Charlotte Kasner talks to Naomi Sorkin who stars as Ida Rubinstein in a forthcoming new play that looks at the life of the Russian dancer and impresario, which opens in London in September.
Ida Lvovna Rubinstein is remembered, if she is at all, for the two years that she spent in Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes from 1909-1911. It is perhaps a triumph of art over adversity that this still defines her 77 years.
Next month, the untold story of dance’s forgotten diva, Russian impresario (she worked with such as Igor Stravinsky, Vaslav Nijinsky and Claude Debussy), and femme fatale comes to life at London’s Playground Theatre in Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act. Described as a play with music and dance, and directed and choreographed by Christian Holder, it features actor and former American Ballet Theatre ballerina Naomi Sorkin in the role of Ida.
Orphaned at eight years old having already lost her mother, Rubinstein’s vast inheritance didn’t entirely shield her from the rigours of life as a lone female. She became a polyglot, was educated in Paris and was able to hire some of the staff of the Russian Imperial Theatres as tutors.
She studied drama and dance, the latter with Michel Fokine, who created the Dance of the Seven Veils for her 1908 production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé. When the play was banned, she continued to perform the dance as a concert piece, shedding everything but a brassiere and a skirt of beads.
Her stature and willingness to appear in minimal garb on stage gained her employment in Paris but led to her being declared legally insane by her horrified brother-in-law and duly incarcerated in an asylum. Luckily for her, her family in St Petersburg thought this equally scandalous and she was released and packed off back to Russia. Cannily, she made a marriage of convenience with her first cousin, who allowed her to continue to travel and perform.
Naomi Sorkin is no stranger to the subject having starred in the short 2012 film, Madame Ida from which Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act has been developed. Sorkin feels that Rubinstein was more than an ambitious, wealthy dilettante. Although she had limited technique, as a dancer she was charismatic and sensual, albeit perhaps in a manner that is difficult for a contemporary audience to appreciate.
Photo Gail Hadani
“I think she was amazing; absolutely amazing. She was extraordinary for her time,” says Sorkin, who explains Rubinstein was rich, which clearly helped, but also had great confidence. As an example, aged 18, she decided she wanted to play Antigone, and had the assurance to approach Leon Bakst, although he convinced her not to do the entire play. Having researched it, she then approached Alexander Glazunov to do the music for her. That was the first time Diaghilev saw her.
Now she recounts the Russian heiress’ dramatic life: that scandalous Salomé that led her embarrassed family to commit her to an asylum, her rise to the heights of fame in Paris, her bisexual love affairs, the assassination of her long-time lover Lord Moyne, and her selfless devotion to wounded soldiers in both World Wars.
Alongside text, music, film and projections, she promises movement used in a dramatic way, albeit more ‘expressive movement’ rather than ‘dance’.
Sorkin explains that the premise is an interview (that never happened), which then sets things in motion. She insists that the play doesn’t gloss over Rubinstein’s trials and weaknesses, the biggest of which, she feels, was probably to put herself at the centre of everything she did.
Running her own company, Rubinstein also commissioned a great deal of music, most notably Ravel’s Bolero (the play features live music with Darren Berry as Maurice Ravel) but also Le Baiser de la fée from Stravinsky for a ballet choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. She also gave Frederick Ashton his first job. She was bisexual and was immortalised by her painter-lover Romaine Brooks amongst many others.
Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act looks at the way that fate, luck and maybe chance contributed to the life of an extraordinary woman who perhaps deserves to be more than just a footnote to the history of the Ballets Russes.
Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act is at The Playground Theatre, Latimer Road in London’s Ladbroke Grove from September 23-October 16, 2021. Visit theplaygroundtheatre.london for details and tickets.