The Camargo Society Part I

Research into the Camargo Society was prompted by a dichotomy discovered in various texts on British ballet. While the majority of authors acknowledge the importance of this organisation, only passing reference is made to its existence. Even the many autobiographical accounts available gloss over the significance of such an organisation to the development of 20th century British ballet and the more informative sources are also the mostfrustrating. Arnold Haskell, for example, dismisses the need to write in detail because, as he wrongly assumes, 'the Camargo story has been written many times'. Haskell includes reference to the Camargo Society in several of his books but he provides only a skeleton summary of the setting-up of the organisation and of the performances it was responsible for. He and Philip Richardson, co-owner and editor of The Dancing Times, first discussed the founding of such a society in late-1929 yet neither felt it necessary to write historically about their ideas or about their particular involvement. The current dance literature provides few insights into the extent of the Camargo Society 's role in the early development of British ballet. 2 Not only it its raison d'etre poorly documented; in some cases, the statements attesting to its management structure and objectives or the significant omissions relating to these two aspects are misleading. This confusion signals the dichotomy identified earlier. It illustrates what a complex phenomenon the Camargo Society was and also how difficult it is to obtain a contemporary reading of its true contribution. Our research has revealed important connections between contextual issues and the evolving form and function of the Camargo Society. We believe that in order to understand its impact on British ballet, it is important to outline many of the events and decisions which preceded the setting-up of the Society. We have, therefore, cast our work in two separate articles. In this issue, we wish to focus on the period up to and including the first performances of the Camargo Society. A later issue will consider the evolution of the Society and its subsequent performances

Aesthetics · Art · Ballet · Confusion · Dance · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Phenomenon · Psychoanalysis · Diversity and Impact of Dance · History · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Theater, Performance, and Music History

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