| Created for the young dancers of the then newly formed Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, Ashton’s Valses nobles et sentimentales was recently described as ‘a charming ballroom caprice with a transcendently beautiful climax’ (The Spectator). Set to Ravel’s score of the same name, the ballet alludes to a series of shifting relationships and romantic encounters, with its structure ultimately shaped by the music. Elements of the work – from its groupings of dancers to its floating lifts – foreshadow later Ashton ballets such as Scènes de ballet. It was lost from the repertory for a time, but revived in 1987 by Peter Wright, with designs copied from the originals by Sophie Fedorovitch. |
MUSIC
Maurice Ravel (orchestral transcription, 1912)
SCENERY & COSTUMES
Sophie Fedorovitch
DANCERS
Anne Heaton, Donald Britton, Michael Boulton, Elaine Fifield, Maryon Lane, Jane Shore, Yvonne Barnes, Kenneth MacMillan, Michael Hogan, Peter Darrell
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, 1 October 1947
New Stagings / Productions
Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, 1987
REPRODUCED BY
Frederick Ashton, Anne Heaton et al (Peter Wright, uncredited)
SCENERY & COSTUMES
Sophie Fedorovitch, realised by William Chappell
DANCERS
Nicholas Millington, Marion Tait, Stephen Wicks, Nicola Katrak, Karen Donovan, Susan Lucas, Louise Britain, Kevin O’Hare, Iain Webb, Mark Welford
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, 9 January 1987
Copyright © 2004 by David Vaughan
This listing is part of a chronology that was originally published in Vaughan’s Frederick Ashton and His Ballets (Alfred E Knopf 1976; 2nd ed., London: Dance Books, 1999) and includes new productions added since then, and up until 2007