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ASHTON’S WAYWARD DAUGHTER

Frederick Ashton would have been delighted that his undisputed masterpiece, La Fille mal gardée (1960) was finally finding a new home in Ukraine, a land of stubborn heroes much admired by the British, who have their own long history of resisting tyranny. The original ballet premiered in Bordeaux in 1789 had productions in Paris and London very soon after. Ashton was inspired to create a new version of Fille, by the famous section of mime known as When I Am Married, which had possibly survived from Dauberval’s 1789 original. When I see ballerinas rehearsing this beautiful episode, I am often touched by the intensity and clarity of the simple gestures movingly conveying the fervent hopes of a young woman in love.

When Ashton died in 1988, he left the important ballets to his closest friends in his legal testament. Alexander Grant, the outstanding demi-caractère dancer who had created the role of Alain, was bequeathed La Fille mal gardée, and I was privileged to watch him rehearse the ballet at the Paris Opéra and in Budapest in the years before his death in 2011. Grant, in turn, left the choreographic rights to his partner of many years, Jean-Pierre Gasquet, who recently celebrated his 90^th birthday. It is thanks to the great generosity of Mr Gasquet, who has freely donated the ballet to the National Ballet of Ukraine, that Fille will now bring happiness to all who witness its powerful magic. The great dancer Ivan Putrov has been the prime mover in securing Fille for the Ukrainian people and he and Mr Gasquet have proved to be a strong and determined partnership.

As Fille is a highly complex work, imposing the best stager/repetiteur is crucial. In recent years this has always been Jean-Christophe Lesage, a ballet master of vast experience, constantly in demand, who teaches quickly, accurately and whose natural charm and intelligence make the whole process of learning the choreography a pleasure. Over the last decade the ballet has had productions in Birmingham, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest, London, New York, Prague, Riga, Rome, Stuttgart, Sarasota, Seoul, Tokyo, Vienna and Vilnius.

Dancers new to Ashton’s work often find the physical demands very tough. The Ashton, or English, style is based on fast, precise footwork; an emphasis on epaulement; a highly articulated torso, with deep bends to the side and back; and the use of the head and eyes as important elements of expression. In other words, there is no part of the body which is not engaged in iterating the choreography. It is frequently exhausting to dance. However, it is interesting to observe how dancers always develop a real love for the choreography after a few weeks. La Fille mal gardée is a difficult ballet to cast. Lise, Colas and Alain are demi-caractère roles, so pale sylphs and skinny romantic princes are not required. Young dancers with strong personalities and bravura techniques are ideal.

Drawing the myriad elements of Fille together is a complicated task. The ballet is like an intricate piece of clockwork created on Aristotelian rules of theatre, commencing at dawn and ending at sunset. The comedy is always on the downbeat of the music, but so are many romantic moments, like the scene where Colas plants eight kisses on Lise’s arms to a matching eight downbeats in the score. Done perfectly, this scene can make you weep. Ashton himself said that this moment was the beating heart of the ballet. I was privileged to hear so much about Fille during hundreds of hours of conversation with the choreographer. Because it is a romantic comedy it is easy to think of Fille as a joyful soufflé, but choreographically it is one of the most technically demanding ballets ever made. Yes, it is a feelgood piece, everyone leaves the theatre happy after a life-enhancing experience, and audiences and critics love it. They don’t always understand it; or appreciate the intensely detailed thinking that has gone into making this charming work a sure-fire masterpiece. As Ashton once laughingly said to me: “If it’s a soufflé, it's one with iron sinews.”

It has been a pleasure to work as part of a team headed by Jean-Pierre Gasquet, a man of great wisdom and encyclopaedic knowledge who knows this ballet so well; with the unperturbable Jean-Christophe Lesage; and the indefatigable Ivan Putrov, whose determination to get Fille onto the stage in Kyiv has brooked no obstacles. To these men Ukraine owes a great debt of gratitude.