Royal Academy of Dance: Celebrating 70 Years of Karsavina
The week commencing the 28th October was a very artistic and ballet-ful week for me. I took a five-day trip to one of my favourite cities, London for the first time in over a year and I returned to the Royal Opera House, now known as the Royal Ballet & Opera for the first time in several years where I attended a wonderful performance of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. But in this article, I am writing about another event that I attended.
On Wednesday 30th October, a special event took place at the Royal Academy of Dance, Celebrating 70 Years of Karsavina, a celebration marking 70 years of the establishment of the Karsavina syllabus, a teaching syllabus that was established and developed by British ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher Keith Lester and the legendary Prima Ballerina Tamara Karsavina. For the majority of the attendees, all of whom (except for myself) were RAD graduates, this was a visit to the past and the resurfacing of beautiful memories. For me, it was something brand new. Firstly, this was my first time visiting the Royal Academy of Dance, a place to which I have a connection because for the four years that I did ballet, I was taught the RAD syllabus by my teacher Rana O’Brien. Secondly, I was a newcomer learning about something I was unfamiliar with. Of course, I have long known about Karsavina herself, but I was unaware that there was a syllabus named after her that she had contributed to, so to be introduced to this syllabus was very exciting.
Like everyone, I am familiar with the world-famous teaching syllabuses of Balanchine, Bournonville, Cecchetti and Vaganova. However, I must confess that I would be lying if I said I was an expert in all of them because I certainly am not. It was refreshing to learn about another syllabus, especially one that is not universally known and has its roots stemming to the greatest artists in all of ballet.
The event began with an introduction by Dr Michelle Groves, Director of Education and Labanotation practitioner and teacher, who was a student of Keith Lester and the later Dr Ann Hutchinson-Guest. Then, we had a Karsavina class taught by Virginia Parkinson, a student of Keith Lester, and Louise Jefferson, an RAD graduate and teacher, to current RAD students with Martin Cleeves on the piano.
The syllabus is technically difficult and is made up of elements of Fokine, the Imperial Ballet and Cecchetti, though as time went on, new elements were incorporated. Some notes that I made about the syllabus when watching the class:
The barre work is repetitive, which is essential for building technique, and repetition is a primary element of the whole syllabus because it is stronger than choreographed exercises for muscle memory development.
Some of the barre exercises included battement frappé au terre, I think (please forgive my bad French) and rond de jambe en l’air done full circle, mid-calve.
Développé allongée
Grand battements - 1 slow, 2 fast
There was also a lot of use of port de bras at the barre for perfect balance between the arms and legs.
In the centre, the Karsavina syllabus uses four port de bras: 1st port de bras is in the style of Fokine; 2nd port de bras is in the style of Imperial Ballet; 3rd port de bras in the style of Cecchetti, and the 4th port de bras, known as Solo Seal, was introduced in 1998 by Rachel Cameron, a student of Keith Lester, and is in the style of the Romantic Ballet.
The syllabus has seven pirouettes and we were shown the 2nd pirouette, which is Romantic-styled, especially with the use of the arms where one arm moves and the other follows.
Musicality is a key element of the syllabus and it includes different dance rhythms, e.g. Mazurka. There is also no musical introduction for the exercises, especially for the barre exercises; they start on the first note.
The syllabus originally contained 15 enchainements, but now, it has 27. The enchainements are short in length, which was Karsvaina’s intention; she intended to focus on certain steps rather than throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. She also nicknamed the enchainements based on what they seemingly represented, e.g. “Spanish”, “Bournonville”, etc; we were shown a coupé balloné nicknamed “Giselle”, which is performed to the music of the Valse from Act 1 of Giselle.
It was also interesting to hear the teachers quoting Karsavina, for example, when Battement tendus were performed at the barre, Louise Jefferson said that Karsavina had said, “You can never do enough tendus.” Hearing quotes from Karsavina made one understand the syllabus, but they also explained her intentions, saying that the syllabus is a personal presentation of the body and mind of each dancer, allowing them to showcase their own individualities. This syllabus is still very relevant today and carries the same philosophies as those of Balanchine and Cecchetti.
After the class, there was another class for the attendees. I, myself, didn’t participate, but many of the others guests, the RAD graduates, did and for them, this was a wonderful trip down memory lane. After lunch, there was a historical presentation by Andrew Foster about Karsavina herself, with Andrew giving an insight into her life and career. Andrew is a brilliant ballet historian with wonderful knowledge of Karsavina and the Ballets Russes. He is also the author of Tamara Karsavina: Diaghilev’s Ballerina, of which he was also signing copies in the RAD library. To see him give a presentation about Karsavina was a real pleasure.
After Andrew’s presentation came another by Rosie Gerhard, RAD lecturer in Dance Studies and founder and co-owner of the blog British Ballet Now & Then, about probably Karsavina’s most famous role, the Firebird. Rosie gave a very interesting presentation and insight into the character of the Firebird, bringing attention to the fact that she is not really a heroic character. Rosie touched on comments from Karsavina that state the Firebird is a bird of prey, a fierce, proud, man-eater, who does not assist Ivan out of kindness, but for herself, for her freedom. Rosie even drew up some similarities between the Firebird and another character from Karsavina’s Ballets Russes repertoire, Queen Thamar, an evil Georgian queen, who murders a young prince, in regards to Karsavina’s portrayal of the two characters and how she coached others for the Firebird, most notably, Margot Fonteyn.
Of course, it’s always a pleasure to hear and learn more about Tamara Karsavina, but there was another name that was often mentioned and spoken of - Keith Lester. An overlooked figure in the ballet world, Lester was a ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher; he was trained by Serafina Astafieva, Nikolai Legat and Mikhail Fokine. He also partnered some of the greatest ballerinas and dancers, including Karsavina, Olga Spessivtseva and Ida Rubenstein. In 1935, he was recruited by the Dolin-Markova company and for their company, he revived and recreated the Pas de Quatre, inspired by the famous Chalon lithograph the original 1845 ballet by Jules Perrot and Cesare Pugni. He later worked at the Windmill Theatre before becoming a much loved and respected teacher at the RAD. There is fierce loyalty to Lester within the RAD, but he is a figure who deserves more recognition and credit for being the real reviver of the Pas de Quatre. Hearing his students speak of him, what sort of teacher he was and learning of his role in the establishment of the Karsavina syllabus only adds to the thirst to want to know more about this somewhat mysterious figure in ballet history.
To sum up, this was an event and experience I really enjoyed as it saw me entering some unknown territory and learning more about Keith Lester, someone who I had been unaware of until July 2024, added to the excitement. The Karsavina syllabus is a beautiful, but technically difficult syllabus and it is currently only taught at the RAD, though many of its students, who are now teachers, use many of its aesthetics in their teachings. The Faculty staff, however, expressed the desire to open more doors to enable the syllabus to be introduced to more people within the field. I hope that more doors will open and more people will be introduced to the Karsavina syllabus because it is a treasure that should not be kept confined to one place. There are two missions to be done here - to get more people (students, dancers, choreographers, teachers, etc) introduced to the Karsavina syllabus and to bring more recognition to the long neglected legacy of Keith Lester.