中外舞蹈交流史中的上海芭蕾(二)

Shanghai Ballet in the History of Chinese and Foreign Dance Exchange(Ⅱ)

就目前可以找到的资料而言,最早登陆上海的西方芭蕾舞蹈家非乔治·冈察洛夫莫属,时间在1928年,而他青史留名的原因有二:一是聘请了俄国芭蕾舞蹈家维拉·沃尔科娃在其上海舞校按照瓦冈诺娃的体系教授芭蕾,确保了该校高水平的教学;二是英国芭蕾表演大师玛戈·芳婷正是因为1933年在这所上海舞校接受了高水平的启蒙教育,日后才登上国际芭蕾之巅的。1945年,冈察洛夫离开上海,前往伦敦,在赛德勒斯·威尔士芭蕾舞校教授芭蕾,对英国芭蕾的发展起到了积极的推动作用。

I. Goncharov ran a dance school in Shanghai According to the currently available literature, the earliest western ballet dance master entering into Shanghai was George Goncharov. It was 1928, and he is remembered for two reasons: Firstly, he invited Russian ballet master Vera Volkova to teach at his dance school. Following Vaganova’s ballet teaching system, the school maintained a high teaching standard. Secondly, the great English ballerina Margot Fonteyn received early ballet education at his school in 1933 and later became one of the most exceptional ballet dancers of the world.George Goncharov, a Russian ballet performer, choreographer, and educator, initially received rigorous ballet training at the Imperial Ballet Academy at Maryinsky Theaterin St. Petersburg, the birthplace of the classical ballet. After the victory of the October Revolution in 1917, he became a ballet dancer in Moscow(the capital of Soviet Union). In 1926, with the Flying Russian Ballet, he toured Japan and China(Harbin);he was also the stage manager for the tour. In the following year, he toured Asia, giving performances in Beijing, Singapore, Manila,and Shanghai. After the tour, along with two Russian ballet dancers from the company, Vera Volkova and Sergei Toropov, he left the company and planned to go to Europe, joining the Ballets Russesde Serge Diaghilev(1929—1929). Their instructor Agrippina Vaganova(1879—1951) had told Volkova that the ballet manager Sergei Diaghilev(1872—1929), who were very famous in Europe at that time, were ready to recruit trained Russian ballet dancers at any time.At that time, Shanghai, in many ways, was similar with the capital of the 'Manchukuo', Harbin. Especially, there were concessions in the two cities where lived a large number of foreigners, including many well-educated Russians. Like a duck to water in this environment, Goncharov decided to stay and run his own ballet school and dance company. He spent 17 years teaching the training system of the 'St. Petersburg style' of ballet. He also held ballet performances at the Lyceum Theater from time to time, introducing numerous classical Russian ballet works to the Chinese audience. In this way, it not only supported his living but also gave him spiritual satisfaction in the process of popularizing Russian ballet.According to the British biographer Elizabeth Frank’s book, Margot Fonteyn, Goncharov’s teachingstyle was very strict, especially when he taught the techniques from the Russian ballet. His class was usually very quiet, and his interpretation was very clear. He emphasized the perception of and response to music. In fact, it was Goncharov who had recognized the talents in Fonteyn. Under his strict training, Fonteyn later became a professional ballet dancer and ultimately the world famous ballerina. In return, Fonteyn, as his guarantor, helped him leave Shanghai, join the British nationality, and introduced him to work in Sadler’s Wells Ballet School, later known as The Royal Ballet, so that he could play a greater role in this world-class ballet platform.However, for the Russian refugees who had lost their nationality because of their stay in Shanghai, the survival was the biggest challenge—a woman’s only chance was to marry a businessman from France, Britain, or US, and a man’s only chance was to f?ind a job in order to feed his family. It led to a corrupted social atmosphere with people engaging in crime, alcohol, and drug abuse.The Russian ballet school and dance company, run by Goncharovin Shanghai, play an important role in world ballet history. One of the main reasons is that he had been able to maintain the high level of the school and company by inviting the famous Russian ballet dancer Vera Volkova to join his teaching team. Vera Volkova used to be his dance partner and later became one of the founders of the British and Danish Modern ballet. She had been in his school and company for seven years since 1929.II. Volkova and Goncharov’s 'Olympic Trio'Vera Volkova(1905—1975) was born in St. Petersburg. Since she was 9 years old, she had been studying in the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens along with his sister Irina. They received early education in dance there, and the dance teacher was a French. During the Russian Revolution, she started to learn ballet, f?irstly at the private ballet school opened by the great Russian philosopher and critic Akim Volynsky(1863—1926) and later entered into the Imperial Ballet Academy at Maryinsky Theatre for further education. She f?inished not only the major technique courses, 'classical dance, character dance, and history dance,' but also the dance theory course including 'science, history, and aesthetics.' Receiving the comprehensive training, her slim silhouette and noble elegance were attracting attention. More importantly, she had studied with the Russian ballet educator Vaganova, receiving a rigorous and intensive professional training. Upon her graduation in 1925 and known as a ballet prodigy, she was chosen by Volynsky into the State Academic Theatre for Opera and Ballet, formerly known as the Maryinsky Theatre. In the same year, she toured Asia with a small company, the Flying Russian Ballet. When the company was in Shanghai, she left the company with Goncharov and Toropov. Later, she went to the Europe alone, and joined the Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilevas she had wished. As Diaghilev passed away in 1929, the dancers of the company were dispersed. Invited by Goncharov, she went back to Shanghai, joining his ballet school and ballet company.Alexander Meinertz, a Danish biographer living in the UK, wrote in Vera Volkova: A Biography, published both in Danish and English, 'The City [Shanghai] never saw snow, but had a lot of rain, culminating in the Plum Flower Rain season from mid-June to early July. The summers were hot and humid;at night the city seethed with more than a hundred nightclubs, dancehalls and cabarets in the areas between the waterfront(Bund) and the French Concession. The nightclubs were almost entirely staffed by Russians. The men acted as doormen and waiters, while beautiful Russian women were taxi dancers, selling themselves as dance partners in clubs where Filipino or Russian orchestras played the popular tunes of the day...The truth is that Volkova, Toropov and Goncharov performed not in a steamy nightclub, but in Shanghai’s most exclusive cabaret at the Hotel Majestic in Nanking Road, which seated 1, 300.' To people who used to be proud of engaging in ballet, a noble art, it was a disgraceful thing to dance in cabarets or dancehalls. However, confronting with the reality that 'survival is the f?irst need,' they had no other choices. The Majestic Hall was the most luxurious hotel at that time, where Chiang Kai-shek and SONG Mei-ling held their wedding in 1927. Dancing there was not inappropriate, not to mention they performed the pas de deux from the Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.According to a postcard of the Shanghai in the 1930 s, the 'Olympic Trio' also performed an Arab-style dance on triangular love, full of passion and dramatic tension. The inspiration was from the ballet Sheherazade,a work of the 'father of modern ballet,' the f?irst choreographer of the Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev, Michel Fokine(1880—1942).III. Volkova’s life before and after leaving Shanghai After the contract between the 'Olympic Trio' and the Majestic Hall ended, Volkova found a job working as a model for a clothing store to support her and her family’s life—sending money to her family back in Russia after paying her bills in Shanghai. At the same time, Goncharov started to teach dance. Later, he invited Volkova to teach at his school and company when he was able to pay her.In 1932, the Japanese army bombed Shanghai, and many foreigners in the concessions f?led the country. However, people like Volkova, a Russian whose passport and visa had expired, had nowhere to escape. Fortunately, after everything went back to normal, she met a British architect, Hugh Finch Williams, at a cocktail party at her old friend Emmanuel Gran’s roof terrace. To Williams, she had 'a classic prof?ile, chestnut hair long to the shoulders, and kind if shrewd eyes, not to mention an exquisite dancer’s f?igure that in this model dress had a rare elegance...' He admired her so much that he gave her love, respect, and protection for the rest of her life.In 1934, with the help of Williams, Volkova managed to get to Hong Kong, opening a ballet school and inviting Goncharov to join her in teaching the profound Russian ballet. Volkova arrived in England in 1936, and married to Williams in 1937. Later, she not only opened her own dance school in London but also taught at the Sadler Well’s Theatre and its aff?iliated dance school during 1943 —1950, training a large number of highly skilled British ballet dancers—in particular, she had profoundly inf?luenced Margot Fonteyn and Frederick Ashton(1904—1988)—which led the British ballet to the peak of world ballet after the Second World War. As many historians on Western ballet believe, her greatest contribution was her identity as the 'artistic director' at the Royal Danish Ballet. During her 25 years’ teaching, not only the company was revived but also the Danish ballet element in the French Bournonville style was strengthened.