Lost prince honored
Erik Bruhn wanted no formal funeral. When the artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada died of lung cancer in Toronto April 1, his ashes were flown back to his native Denmark for a quiet burial.
But as much as he despised ceremony, the Danish dancer was a man of the theatre and it would not have been like him to exit from life's stage without a farewell performance. That performance took place last night before a capacity audience of his friends and colleagues in O'Keefe Centre.
It bore the title A Tribute To Erik Bruhn and a tribute it was. There were dances, there were speeches, there were reminiscences. And at the end there was the voice of Janice Taylor, singing the music he wanted sung: Mahler's Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen - I have become a stranger to the world.
The evening began with excerpts from the impressive list of ballets he had commissioned during his three short years at the National Ballet's helm. And what a smorgasbord they made: Glen Tetley's Alice, Danny Grossman's Hot House, Robert Desrosiers' Blue Snake, David Allan's Villanella, Constantin Patsalas' L'Ile Inconnue, David Earle's Realm.
But as if to take the starch out of our solemnity, there was also the peacock (or should that be peahen) figure of Karen Kain, flouncing her costumed tail before a nearly-nude chorus line of boys in a provocative number from Patsalas' Oiseaux Exotiques.
Yes, Erik Bruhn wanted us to have a good time at his last performance. Patsalas told us so, recounting a hilarious dream his long-time friend had of having to go on as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, in Giselle - the only role that night not being danced by Rudolf Nureyev.
Nureyev had visited his friend at his hospital bedside shortly before his death but was in Japan dancing last night and sent his tribute greetings by proxy. So did Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Jerome Robbins, Anthony Dowell, Ninette de Valois and a host of others.
Still others spoke in person, led off by Celia Franca, founding artistic director of the National Ballet, glass in hand, saluting the portrait of her one-time dancing partner projected on a screen and addressing him as if he were actually there.
He was there, courtesy of filmed excerpts from Don Quixote, La Sylphide, Etudes and Giselle, literally catching the audience's breath with the virtuoso precision of his classical technique and the magnificence of his carriage.
"We have lost our prince," said Betty Oliphant, artistic director of the National Ballet School. No one disagreed with her.
William Como, editor of Dance Magazine, Helgi Tomasson of the San Francisco Ballet, Flemming Flindt of the Dallas Ballet and Frank Andersson of the Royal Danish Ballet spoke of his inspiration to dancers, his moral authority, his enduring example.
And the National Ballet's Veronica Tennant and Gregory Osborne spoke of their personal debt to him.
But when words failed there were two final, touching tributes in movement by three of the world's greatest dancers.
Natalia Makarova, her arms rippling as if boneless, danced The Dying Swan and one of ballet's greatest jumpers, Fernando Bujones, partnered Carla Fracci in excerpts from La Sylphide.
Partnered her part of the time, that is. The rest of the time Fracci danced with extraordinary tenderness opposite the ghost of her favorite partner, in whose vacant chair she had placed a bouquet of flowers.
Кстати, хочу напомнить, что в книге Мейнерца этот странный и скорее страшный сон Эрика о том, что ему пришлось исполнить роль Мирты, изложен более подробно. Мейнерц дает понять, что воспользовался какими-то записями Константина. Возможно, Константин, выступая на вечере в память Эрика, нарочно представил этот сон забавным, чтобы не нагнетать обстановку. В изложении Мейнерца он выглядит скорее мрачно-макабричным, чем веселым или смешным. С другой стороны, не стоит забывать, что у Эрика чувство юмора было специфическое, и может быть, ему самому этот сон показался смешным - и рассказал он о нем Константину, как о чем-то смешном, мол, приснится же такое. Черт его знает. Мейнерц еще дает понять, что этот сон Эрик увидел в последний месяц своей жизни - но в больнице ли это было или еще раньше, дома, неясно. В последний месяц жизни Эрику снились сны о балете почти каждую ночь - по крайней мере, об этом тоже говорит Мейнерц, опираясь на неизвестный источник, может быть, на все те же записи Константина. И если это так, то значит, они не только снились - но Эрик рассказывал о них Константину. И черт возьми, до чего же это трогательно. Впрочем, я вообще уже перестаю быть объективной: чем больше узнаю об Эрике и Константине, тем трогательнее они мне кажутся - вдвоем, как пара. Мейнерц со мной не согласится, но я от его несогласия не умру.