreliable, scheming and thick-headed lot of idiots in the world and their brains are located in their feet.

C. Ercole in a letter to Alfred Moul, 28th July 1910, quoted in Ivor Guest’s Ballet in Leicester Square, P77

The Ballets Russes went to Covent Garden in 1911, and the Alhambra hired the Moscow Group. Geltzer was to stay for 8 weeks, and receive a salary of £90 a week; Tikhomirov was to earn £40 a week for a 12-week engagement. Gorsky was to create a new ballet for the engagement, and received a fee of £300 for it.

Alexandra Balashova (1887-1979) was to replace Geltzer, and would be paid £40. Vera Mosolova (1875-1949) to follow Balashova, £50. Alexis Koslov (c.1888-c.1983) to follow Tikhomirov, was to be paid £35 a week. Supporting soloists were also engaged. Ekaterina Adamovich and Elisaveta Anderson received £20 a week, and Leonid Zhukov and Lavrenti Novikov £15.

The music for the ballet was to be done by George Byng. Byng used a few pieces of his own, but mostly arranged from pieces by other composers. These composers were: Johannes Brahms, Alexander Glazunov, Alexandre Luigini, Anton Rubinstein, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Riccardo Drigo, Ludwig Minkus, Arseny Koreshchenko and a Monsieur Bleichmann.

Gorsky’s plan for the ballet was to teach the Moscow dancers their parts in Moscow, so that when he arrived in Moscow he only had to teach the Alhambra dancers. This went well, as parts of the ballet were most likely taken from works already known by the Bolshoi. Balletomanes may recognise some of those names, with Tchaikovsky, Minkus, Drigo and Glazunov all being heavily involved in ballet composition.

The Plot

The Dance Dream was little more than a divertissement. In 7 scenes Tikhomirov, Geltzer and the Alhambra corps de ballet were transported to different worlds, with a loose narrative trying them together. In his book The Complete Book of Ballets, Cyril W. Beaumont summarises the proceedings.

Tikhomirov’s main character was Tamaragua, an Indian warrior. In the first scene he, under the influence of opium, dreams of a beautiful girl, named His Ideal (Geltzer). A Bayadère Sorceress (danced originally by Alhambra dancer Marjorie Skelly) is in love with Tamaragua, and tries to entice him, but he agains begins to dream.

Scene II is set in the Himalayas, inside Tamaragua’s dream. Mist parts to reveal a number of dancers. The Ideal is among them. The dancers part, to show a starlit sky.

In Scene III the dream changes, as Tamaragua imagines himself the Rajah of an Indian state. Dancers celebrate him with a cascade of flowers. The Bayadère Sorceress tries one again to captivate him, but he is too enraptured by his Ideal.

Tamaragua awakes from his dream in Scene IV, and asks the Bayadère Sorceress to conjure up his Ideal. She denies his request and becomes more jealous, trying to stab him. Luckily one of his slaves intervenes and saves him. Feeling remorseful, the Bayadère conjures up the Ideal, also hoping to regain the favour of Tamaragua. But, as Tamaragua runs towards his Ideal, the Sorceress puts him into another sleep.

Scene V, takes place in Scythia, a 6th-3rd Century BC kingdom in modern-day Eastern Europe. Tamaragua becomes a Scythian, who is entertained by his Ideal’s ‘savage dances’. In Scene VI they are in a Hungarian valley, and Tamaragua is a gypsy. He wanders among the flowers with the Ideal, referred to as a Tzigane.

Scene VII transports the characters to Old Russia, where dancers are dancing the Khorovod. Tamaragua find his Ideal, but, for the final time, he is unable to reach her, because it is all just a dream.

And that’s the ‘plot’. The Hungarian section of the ballet was most likely lifted from Raymonda, which had music by Glazunov, and a variation for the lead ballerina probably came from Gorsky’s The Magic Mirror, composed by Arseny Koreshchenko. The Bayadère theme has been used in many ballets, the most famous of which being La Bayadère. It’s also mentioned that dances in the Scythian scene were similar to Gorsky’s Salammbô.

As mentioned, the role of the Bayadère sorceress was first danced by Marjorie Skelley. Two other Alhambra dancers, Gina Cormani and Agnes Healy originated the roles of Tamaragua’s two slaves. Their dancing was praised by critics, as was Gorsky’s choreography.

By the end of The Dance Dream’s run, in October, all the Russia dancers had departed. Skelley had stepped into Geltzer’s shoes, taking over the role of the Ideal, and a Signor Protti was dancing Tamaragua. All in all it managed a rather respectable 22 week run.

So why is it forgotten?

The majority of previous works I have looked at in this series have been by big companies that are still well-known today – the Paris Opera Ballet, the Imperial Ballet and the Ballets Russes. The one that wasn’t, Flore et Zéphire, has a historical significance for its innovative technical feat. The Dance Dream, on the other hand, is related to the Bolshoi Ballet, but is not a Bolshoi work.

Most of the Alhambra’s (and the Empire’s) repertoire is forgotten, even among ballet fans. Adeline Genée, the Empire’s prima ballerina, is still remembered for her work, but on the whole these ballets, and the lives of the people who worked on them, are lost to time.

Gorsky, Tikhomirov and Geltzer have been a bit more lucky. As mentioned, Gorsky’s stagings of ballets have provided groundwork for modern stagings. He continued working at the Bolshoi until his death in 1924. Tikhomirov also dabbled in choreography, with one of his biggest successes being The Red Poppy (1927), which Geltzer starred in as leading character Tao-hua. The pair continued to work in ballet for many years.

The success of the Russian companies in London, and of The Dance Dream, meant Alhambra management tried organising a return engagement for 1912, aiming for another new ballet from Gorsky. This wasn’t to be; while the full details are not known, it can be presumed (from the Alhambra’s willingness to pay Gorsky his asking price of £400) that the Bolshoi would not release their artists from their work in Moscow.

A few more ballets were created at the Alhambra, but towards the end of 1912 activities began to wind down. Classes were stopped, and the corps de ballet were let go. Ballet dancers would continue to be engaged (most notably the Ballets Russes in 1919 and 1921, though many illustrious figures appeared there), but the days of the Alhambra Ballet were over.

In 1936 the Alhambra Theatre was demolished. Some of the last acts to appear there included the National Ballet of Lithuania and the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo. The Empire had been mostly demolished and converted into a cinema in 1927, and, accompanying those demolitions, was a large chunk of British ballet history.

Sources

Beaumont, Cyril W. (1956). The Complete Book of Ballets. Putnam, London, England.

Guest, Ivor (1992). Ballet in Leicester Square. Dance Books Ltd, London, England.

Petipa, Marius (trans. Helen Whittaker, edit. Lillian Moore) (1985). Russian Ballet Master: The Memoirs of Marius Petipa. A. & C. Black, London, England.

Smakov, Gennady (1984). The Great Russian Dancers. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, USA.

Vaganova Academy Graduates: https://vaganovaacademy.ru/academy/history/vipuskniki.html