Mme Tatiana Nicolaevna Legat and Sarah Lamb

Wednesday 18th May 2005
Crown Court Church of Scotland Hall, London WC2

Michael Ludgate thanked Sarah Lamb on behalf of LBC Members for her great kindness in arranging for her distinguished teacher, Madame Legat, to speak to us at very short notice. Mme Legat is paying a visit to London to see Sarah make her debut in a ballerina role when she dances Odette/Odile with the Royal Ballet next week. As Mme Legat will be in London for a very short time we are indeed grateful that she agreed to fit us into her busy schedule. Michael outlined the dance pedigree of the Legat family and welcomed our guests, who included Hon. Member Alexander Grant. Mr Alex Bissett was the Russian interpreter.

Mme Legat started at the Kirov School in 1947 in what was then called Leningrad and after 10 years at the school was taken into the Kirov Ballet, where she worked for 30 years, starting in the corps de ballet, rising through the ranks as a dancer and then teacher and producer of ballets. She always had a dream of finding a gifted pupil and is fortunate that in Sarah Lamb she has found one who is very special, and looks forward to seeing her dance the great roles. Mme Legat spoke of the many teachers and dancers in the great Russian tradition who either taught or influenced her, including, among others, Vaganova, who was a pupil of Nicholas Legat. She described the artistic principles of the Legat system of teaching, which she is keeping alive today in training dancers and staging of the Russian classics in Boston, where she has been for the last 12 years, and before that in Moscow. Mme Legat last saw the Royal Ballet 15 years ago, when she was in London to teach at the English National Ballet School, and also at the Legat School.

She then spoke of her own teachers and career at the Kirov, mentioning many of her roles and partners in the company. She has danced with Soloviev and Baryishnikov at the Kirov and shared "Swan Lake" with Natalia Makarova as Odette and Mme Legat as Odile, and has danced a wide repertoire from contemporary to the classics and reminisced about many of these ballets.

Before she left Boston, Sarah danced Lise in "La Fille Mal Gardee" with Carlos Acosta, and Alexander Grant said how impressed he was with her potential, but unfortunately had to leave Boston before the show, which was seen by Mme Legat. Mr Grant mentioned the Karsavina mime, which she had demonstrated to Frederick Ashton, and noted the differences between the Russian and RB productions of this ballet. Mme Legat spoke about the present day Kirov repertoire, with its many productions of the works of Balanchine and Forsythe and their extreme technical demands. She thinks that the Kirov may be in danger of forgetting its traditional heritage of the great classical ballets in favour of contemporary works. Sarah Lamb said the development of modem technique was in part due to the arrival on the scene of amazingly gifted dancers like Nureyev and Baryshnikov who inspired other dancers to emulate them There followed a general discussion on developments in modem ballet technique.

Mme Legat then talked about her work with the Bolshoi, before she came to Boston. When the ballerinas she worked with, such as Ekaterina Maximova, were about to retire, she received an invitation to come to Boston and thought it was the right time to move. There was a discussion about the different styles of port de bras and lyrical movement in the Russian and "English" schools, with particular reference to Sarah's expressive Russian port de bras. Sarah said that Mme Legat understands any kind of dance and had helped her with demanding contemporary competition solos to the same high standard as classical variations. Mme Legat is a freelance at present and continues to teach a small number of pupils, but is no longer attached to the Boston Ballet School. Her daughter also teaches and continues the great family tradition.

Michael Ludgate thanked Mme Legat, Sarah Lamb and Mr Bissett for so generously giving their time to talk to us. The evening ended with presentations to our distinguished guests, to great applause.