Leon Woizikovsky
Leon Woizikovsky | |
---|---|
Leon Wójcikowski | |
Born | February 20, 1899 Warsaw |
Died | February 23, 1975 Warsaw |
Nationality | Polish |
Employer(s) | Grand Theatre, Warsaw, Ballets Russes, Pavlova, de Basil, de Valois, Ballet Polonaise, Massine, the London Festival, the Royal Flemish |
Known for | Ballet dance and choreography |
Spouse | Lydia Sokolova |
Honours | Officer's Cross, Order of Polonia Restituta |
Leon Woizikovsky, originally Léon Wójcikowski (20 February 1899, Warsaw - 23 February 1975, Warsaw) was a Polish dancer and ballet master, and later choreographer and teacher.[1] He first came to prominence as a member of the Ballets Russes. Later he worked with various ballet companies, e.g., Pavlova, de Basil, de Valois, Ballet Polonaise, Massine, the London Festival, the Royal Flemish.
Career in ballet
Born in Warsaw, Woizikovsky trained in dance at its Grand Theatre, and with Enrico Cecchetti. He became known as a character dancer.[2] His youthful career flourished with Ballets Russes. He and dance partner Lydia Sokolova were eventually married. The very popular and innovative company performed cutting-edge choreographies by Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, Nijinska, and Balanchine. Unfortunately, Diaghilev died in 1929 and his company folded. Thereafter, Woizikovsky's dance work often involved the repertoire of Ballets Russes. For various companies he also served as ballet master, and wrote choreography.[3]
Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
In 1916 in
In 1921
"Leon discovered me in a bathing hut" and removed [her] wrap. He "took a good look at me, put his pipe in his pocket, and danced with me the famous Train bleu waltz. He had to throw me up spinning in the air, then catch me as I came down." It was difficult "because my woollen costume was impossible to grip".[19]
For the choreographer George Balanchine, newly arrived from Russia, and also for Massine who had returned to the company, Woizikovsky got ballet roles, e.g., in Balanchine's Prodigal Son of 1929 (as a companion to the son).[20][21] When Diaghilev died in 1929, his Ballets Russes company disbanded.[22][23]
Other companies, positions
Woizikovsky was thirty when Diaghilev died in 1929. That year he managed to join Pavlova's ballet company, which was often on tour. It turned out to be the very last years of this famous traveling dance ensemble. At The Hague in 1931 the world renowned Anna Pavlova suddenly died at the age of forty-nine.[24]
Woizikovsky then signed with the new company
During the early 1930s, along with other Ballets Russes dancers (Karsavina, Idzikowski, Lopokova, Spessivtseva), he worked with the Vic-Wells company of Ninette de Valois in London. These well-known performers then provided "some legitimacy" to her nascent ballet company, which evolved to become The Royal Ballet.[28][29]
In 1934 he formed his own company, Les Ballets de Leon Woizikovsky. His dancers included Blinova, Tarakanova, Raievska, Froman, Eglevsky, Youskevitch, and Sokolova. For the company he choreographed two ballets, Port Said (music by K. Konstantinov) and L'Amour sorcier (de Falla). In 1935 and 1936 the company visited London and Paris.[30][31]
As the "ballet master and leading male dancer" Woizikovsky joined Wassily de Basil's company at Covent Garden. On a 62-member tour to Australia in 1936, the company opened in Adelaide where their dance arts became "a revelation". They "created a furor, the final performance climaxing with a fifteen-minute ovation." Further stops in Australia and New Zealand similarly inspired the public, which knew little first-hand of Diaghilev's ballet repertoire. Yet company's top management (the owner's rep and the attorney) quarreled and split. This eventually led to the rise of "artistic differences" between Jan Hoyer the régisseur (stage manager) and Woizikovsky. In turn the company's dancers then divided into two opposing groups. Yet outsiders, apparently, were little aware.[32]
In 1938 Woizikovsky succeeded Bronislava Nijinska as director of the recently-formed state-sponsored Ballet Polonais in Warsaw. He led the company to the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. Yet when the company arrived back home in Poland, both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were about to invade, starting World War II.[33][34]
He managed to escape, rejoining
Latter years
In London Woizikovsky choreographed several ballets, staging his
Lydia Sokolova
The relationship
British ballerina Lydia Sokolova (she had taken a Russian name) and Woizikovsky were both dancers in Ballets Russes, she from 1913 and he from 1916. In 1919 despite each being attached to another, they fell in love. In their dancing, they had sometimes been paired for performances, winning acclaim. In love, they began secretly to write to each other. Eventually, this uneasy situation was found out. It led to public confrontations, involving their alienated spouses (both dancers in the company) and each other. Diaghilev voiced his early disapproval. Sokolova had become elated, then fell woefully depressed.[40] Nonetheless, the relationship endured its troubles, and bloomed, leading to their marriage.[41]
The two then thrived for a time, sharing their lives as principal dancers in Ballets Russes, and briefly in other dance companies. Much later Sokolova would write, "If only he had resisted gambling, we might have been so happy." In 1929 on vacation in the south of France, at Le Lavandou, Lydia opened a newspaper carrying news of the sudden death in Venice of Sergei Diaghilev. Voicing her sorrow, she showed it to Leon.
"As the awful truth sank into my consciousness, my knees gave way... . When I looked up at last Leon was gone. Then I saw him in the distance walking along the edge of the sea, kicking the water with his foot."[42]
Her observations
Sokolova remembered that she and Woizikovsky performed a certain pas de deux, a piece which in rehearsal "we enjoyed dancing though we did not think it anything special". Yet when their performance of it finished "the applause was thunderous". They took an "embarrassing" number of curtain calls.
Sokolova describes Woizikovsky as "never an actor, his talent was for genuine dancing". He had "a phenomenal photographic mind" which, e.g., allowed him to commit to memory pages of dance notations for
In an episode circa 1924, two dancers wanted to strike for a raise in salary against Diaghilev and Ballets Russes. Yet no other dancer quite agreed with them; the strike failed. The dancers then decided that after the night's performance:
"[A] small deputation should address Diaghilev... and Leon being the universal comrade was chosen to lead it. Diaghilev sauntered toward the group with a face of thunder. Leon went up to him and tried to put the dancers' point of view in some detail. After listening to him in silence, Diaghilev said, 'Leon, where are your friends?' When Leon looked around, there was not a soul in sight."[44][45]
Circa 1916 at
See also
Notes
- ^ Koegler, p.574 (originally Wójcikowski).
- ^ Reynolds and McCormick (2003), p.55 (character).
- ^ Koegler (1977), p.574 "Woizikovsky" (training).
- ^ Massine (1968), pp. 65-66, 72; called 'Woidzikowsky' here.
- ^ Shead (1989), pp. 81-84, (tours), p.81 Woizikovsky joins Ballets Russes, first American tour; p.83 he remains with Diaghilev during the second to America led by Nijinsky.
- ^ Paris & Bayo,
- ^ Massine (1968).
- ^ Sokolova (1960), p.99 (his mime performance she called "a masterpiece"), and pp. 134, 138 (the tarantella).
- ^ Balanchine (1954), pp. 403 and 404 per Le Tricorne.
- ^ Sokolova (1989), p. (quote).
- ^ Shead (1989).
- ^ Sokolova (1960), pp. 56-57.
- ^ Cf. Massine (1968).
- ^ Paris & Bayo: Massine's ballets in 1916-1920.
- ^ Sokolova (1989), p.92.
- ^ Baer (1986), pp. 32-36 (Noces), 38-40 (Biches), 41-44 (Train bleu); pp. 74-75 per Woizikovsky.
- ^ Stravinsky (1936), p.176 re Nijinska's ballets: Woizikovsky.
- ^ Garafola (2005), p.385 (quote).
- ^ Sokolova (1960), pp. 221-222 (quote).
- ^ Balanchine (1954), p.293 (Prodigal Son), p.447 (Woizikovsky per list of 'principal male dancers' for Ballets Russes).
- ^ Garafola (1989), pp. 376 (as one of a half-dozen ballet "stars" to survive the company's demise in 1929), 405-415 (his roles re Ballets Russes).
- ^ Koegler (1977), pp. 50-51 "Ballets Russes".
- ^ W ballet: Pulcinellas 152 w/M, Les Mantelots 234, Tricorne 142, 176^, Cleopatra 172 + replace Massine, Massine 143, 174; M's company [?] || 143 LS, 175-76; LS+LW 153 // SACRE 159-168, 166-167, 181-3, Music 160, #166 LS 178 // LW: injuries 177-178 \\+// S 164 VS 159, L167,173 VS.
- ^ Koegler (1977), pp. 574, 407.
- ^ García-Márquez (1990), pp. 6-7 (joins company); pp. 110-111, 150 (leaves company re dispute with Massine).
- ^ Cf. Balanchine (1954), pp. 404, 477.
- ^ Shead (1989), p. 180 (photo with Baronova), p.182 (joins company).
- ^ Reynolds and McCormick (2003), p.183 (quote re de Valois).
- ^ Cf. Garafola (1989), p.332.
- ^ García-Márquez (1990), p.150 (company, dancers, ballets, visits); p. 155 (his two ballets later in the repertoire of de Basil's company).
- ^ Koegler (1977), p.574 (Woizikovsky's company).
- ^ García-Márquez (1990), pp. 154-155 (the company, in Adelaide), 156 (the split in management).
- ^ Reynolds and McCormick (2003), p.181 (Ballet Polonaise).
- ^ Cf., Baer (1986), p.66.
- ^ Cf. García-Márquez (1990), p.284 (the Americas).
- ^ Koegler (1977), p.574 (Woizikovsky: de Basil, return to Warsaw).
- ^ Massine (1968), pp. 258, 262-263.
- ^ Garafola (2005), p.385.
- ^ Koegler (1977), pp. 126-127 (Cologne), 329-330 (London Festival Ballet), 574 (Woizikovsky).
- ^ Sokolova (1960, 1989), they fall in love (pp. 149, 150, 154, 173); possessive husband (71, 79, [94], 149, 168, 169); writing letters (148, 149, 154, 155); paired in ballet: tarantella (134, 138, 148), acclaim (153),Tricorne (142, 175-176), Cléopâtre (172); Diaghilev (154, 156, 158, 159); physical confrontations (157-158, 173, 174); Sokolova (148, 155-156, 178); plans (149, 173, 184); honeymoon (208).
- ^ Garafola (1989), p.233 (Sokolova and Woizikovsky).
- ^ Sokolova (1960, 1989), p.241 ("If only" quote); re his gambling: pp. 211, 217, 227, 241, 257, 263. Diaghilev's death: pp. 279-280, quote at 280 [end of her book of memoirs].
- ^ Sokolova (1960, 1989), pp. 153 (pas de deus, quote), 57 (dancer not actor), 161 (his memory), 177 (choreography).
- ^ Sokolova (1989), p.228 (the failed strike, and Leon). The two 'ringleaders' were sacked. Diaghilev told Leon: "If you have a grievance come and see me privately."
- ^ Earlier, about 1919, Diaghilev had given both Lydia and Leon a raise. Yet Ballets Russes was chronically short of cash, and broke after its financial disaster of 1921-1922: The Sleeping Princess. The next year both were idle, unpaid, and starving; they sued Diaghilev for unpaid compensation and won. Diaghilev paid. Shortly thereafter they signed a new contract with him, both getting raises. Sokolova (1989), p.183 (raise c.1919), pp. 200-201 (disaster, lawsuit, new contract).
- ^ Sokolova (1960, 1989), pp. 83 (saves Tariat), 84-85 (backgammon).
Bibliography
- Nancy Van Norman Baer, Bronislava Nijinsky. A dancer's life (Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco 1986).
- George Balanchine, Balanchine's complete stories of the Great Ballets (New York: Doubleday 1954).
- Lynn Garafola, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Wesleyan University 1989).
- Lynn Garafola, Legacies of twentieth-century Dance (Oxford University 2005, reprint: Da Capo Press).
- Vicente García-Márquez, The Ballets Russes. Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo 1932-1952 (New York: Knopf 1990).
- Léonide Massine, My Life in Ballet (London: Macmillan 1968).
- Nancy Reynolds and Malcolm McCormick, No Fixed Points. Dance in the twentieth century (Yale University 2003).
- Richard Shead, Ballets Russes (Secaucus: Wellfleet 1989).
- Lydia Sokolova, Dancing with Diaghilev. Memoirs of Lydia Sokolova (London: John Murray 1960).
- Igor Stravinsky, Chronique de ma vie (Paris 1935), translated as An Autobiography (New York: Simon & Schuster 1936).
- Lynn Garafola and Nancy Van Norman Baer, editors, The Ballets Russes and its World (Yale University 1999).
- Horst Goegler, The concise Oxford dictionary of Dance (Oxford University 1977).
- Robert Gottlieb, editor, Reading Dance (New York: Pantheon 2008).
- Carmen Paris & Javier Bayo, "Woizikovsky, Leon (1899-19175)", at MCNBiografías. Accessed 2018-3-27.