ACT 6 SEEKING NEW OPPORTUNITIES ABROAD
Return to England
After ten years with the National Ballet of Canada, David was ready to change course. This dramatic move was a pivotal point in his dance career and also in his personal life. In May of 1961, at age 33, David crossed the Atlantic Ocean to England again; this time with Leila Zorina (Leila Kovacevic in later years). David wrote: “My aim was to study, to get a new perspective on my life as a dancer. There were no time lines- I left that open.”
When David reflected on this move many years later, he wrote: “There was a great hue and cry when I left but few people realized both Lois and I had to break away from certain influences. Something very different happens when you dance with a new partner and often the result is good for one’s development. Each of us was an individual but in dance we were becoming too much like one. Now we have our own reputations.”
I wonder, did Lois feel the same way about this? It must have been challenging for her emotionally, especially if she knew that David and Leila had travelled across the ocean together.
David described his return to England in this way: “When I arrived, the thirteen years away from that Island seemed to melt away. It was almost like going home.”
Shortly after arriving in London, David and Leila went on a trip together. David wrote: “I knew that I had to maintain the dance side, but upon being offered an opportunity to go by car through France and Spain, I could not refuse the offer. We went from London to the south coast of Spain. It relaxed me, and made me ready for whatever would come.”
When I interviewed Leila, she recalled going to a bar in Barcelona where she and David did some dance lifts. In Leila’s words: “David liked the joy in life. We were having a fun adventure together.”
Making Connections in London
During the summer of 1961, David started taking classes at West Street Studio, where he had taken a class with Anna Northcote in 1948. David wrote: “I could not believe my eyes. Anna was still there teaching and she remembered me.”
It wasn’t long before he heard about a woman who, in David’s words, “taught a very Bolshoi Ballet class. She was a dark-haired live wire who taught a mean class- Hungarian, with all the fire that one imagines comes out of that culture. Maria Fay made quite an impression. I was soon doing two classes a day with her and feeling, day by day, the changes that were taking place.”
Maria was born and trained in Budapest, Hungary. Leila Kovacevic described her studio as “a wonderful place to do class! She was a great teacher and made you want to improve.” When I interviewed Maria, she recalled David having “beautiful elevation, using good technique which was masculine, not bouncy, with a beautiful landing.” She said: “His attitude towards class was incredible. He demonstrated consistent discipline.”
David wrote: “During this period, I was approached by London’s Festival Ballet to audition. I went to Festival Hall to do a class with the company taught by Leon Woizikowski, someone I remembered as being the first warrior chief in the Fokine ballet Prince Igor. Julian Braunsweg, the director general of the company, was watching. Very soon I was appearing with the company, and would until 1969.”
Quoting from the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail (August 3, 1961): “According to Lois Smith, Mr. Adams has not yet signed with the English company but the National Ballet has already granted him a leave of absence. And the bait proffered by Festival Ballet includes the leading role in Snow Maiden, the first Soviet work to be offered by an English company, as well as leading roles in The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.”
As it turned out, David signed a one-year contract with London’s Festival Ballet. According to the Winnipeg Tribune (August 5, 1961), “the move came as a stunning surprise” to Celia Franca, the National Ballet of Canada’s artistic director, who was “given no previous indication of his move.”
In preparation for his first performance with London’s Festival Ballet, David continued to take Maria Fay’s classes whenever possible. He claimed that this training resulted in him becoming slimmer, lengthening out his muscles and making him look less bulky. In my interview with Maria, she told me a delightful story. One day, she recalled, David remarked that her classes had become increasingly more expensive. When she asked him what he meant by that, he said jokingly that he had become so thin that his clothes had to be taken to the tailor for refitting.
David also gave Maria Fay credit for his increased flexibility. During this time in his career, he realized how important it would be to maintain the level of technique he had achieved with her.
Debut with London’s Festival Ballet
In September of 1961, David did his first performance with Festival Ballet. Quoting from the Toronto Star (Sept. 12, 1961):
“The debut of Canadian dancer David Adams with London’s Festival Ballet took place as scheduled Sept. 7. It was, to put it boldly, bungled. He appeared in Festival Ballet’s annual birthday gala performance at Festival Hall, dancing the poet in Les Sylphides. The original plan had been to have Mr. Adams seen also in George Balanchine’s Bourree Fantasque and the subsequent dropping of this work meant that he was not given a fair opportunity to show his paces. Added to this, the debut was included as part of a general so called gala potpourri of various foreign guest artists (few over-distinguished) and Festival Ballet made no mention of the fact that Mr. Adams, who had not been seen in London since 1948, made an impression with his masculine style and fluent musicality.”
Despite this unfortunate change in the program and lack of communication regarding David’s new position with the company, there were some positive reviews of his opening performance. John Percival, a renown dance critic in London at that time, wrote:
“Now a mature artist, Adams has an excellent physique, a very manly style and a fluent, athletic way of moving. His solo was good, unforced and controlled, and his partnering was quite exceptional. In his arms, Belinda Wright floated aloft as the ballerina should in Les Sylphides. Undoubtedly Adams will prove a real acquisition to Festival Ballet.”
Some press releases from Canada were also complimentary. Quoting from the Calgary Herald (Sept. 9,1961):
“In the view of two critics, Canada’s David Adams was a high spot of Thursday night’s gala performance by the Festival Ballet to mark its 12th Anniversary. Despite a star-studded cast from many nations, the general impression, says The Daily Telegraph, was of a gala a good deal less galactic than might have been expected. But Winnipeg-born David Adams made a fine impression…Canada’s leading dancer will prove an enormous asset.”
According to another article: “Adams’ Festival Hall debut was said to compare artistically with that of opera singer John Vickers at Covent Garden or Christopher Plummer.”
First Impressions
Soon after his debut, David began rehearsing with the company for their upcoming tours. In my interview with Alun Jones, a former dancer with Festival Ballet, he vividly remembered his first impression of David: “I thought, my God he’s a lumberjack! Who is this guy?” David’s pants were held up by a piece of string and he was much bigger than the average male dancer at that time.
The director of the company, Julian Braunsweg, was a Polish impresario who treated the dancers like his own family. He spoke nine languages but some of the dancers claimed they never understood any of them. Alun Jones described him as “a big butterball”, whose legs swung when he sat on his chair in the rehearsal room to inform the company where they would be touring next. During one of these sessions, Alun remembered Braunsweg saying: “The man from the Royal Ballet, he go to Europe. But he go by train and I fly- so I get all the dates before him.”
Braunsweg also played a huge part in keeping the company afloat financially. Quoting from a brochure about the history of the company written by Jane Pritchard, former archivist for London’s Festival Ballet (later named the English National Ballet): “Until 1962, London’s Festival Ballet had been a private enterprise mainly financed by Julian Braunsweg. At regular intervals, he was forced to pawn his wife’s jewels to pay for new ballets and for the dancers’ salaries.” (English National Ballet 1950-1990)
Overall Repertoire and Early Roles
David wrote: “Festival Ballet brought me new versions of Swan Lake, Giselle, Les Sylphides, Nutcracker, Coppelia and, at last, a full Sleeping Beauty. On top of that, we danced full length ballets from other sources: Snow Maiden, choreographed by Bourmeister from Moscow, and Peer Gynt, choreographed by another Russian by the name of Vaslav Orlikowski. Our contemporary repertoire was varied and included works by Balanchine, Carter, Lifar, Lichine, Field, Lander, Bourenanville, Taras, Dobin- to name a few. Festival Ballet was a London season company and also a touring one week at a time company. We faithfully did this repertoire eight times a week, 48-50 weeks a year. Each section of this repertoire was performed endlessly. I knew the joy of working something until it was part of my system.”
In his first year with London’s Festival Ballet, David danced the part of Prince Siegfried in the second act of Swan Lake, in which he partnered Marilyn Burr, Irina Borowska and Dianne Richards in separate productions. The new version was choreographed by Bourmeister from the Stanislavski Theatre in Moscow. David wrote: “His production of Swan Lake became a standard for a time with Festival Ballet.”
In 1961, the Russian choreographer Bourmeister was commissioned by the company to create a new three-act ballet. The first two acts of The Snow Maiden premiered in Florence (June, 1961) and the last act was finished when the company returned to London in July of the same year. Company members who spoke Russian translated Bourmeister’s ideas to those performing. David danced the part of Mizgur (lead male) and Dianne Richards danced the role of the Snow Maiden in this ballet.
David wrote: “I shall never forget the rehearsals in Monte Carlo, where Bourmeister was brought in to rehearse both Swan Lake, Act 2 and The Snow Maiden. Over a short time, I had become the main lead in both of these ballets. Bourmeister was able, through his expression and movement, to take me through both of these ballets and transfer his concept of how they should be performed- all in Russian. He did not want anyone translating while he rehearsed with me. My performances changed and improved. The images that he was able to give me lasted until those ballets left the repertoire.”
Dancing with Dianne Richards in The Snow Maiden was a very special experience for David. He wrote: “Dianne and I did many performances of that ballet with Festival: in fact, it became our ballet. The company had opened with the piece Graduation Ball and a mixed bill of fare. The critics were not very impressed. The following night, Dianne and I appeared in The Snow Maiden. The critics were ecstatic- they loved us and the two of us were praised for saving the season.”
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Some other early roles with the company included: the Poet in Les Sylphides; Franz in a new Danish version of Coppelia, partnering Toni Lander as Swanhilda; dancing alongside Dianne Richards in Bourree Fantasque by Balanchine; the Negro in Scheherazade, partnering Marilyn Burr as the exotic Zobeide; dancing in Etudes- a brilliantly designed ballet on the techniques of ballet choreographed by Harold Lander and, finally, as one of the dancers in Variations of Four by Anton Dolin.
Touring with Festival Ballet
Quoting from Toronto’s The Telegram (October, 1962): “David Adams performed with London’s Festival Ballet in such key centers as Venice, Budapest, Munich, Monte Carlo, Lisbon, Barcelona, Palma, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Their warmest reception seems to have been in Budapest, behind the Iron Curtain, where they were the first visiting company from the west since 1938.”
In Vienna, they were the first British company to appear in the spectacular new Vienna Opera House. In Israel, they performed on a football field in an old Roman theatre. Former dancer Alun Jones mentioned that The Snow Maiden was a huge success here, with David and Dianne Richards dancing the leads in the open air.
Every Easter was spent in Monte Carlo, where the company received 50% more salary. It was here that they rehearsed in the legendary rehearsal room where Diaghilev used to mount some of his magnificent productions. In Barcelona, David remembered performing for audiences that were completely aristocratic, occupying boxes in the theatres that had been in the same families for hundreds of years. Often, members of the audience would come to see one specific performance rather than stay for the whole evening.
The company performed The Nutcracker at Festival Hall in London every December for three weeks, with twelve shows per week. In a Canadian news release from The Hamilton Spectator on January 31, 1962, it was pointed out that David was described in London as a “promising Canadian newcomer, a splendid forceful dancer with that refreshing classic lumberjack style that always seems specifically transatlantic.” A touch of colonialism?
Very often, the company would go to Venice in the New Year, spending a total of three months in Italy each year for 2-6 weeks at a time. Quoting former dancer Alun Jones: “The dancers were so glad to be in the company and to go to so many marvelous places!”
Back to the National Ballet of Canada
In the summer of 1962, David danced in Festival Ballet’s nine-week summer season at Festival Hall in London, England. According to former dancer Alun Jones, David was one of the featured soloists and every performance was packed. After that, David would return to Canada to resume his role as principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.
David danced in several productions during the National’s 1962-63 season, including: Concerto Barocco, Lilac Garden, One in Five, Serenade, Death and the Maiden, Winter Night, the pas de six from Chabukiani’s Laurencia, the pas de deux from Leonid Lavrosky’s Walpurgis Night, and the pas de deux from Le Corsair. The last three works were staged by the Russian ballerina Galina Samtsova (later changed to Samsova)- the first outside artist to be engaged by the company. Quoting from the book Power to Rise by James Neufeld:
“At a time when artistic contact with Russia was virtually impossible, her arrival generated excitement and artistic ferment within the company. Samsova was an electrifying performer, in full command of the Russian strength and athleticism which Canadian dancers and audiences had only heard about…she had direct contact with a Russian performance tradition and repertoire which she could transmit in the West… Samsova joined the company in 1961, technically at the rank of corps but in fact taking on principal roles from the outset…Samsova’s version of the pas de deux from Le Corsair, attributed to Robert Klavin, established itself firmly with the National just before the work took centre stage-internationally as one of Nureyev’s bravura show-stoppers (based on Petipa choreography).” (pages 85 and 85)
Sheila Harrison (stage name: Sheila Melvin), a former dancer with Festival Ballet, also joined the company for this season. Sheila and Galina both played an important part in David’s personal and professional life.
After rehearsing the repertoire, the company embarked upon a long tour of the southern United States. By the end of January 1963, they had traveled from the south and up the east coast to New York.
It must have been difficult for Lois Smith to watch David partnering Galina in several productions. According to some members of the company, David and Galina danced beautifully together, an attraction that continued off stage. Walter Babiuk, former assistant conductor with the National Ballet, also noticed the growing bond between David and Sheila Melvin, along with David’s distancing from Lois.
Most of David’s reviews from the National Ballet’s fall tour of 1962 were flattering, with the odd remark about his somewhat freer style. Quoting from the Ohio Herald (November 6, 1962): “The Black Swan pas de deux received a gay, snappy interpretation from Lois Smith and David Adams, and the pas de deux from Le Corsair was romantically breathtaking- although the tour-de-force finale is more circus than dance.”
Another review from Lexington, Kentucky described the pas de deux from Swan Lake as “beautifully danced by Lois Smith and David Adams, experts in entrechat and glissade, to get all the fine points. They were greeted by curtain calls.”
A performance of their Pas de Deux Romantique was well received in Columbus. A review from the Columbus Enquirer (January 8, 1963) stated that it received “top laurels, demonstrating why Lois Smith and David Adams are the premier danseurs of this company. Their dancing was electric with the excitement generated throughout the auditorium.
The company also performed the ballet Winter Night (first presented in their 1957/58 season) on this tour of the United States. It was often referred to as “Winter Fright” by the company’s pianist Mary Macdonald, who had to play Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto on some horrendous pianos to accompany this ballet. A review from New Orleans (January 14, 1963) stated that the “soapy atmosphere was relieved by the conviction and apt characterization of David Adams as the fickle male…Adams remains one of the most stalwart of partners.”
Quoting a reviewer from Miami, Florida (January 21, 1963): “Samsova and Adams were partners in Pas de Deux from Le Corsair, which was a delight. Adams has a strong stage personality and a physical elan that are audience-satisfying as well as technical ability. The Pas de Deux would perhaps have been finer had he tightened his line a bit. He allowed himself a little too much freedom of movement, even for a neo-classical work.”
In another contrasting review of this piece from Windsor, Ontario (February 10, 1963), it was stated: “In his pas de deux with Miss Samsova, David Adams showed the results of a year’s training with the British and European companies. His technique has been tightened and polished. He dances with much greater assurance than ever before.”
Partnering Guest Artist Melissa Hayden
Early in 1963, Celia Franca invited Melissa Hayden, Canadian-born principal dancer with Balanchine’s New York City Centre Ballet, to dance with the company. Lois Smith was recovering from knee surgery at that time, so the timing was good. Melissa accepted the offer, attracted by the opportunity to dance in two full-length classics- Swan Lake and Coppelia. She would also dance in a couple of Balanchine works, repertoire she was very familiar with.
Quoting Celia from the book The National Ballet of Canada, which includes a memoir by Celia Franca: “I went to New York to teach Miss Hayden the role of Swanhilda, and in February 1963 she joined the company in Windsor, where we were performing, in order to rehearse with the whole company. After our four-week season at the Royal Alex we were nervous wrecks; we had had enough. She made last-minute changes to the Balanchine ballets, which made her look splendid and our own dancers inept; she refused to dance with Earl Kraul, so David Adams had to partner her throughout. He said he would never go through that again (and I told him I wouldn’t expect it); Miss Hayden would become very nervous in the classics, forget the choreography, and blame David for the mistakes. David is one of the strongest and most reliable partners anyone could wish for, but he never knew where she was going on stage.” (page 221)
Despite Hayden’s unpopularity within the company, most of the press releases were favorable and the audiences loved her. Dance critic Herbert Whittaker wrote: “She was a powerful, confident and highly individualistic dancer…her impact on the gently nurtured National Company was delightful. Perhaps it was best illustrated on her final night, when Mr. Adams flared into brilliance opposite her in sheer rage. Miss Hayden had to improvise her way through classic roles that were new to her. As her partner, Mr. Adams must have been the brunt of much uncertainty. On the last night, the fireworks filled the air. It was a great evening.” (Globe and Mail– March, 1963)
According to Celia Franca, Hayden’s lack of discipline also manifested itself in her chewing caramels throughout rehearsals. However, Celia did admit in her memoir that “Melissa Hayden was a well established and popular dancer, and the problem was not all hers. Different companies have different styles and disciplines, and harmony between guest stars and a company is not always achieved. On the whole, however, most of the guest artists the company has invited since then have been a pleasure to work with.”
Return to England after Surgery
Quoting from the Toronto Star (February 2, 1963): “London’s Festival Ballet was reluctant to have the Winnipeg-born six-footer leave last September after his full season in London and Europe with them. He is considering an offer to return this summer when the Canadian season ends. He would be a principal soloist, as he was last season.”
In March of 1963, David underwent a foot operation to remove a calcium deposit which had likely formed as a result of his injury in 1959. In an interview post surgery, David commented on the rigorous life of a professional dancer, saying: “I doubt whether many sports stars could stand the pace we must endure. A dancer must keep in training for twelve months a year. He must be in condition for much longer than any athlete. A ballet dancer continues the grind for many years after he reaches 34- an age when most hockey and football stars retire.”
At this point in David’s career, he was that age of 34 and was hoping to continue dancing for at least another fifteen years. His experience dancing with Festival Ballet had given him valuable training and new insights into his artistry. He was quoted as saying: “Now I have realized anew that technique is the means, not the end, to expression in dancing. I have been placing too much emphasis on technique and not enough on interpretation.” (Brantford Expositor April 15, 1963)
Connecting with Galina Samsova in London
Still recuperating from his foot surgery, David headed off for England once again, arriving in London around the beginning of July. He was scheduled to work with Festival Ballet until the end of the summer theatrical season. Coincidentally, or not, Galina Samsova was visiting in London at the same time. She and David did some private coaching sessions with Maria Fay at her studio. According to Maria, many dancers from the National Ballet of Canada (including Lois) had “flocked” to her studio, thanks to David, and some had said to her: “Oh Maria, you must see Galina!” When Maria saw her dance, she was impressed not only with her technique but also with her quality as a performer.
During this time, Galina was recommended to Raymond de Lorrain, nephew of the Marquis de Cuevas, for the title role in his new production of Prokofiev’s ballet Cinderella, to be choreographed by Vaslav Orlikovski and presented at the International Dance Festival in Paris. Maria Fay set up the audition with Raymond de Lorrain at Festival Hall in London. In my interview with Galina, she expressed her gratitude to David for partnering her in this important audition. She and David danced almost every classical variation and pas de deux possible since Raymond wanted to see more and more. By the end of the audition, they were very exhausted. It must have been a huge challenge for David, not fully recovered from his surgery. As it turned out, Galina got the role and received the festival’s gold medal for a performance by a female dancer.
Following this success, Galina was invited to do guest performances with many companies. David wanted to go to Paris with her but it wasn’t possible with his commitment to Festival Ballet. However, he was a big part of helping Galina gain international recognition as a dancer. In Galina’s words: “Without a good partner, Galina is nowhere. David gave me security and freedom.”
After Galina went to Paris, Maria Fay remembered David coming into her studio hobbling on crutches. He announced that he had ten days to get his foot ready for a performance of the ballet Peer Gynt, which would involve some heavy-duty dancing. She told him: “This will be an easy role for you to do. It is just like your personality!” Maria prescribed a series of floor exercises as part of David’s physical therapy. According to her, he had great determination and will power, arriving early for her class and saying: “I came earlier to get it right.”
British Premiere of Peer Gynt
The Russian choreographer Vaslav Orlikowski created the three-act ballet Peer Gynt for London’s Festival Ballet in the spring of 1963. It included ten scenes adapted by Orlikovsky from the drama of Henrik Ibsen, with music by Edvard Grieg. Since David was dancing with the National Ballet of Canada at the time Peer Gynt was choreographed, he did not see the initial steps. However, Orlikovsky (nicknamed Orli) came to visit and work with the company after David had returned to London. David wrote about his memories of Orlikovsky: “This time, the languages were Russian, German, French and a bit of English. Orli approved of me because of my acting abilities. He never corrected a technical moment but he brought out the character I was portraying more and more.”
The British premiere of the ballet Peer Gynt took place on July 15, 1963, opening the summer season of London’s Festival Ballet at Royal Festival Hall in London. Maria Fay was very nervous watching David dance his first performance of Peer Gynt, wondering how he would manage. As it turned out, the performance went well and he received some good reviews. He partnered several ballerinas in this ballet, each with different proportions. Quoting Maria: “If you are a good partner, you have to be aware of how to make adjustments. David had a natural feel of where the support was necessary.”
David wrote: “I had danced a lot of performances of Snow Maiden but Peer Gynt outlasted and exceeded Snow Maiden for numbers of performances. I finally bleached my hair blonde to achieve the Nordic look. For three years I was blonde. During this time, we performed Peer Gynt all over the British Isles, Europe and then the Iron Curtain countries. For the rest of the repertoire, I was a blonde.”
David was the third dancer in Festival Ballet to perform the role of Peer Gynt. Former Festival Ballet dancer Alun Jones said: “It was a very demanding role with four pas de deux in the first act alone. It required stamina, technique and great acting. David was very powerful in the role!”
Quoting from an article entitled Best Interpreter of Peer Gynt from the British newspaper The Times (September 2, 1963): “Peer himself is the one link connecting the various scenes, and he alone of the characters shows any development, the rest being seen only in the aspects in which they impinge upon his opportunist progress through life. Mr. David Adams, who played this role at the Royal Festival Hall on Friday, is the third and probably the best of its interpreters…”
As I pointed out in the section A Fascinating Parallel, the reason why David was so convincing in the role of Peer Gynt is because this character has so many similarities to David’s personality- one being the romantic adventurer.
Touring Europe in the Fall of 1963
The close of the 1963 summer season in London, David continued on with Festival Ballet as they toured Europe- performing in Romania, Poland, Switzerland and Germany. When David was interviewed, he said: “The audiences in the Communist countries are obviously very knowledgeable although not very demonstrative.” Reviews were excellent from these countries. In Germany, the audiences and critics were also very enthusiastic. Since World War Two, there had been a great revival of ballet. Every opera house had its own ballet company and many of the resident choreographers, such as John Cranko, were from Britain. After this European tour, David remained with Festival Ballet as they went on a brief tour of the English provinces.
Former Festival Ballet dancer Alun Jones recalled many fond memories of touring with the company. He said that David was easy to work with as a fellow dancer: “There were no temperament issues; he was very professional.” He also expected the same from the other dancers. Alun recalled an incident when they overheard Oleb Briansky having a disagreement with Irina Borowska (the partitions between the dressing rooms were minimal) and David made the comment: “I am not interested in your feelings. What I do object to is that you take it on to the stage.”
According to Alun Jones, David was at his peak technically when he first joined the company and then gradually danced more of the acting roles: “Anton Dolin really liked David’s interpretation of Albrecht in the ballet Giselle. This role demanded great acting.”
Last Season with the National Ballet of Canada
In December of 1963, David returned to Toronto to dance with the National Ballet in their 1964 Season. When he was asked what the future held for him at this point in his career, he replied: “Both Festival Ballet and the National Ballet companies think of me as being on loan to the other. Festival gives me greater scope because they do more contemporary ballets. On the other hand, I’m trained in classical ballet and I have my roots there. The National is a classical company.” (Globe and Mail article Ballet in Two Worlds- Adams Dancing Across the Sea– December 20, 1963)
Sid Adilman from The Toronto Daily Star wrote an article after David’s return to Canada with the title He Leads ‘Double Life’ to Wear Ballet Crown. It opened with: “David Adams has returned to the National Ballet of Canada for the winter-to-spring half of his double life. Adams, 35, is the National Ballet’s undisputed male star, Canada’s finest male ballet dancer and husband of Lois Smith, for over ten years the National’s prima ballerina. When the National goes on its annual North American tour within a few months, Adams will have a new ballet, Allegresse and plays Romeo opposite Galina Samsova’s Juliet. But for the other half of the year, blond-haired sinewy Adams is second male principal with London’s Festival Ballet… Adams enjoys this double life and though it means separation from his wife for half a year he intends to ‘go on as long as I can splitting my year between Canada and England.”
Unfortunately, things did not fall into place the way David had expected they would. During the winter of 1964, David performed in some familiar works such as Pas de Deux Romantique with Lois along with some new pieces, including Walpurgis Night (a pas de deux choreographed by Galina Samsova) and Allegresse (choreographed by Solov set to music by Mendelssohn) danced with Lois. According to David, he was also to dance the role of Romeo in the company’s upcoming spring performance of the ballet Romeo and Juliet by the English choreographer John Cranko. Due to a number of reasons, this did not happen.
Quoting James Neufeld from his book Power to Rise: “In Romeo and Juliet, Franca and the National get exactly what they needed: a spectacular ballet to meet the opportunities and challenges of the O’Keefe.” In 1964, the National Ballet made the move from the smaller Royal Alexandra Theatre to the much larger O’Keefe Centre. An expansion was also required within the company in order to present this major work and some of the company’s earliest dancers were not happy about the changes this brought about. Neufeld goes on to say: “the production of Romeo and Juliet represented a watershed for the National’s dancers individually as well as for the company as a whole. The expansion which it brought in its wake spelled the end of the close family-feeling that had characterized the company during its earliest years. It also accelerated the inevitable process of turnover among artistic personnel.” (Power to Rise, page 94)
After the winter tour of 1964, David was asked to attend a meeting with the company’s general manager Carmen Guild. Michael Crabb describes what happened at that meeting in the third of a series of articles he wrote entitled David Adams- His Dance Through Life: “Guild explained that in future ‘individual dancers are not going to be as important as the whole.’ Adams, certain that Guild was merely relaying Franca’s intentions, got up, shook Guild’s hand and said goodbye. He then phoned Franca to announce that he was returning to London. ‘Celia did not argue with me’, Adams later noted. It was March, 1964.” (Dance Collection Danse Fall 2009)
James Neufeld summed up David’s response to the situation in this way: “He attributes his decision to leave the National completely to the loss of individuality in the bigger, more highly structured company called into existence by Romeo and Juliet. His departure was influenced as well by Festival Ballet’s management’s unwillingness to adjust his schedule with them for the spring of 1964, in order to allow him to appear as Romeo with the National.” (Power to Rise, pages 94-95)
Lois Smith also had to deal with some hard realities during this transitional period. Her request to dance the role of Juliet (the only time she ever asked for a specific role with the company) was turned down. The role originally went to Galina Samasova. This must have been tough for Lois emotionally since she was likely well aware of the attraction between Galina and David during this time. James Neufeld wrote: “Watching from the sidelines during Cranko’s rehearsals with the younger ballerina, Smith absorbed the role she would never dance. ‘I learned it all, and I did it on the side for my own benefit.’ Despite the significant achievements which still lay ahead of her…, not dancing Juliet was the signal to her and to the company’s first generation of dancers that their time was drawing to a close.” (Power to Rise, page 95)
As things turned out, Galina sprained her foot during one of the last rehearsals with choreographer John Cranko. As a result, she and Earl Kraul, who had rehearsed the role of Romeo, had to be replaced by guest stars Ray Barra and Marcia Haydee from the original Stuttgart production of Romeo and Juliet. Despite some of the unfortunate situations that occurred during this production it was, in James Neufeld’s words “a popular success and became one of the company’s major box-office attractions.”
On March 4, 1964 a news release from the Toronto Daily Star stated that David Adams accepted an offer with Festival Ballet requiring his departure from the National Ballet of Canada. Celia Franca tried to put a positive spin on the situation, saying: “We are very sorry to see David leave at this time but this offer from London’s Festival Ballet carried with it the proviso that he must leave immediately. It means employment for the entire summer and we have no means of matching the finances and opportunity it offered.”
From this point onward, David made a definite break with the National Ballet of Canada, making England his permanent home over the next fourteen years. His relationship with Lois was broken, although an official divorce would not happen until several years later. It wouldn’t be long before his acquaintance with Festival Ballet dancer Sheila Melvin (legal name Sheila Harrison) would develop into a long-term domestic relationship.
As a full-time dancer with London’s Festival Ballet and later with the Royal Ballet, David would dance all over the world.