Les Patineurs
Frederick Ashton’s joyful divertissement on the theme of an Edwardian skating party.
Les Patineurs (The Skaters) cleverly uses the arena of the ice rink as a device for observing people at play. It is rare in ballet for there to be a legitimate narrative reason for a performer to leap through the air, perform a series of spins or link arms with a partner and twirl her around - not so here. Here such dance language fits the fictional setting. The skating conceit is an excuse to celebrate the fun of dancing, the joys of being in the moment.
The work was immediately popular when first performed in London in 1937, as Britain stood on the brink of World War II. Its joyful evocation of the blithe innocence of Edwardian England was a powerful antidote to the anxious times. Indeed, three years after it opened the entire original production had to be abandoned in Holland when The Royal Ballet was on tour and made a narrow escape from the invading Nazis in May 1940. The original scenery, costumes, and musical scores were all abandoned as the company fled.
The mainspring for the work was the composer Constant Lambert, one of the founders of the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, The Royal Ballet’s forerunner. He rediscovered a short dance sequence in the 1849 opera "Le prophète" by Meyerbeer. In the opera this was danced on roller skates and acted as light relief to a complex story about a Dutch peasant revolt. Lambert saw the music's potential and reorchestrated it. His Sadler's Wells colleague, Frederick Ashton, was immediately inspired by the music’s graceful and sprightly tone and set to work on it.
The work’s humorous nature belies its subtlety. Ashton’s famous English wit and playfulness, his inventiveness and sensitivity, stop the choreography from becoming too hackneyed or conventional. It skates a clever line between the conservative and the unexpected. Ashton ingeniously transposes non-dance movement to classical ballet. Acute observations of skating movement create the illusion of a slippery ice rink: dancers slide and slip using long chassés and hopping steps. They teeter and wobble, arching and twisting their upper bodies to steady themselves. Occasionally, they lose their balance and fall over. The choreography is technically demanding: numerous turns must be danced with speed and brio.
There is no plot, but there are anecdotal relationships: a group of friends enjoy themselves, a girl and boy are in love, a virtuoso skater shows off his skill. Each dancer has a carefully considered characterisation and social interaction is precisely thought out. There is also strong sense of place. It is a midwinter’s day with snowy branches and bleak white light. The skating rink is surrounded by arches of Chinese lamps which create a festive atmosphere.
In brief
Ballet in one act
Composer: Giacomo Meyerbeer, from his opera Le Prophète, orchestrated by Constant Lambert
Choreography: Frederick Ashton, 1937
World premiere: 16 February 1937, Vic-Wells Ballet, Sadler's Wells Theatre, London
Current Royal Ballet production:
Production premiere: as above
Set and costume designer: William Chappell
Lighting designer: John B Read
Staging: Christopher Carr, Grant Coyle
By the same choreographer:
The Tales of Beatrix Potter
Watch the trailer for Frederick Ashton's
ballet inspired by Beatrix Potter, created over 30 years after Les Patineurs
discover ballet
.jpg "Discover Ballet")