In a large and airy study inside the English National Ballet headquarters, a white Rubik cube of a building on the island of the city of London, nine dancers slide down the floor, their agile bodies move through the air as if they swim underwater. Above, in the workshop, among the ranks of plastic boxes full of sequins, accounts and bright braid, the changing rooms are sewing the dancers of the dancers: the pink, cream and electric light bolts are designed in pleated tennis dresses of the 1920s, blown bath dresses and coincident tape.
They are preparing for a production of LE TRAIN BLEUA capricious ballet of an act on the Riviera party, for the first time in 1924, the Ballets of Serge Diaghilev Russes, and revived for a single day of three performances in the V & A EAST Storehouse Later this month. That first legendary performance gathered some of the most exciting names of the time, with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, a scenario by Jean Cocteau, Gabrielle costumes “Coco” Chanel and a stage curtain By Pablo Picasso. “It is a real ‘who is who’ of the art of the 20s’, says V & a curator of dance Jane Pritchard, who co-clarified the museum Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Russian Ballets, 1909-1929 Exhibition in 2010.
With his title a wink to the fashionable train only of the first class that led the wealthy Parisians to the coast of Azur, LE TRAIN BLEU It was a ballet form of satire in inactive classes. Located on a beach, he paid a cheerful tribute to some of the greatest crazy people in the jazz era, mocking the postures of the worshipers and gigolos and their lovers dalliations. “You had imaginary airplanes flying above,” Pritchard continues, “people who take photographs with boxes, locked in bath huts and melodies by Darius Milhaud, so it was a very funny piece.”
The public was captivated. As a report expressed in a brilliant weekly at the time of its opening in London, “it is so difficult to get a seat for The blue train As it is to obtain a seat for the thing itself. ”Despite its popularity, however, the ballet had a short race, fading in oblivion after Anton Dolin, the main dancer for whom the ballet was created, left the company in 1925.
However, it turned out to be greatly significant for Gabrielle Chanel, who would become a pattern of the Russes ballets, designing costumes for other productions, including the 1928 ballet of Balanchine. Apollon Musagète; Established the basis for the relationship of the French luxury house with dance. “She helped finance the company in difficult times and was someone who was always available to give advice or to make some settings with costumes,” says Pritchard.
All of which does the reinvented ballet, which marks the centenary of Chanel’s presence in the United Kingdom, in addition to celebrating its long -term sponsorship of Plug -Hey a complete circle moment. “Our founder, Alicia Markova, was a little baby dancer in the Russes ballets when Chanel made the designs and then continued, with Anton Dolin, to find ENB, so it has been a great long -standing relationship,” says Aaron S Watkin, artistic director of ENB, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. For Chanel, the Anglophile connections, which date back to the love of its founder for the field and English textiles, are a way to “activate our inheritance,” says Elizabeth Anglès D’Auriac, president of the United Kingdom region, “inspire creativity, crafts and culture in the United Kingdom during the next 100 years.”
When the performances are carried out in V&A East Storehouse on June 19, there will be another star attraction: a colossal copy of 10m high picasso fabric, 11 m wide of picasso’s painting The two women running along the beachforming the backdrop of the work. Nicknamed “The largest Picasso in the world”, was originally designed “as a visual overture,” says Pritchard de la Tela, which was reproduced by the stage designer, Prince Alexander Shervervashidze, in less than 24 hours and signed by Picasso himself. (The painter was so impressed that he decided to dedicate him to Diaghilev before the presentation of 1924). “It was there at the beginning of production to establish a mood and excite the audience before something had happened on stage.”
The fabric, which would continue to inspire artists such as Henry Moore, was acquired by the V&A in 1976, although it has remained largely stored due to its size, since it has been exhibited in the museum in the museum. Russes ballets Show more than a decade ago. “The biggest problem is erecting it,” says Pritchard. “Only the bearing and unrolling these things … You have large lines of people who try to obtain exactly the same tension. It is a great performance in itself.” After the conservation work of 10 technicians and conservatives, which has been financed by Chanel, the 350 kg curtain will be one of the six large -scale objects shown in the V&A East warehouse, the New Diller Scofidio+Renfro designed in the space in the Stratford space, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a treasure treasure with Tasón of 250,000 objects that appear through the stations that appear to Flat.
His participation in ballet will boost it with even more importance. “Putting a dance performance in front of the fabric is not how it was intended The fabric will remain on display In the David and Molly Lowell Borthwick gallery. “It is a room where we can juxtapose objects with stage. That is the whole spirit of the warehouse,” he continues. “It is a great eclectic mixture of objects, and you can make these very strange associations between things that could never have been talking between them.” Pritchard adds: “Just seeing a picasso of that size is extraordinary. And the lovely thing is that new people can discover it every time it is exhibited.”
The intimate place of the show, the stage measures 10m by 5M and the auditorium settles 100 people, will allow a unique experience of the fabric and choreography. “It is very unusual for a general public to experience ballet closely,” says the associated choreographer of ENB, Stina Quageur, who is reinventing the ballet for the performance. “You don’t have many opportunities to see the dancers doing these elevators and jumps and move at that speed so close, so I think he witnesses that it will be really special.”
For ENB Watkin, the performance also feeds the company’s broader objectives to diversify ballet. “We are looking to create unexpected experiences for people, open ballet possibilities and commit ourselves to a different group of people who normally do not come to see us,” he says.
But what will the locals do? LE TRAIN BLEU – A written -danced operetta for popular audiences more than a century ago? “If you think about body cult in the Instagram era and the pressure of being well, some of those inflection points of the 1920s, in terms of style and fashion, still resonate with us now,” says Cormier. (The original ballet starred in Bathrooms and Swollen Weight Lifters). “But also, you think about the success of series like The white lotus And our obsession with leisure classes, that kind of class tension still sounds true today. “
“When I listen to the music, I feel so high,” says Quageurur, who hopes to rebuild the playful mood of Nijinska’s choreography while leading him to the 21st century. “He is very happy. He simply captures the spirit of that time, and I want people to be hypnotized and impressed by physicality, but they also feel this lightness and simply absorb it in it.”
Even so, dancers will have to control joy. “I will have to not exaggerate the movements too much because most of the time, when it acts, the audience is far,” says main director Shiori Kase, the Japanese dancer whose character will be modeled in the pearluse, the paper originally danced by Lydia Sokolova. He is anxious to use the costumes that Chanel has allowed the Enb Reinterpreta costume tumon, which includes the Bubblegum-Pink swimsuits and Gray Mélange Lycra, their knitted patterns with digital print that remind the original styles of Woolen Stockinette. “I need to make subtle movements. But still in an elegant and elegant way,” she says. A pause. “Like Chanel!”
LE TRAIN BLEU BY ENGLISH National Ballet will be presented in V&A EAST STOREHOUSE on June 19. V & A EAST Storehouse opens on May 31, 2025, vam.ac.uk/aest
At all times, Marco Antonio makeup using Chanel Les Beiges Golden Hour Collection and No 1 of Chanel Body Sero In-Mist