THE BLUE TRAIN

Irish born Pat Kay, as a lively, puckish little boy with mischievous eyes and an infinite capacity for getting into scrapes, suggested little of the discipline and control essential to the professional dancer. But it was this ceaseless physical and imaginative activity which made it possible for him to overcome the physical hardships involved in the study of ballet and the social pressures which frowned at male dancers. Despite the acclaim he received for his performances as a child actor in the London theater and despite the encouragement given him by his excellent dramatic coaches, his passion was primarilly for the ballet, a passion brilliantly nurtured by the inimitable Madame Astafieva and, later, by Diaghileff. At the culmination of this carefully researched biography, Pat Kay, better known as Anton Dolin, dancing the primo ballerino role in the Cocteau- Milhaud Blue Train, is universally acclaimed as one of this century's most brilliant performers. To ballet enthusiasts, this biography of Dolin, whose name later was to be linked with his partner, Markova, will be welcome, both for its careful delineation of a single career and for the glimpse it gives into that colorful atmosphere which spawned such talents as Stravinsky, Cocteau, and Nijinsky.