COCTEAU JEAN (1889-1963). Lot n° 34

MANUSCRIT autograph signed "Jean Cocteau", Preface, [1937]; 5 pages large in-fol. on buff laid paper (44 x 31 cm), in a folder titled in red pencil by Serge Lifar. Beautiful text on dance. Preface to the book by Julie SAZONOVA, La Vie de la Danse (Denoël, 1937). This beautiful manuscript presents erasures and corrections. "Our era touches me in the sense that frivolity seems to give way to true seriousness. So I preface a useful book"... After Noverre and Petipa, in 1909, "Serge de DIAGHILEV brings, with a sorcerer's soul, a magic box from which come out two devils, two angels, two divine monsters: Pawlowa, Nijinsky. Their prodigies illustrate texts which announced them for a long time without naming them"... In 1935, " A Serge LIFAR, under the tunic of blood of Apollo musagète, can finally distribute his force with calm and invent methods. Surrounded by a kind of frightening solitude, I find him the air of a crime of passion, but of a crime that would be the work of the most skilful surgeon. Blood and order flow side by side. However [...] it can also move me without my knowing why and find unknown sources in me. [...] As far as I am concerned, dance is the language in which I would prefer to express myself and my favorite theatrical formula"... We join a copy of the hand of Serge LIFAR of a part of this text (1 page in-4 with his header, and with his stamp). Provenance : Serge LIFAR collection (sale in Geneva, March 13, 2002, n° 480).