BEYOND CONSPIRACY AND BALLET

Olivier Todd

Where were you on the 22nd November 1963? This was a question that we used to ask each other. So much has happened in the last 49 years. I was 21 back then and was working in a book shop in West Los Angeles. I was chatting to a lad named Bob (?) Kerr and a french journalist and writer Olivier Todd.

A woman came into the shop and told us to turn on a radio. The President had been shot. The days that followed were extraordinary. 

Another event took place a mere 35 years before that:

Nijinska

Boléro a one-movement orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel was a sensational success when it was premiered at the Paris Opera on 22^nd November, 1928, with choreography by Bronisslava Nijinska and designs by Alexandre Benois. The orchestra of the Opéra was conducted by Walther Straram; Ernest Ansermet had originally been engaged to conduct during the entire ballet season, but the musicians refused to play under him.A scenario by Rubinstein and Nijinska was printed in the program for the premiere:

Inside a tavern inn, people dance beneath the brass lamp hung from the ceiling. [In response] to the cheers to join in, the female dancer has leapt onto the long table and her steps become more and more animated.

Ida Rubenstein, the inspiration behind Boléro

Portrait by Valentin Serov..

It was originally composed as a ballet commissioned by Russian ballerina Ida Rubenstein