michael mangal - final ballet booklet

8/10/2019 Michael Mangal - Final Ballet Booklet

1/8

American

Ballet

the


2/8

T he earliest

precursors to ballet werelavish entertainments givenin the courts o RenaissanceItaly. Tese elaborate specta-cles, which united painting,

poetry, music, and dancing, took place in

large halls that were used also or banquetsand balls. A dance per ormance given in1489 actually was per ormed between thecourses o a banquet, and the action wasclosely related to the menu: For instance,the story o Jason and the Golden Fleecepreceded the roast lamb. Te dancers basedtheir per ormance on the social dances othe day.

Te Italian court ballets were urtherdeveloped in France. Le Ballet Comiquede la Reine (Te Queens Ballet Comedy),the rst ballet or which a complete scoresurvived, was per ormed in Paris in 1581.It was staged by Balthazar de Beaujoyeux,a violinist and dancing master at the courto Queen Catherine de Mdicis. It wasdanced by aristocratic amateurs in a hallwith the royal amily on a dais at one endand spectators in galleries on three sides.Since much o the audience saw the ballet

rom above, the choreography emphasizedthe elaborate oor patterns created by linesand groups o dancers. Poetry and songsaccompanied the dances.

Most French court ballets consisted odance scenes linked by a minimum o plot.Because they were designed principally

or the entertainment o the aristocracy,rich costumes, scenery, and elaborate stageeffects were emphasized. Te prosceniumstage (see Teater Production) was rstadopted in France in the mid-1600s,and pro essional dancers made theirrst appearance, although they were not

permitted to dance in the grand ballet thatconcluded the per ormance; this was stillreserved or the king and courtiers.

Te court ballet reached its peak duringthe reign (1643-1715) o Louis XIV, whosetitle the Sun King was derived rom a rolehe danced in a ballet. Many o the balletspresented at his court were created by theItalian-French composer Jean BaptisteLully and the French choreographer PierreBeauchamp, who is said to have dened theve positions o the eet. Also during this

time, the playwright Molire invented thecomdie-ballet, in which danced interludesalternated with spoken scenes.

Early Professional BalletIn 1661 Louis XIV established theAcadmie Royale de Danse, a pro essionalorganization or dancing masters. Hehimsel stopped dancing in 1670, and hiscourtiers ollowed his example. By thenthe court ballet was already giving wayto pro essional dancing. At rst all thedancers were men, and men in masksdanced womens roles. Te rst emaledancers to per orm pro essionally in atheater production appeared (1681) in aballet called Le riomphe de lAmour (Te

riumph o Love).

Te dance technique o the period,recorded by the French ballet masterRaoul Feuillet in his book Chorgraphie(1700), included many steps and positionsrecognizable today. A new theatrical ormdeveloped: the opra-ballet, which placedequal emphasis on singing and dancingand generally consisted o a series o danceslinked by a common theme. A amousopra-ballet, by the French composer JeanPhilippe Rameau, was Les Indes galantes(Te Gallant Indies, 1735), which depictedexotic lands and peoples.

Eighteenth-century dancers wereencumbered by masks, wigs or largeheaddresses, and heeled shoes. Womenwore panniers, hoopskirts draped at thesides or ullness. Men ofen wore thetonnelet, a knee-length hoopskirt. TeFrench dancer Marie Camargo, however,shortened her skirts and adopted heellessslippers to display her sparkling jumps andbeats. Her rival, Marie Sall also broke withcustom when she discarded her corset and

put on Greek robes to dance in her ownballet, Pygmalion (1734).

During the second hal o the 18th centurythe Paris Opra was dominated by maledancers such as the Italian-French virtuosoGatan Vestris and his son Auguste Vestris,

amed or his jumps and leaps. But womensuch as the German-born Anne Heinel, therst emale dancer to do double pirouettes,also were gaining in technical prociency.

Despite the brilliance o the Frenchdancers, choreographers workingoutside Paris achieved more dramaticexpression in ballet. In London the Engchoreographer John Weaver eliminatedwords and tried to convey dramaticaction through dance and pantomime. IVienna the Austrian choreographer FraHilverding and his Italian pupil GasparAngiolini experimented with dramaticthemes and gestures.

Te most amous 18th-century advocato the dramatic ballet was the FrenchmJean Georges Noverre, whose Letters oDancing and Ballets (1760) inuencedmany choreographers both during and his li etime. He advised using movemthat was natural and easily understoodand emphasized that all the elements oballet should work in harmony to exprethe balletstheme. Noverre ound an ou

or his ideas in Stuttgart, Germany, whhe rst produced his most amous ballMedea and Jason (1763).

Noverres pupils included the FrenchmJean Dauberval, whose ballet La llemal garde (Te Ill-Guarded Girl, 1789)applied Noverres ideas to a comic themDaubervals Italian pupil Salvatore Vigan,who worked at La Scala, a theater in

Milan, developed a variety o expresspantomime per ormed in strict time tomusic. Charles Didelot, a French studeo both Noverre and Dauberval, workemainly in London and Saint PetersburgIn Didelots ballet Flore et Zphire (179invisible wires helped the dancers appeto y.

oe dancing began to develop at aboutthis time, although the dancers balanceon their toes only or a moment or two

Blocked toe shoes had not yet beeninvented, and dancers strengthened thelight slippers with darning.

Te Italian choreographer Carlo Blasis, pupil of Dauberval and Vigan, recordedthe dance technique o the early 19thcentury in his Code o erpsichore (18He is credited with inventing the attitudderived rom a amous work by the Flsculptor Giambologna, a statue o the Mercury poised lightly on the toes o tlef oot.


3/8

Romantic BalletTe ballet La Sylphide, rst per ormed inParis in 1832, introduced the period o theromantic ballet. Marie aglioni danced thepart o the Sylphide, a supernatural creaturewho is loved and inadvertently destroyed

by a mortal man. Te choreography, createdby her ather, Filippo aglioni, exploitedthe use o toe dancing to emphasize hisdaughters otherworldly lightness andinsubstantiality. La Sylphide inspired manychanges in the ballets o the time-in theme,style, technique, and costume. Its successor,Giselle (1841), also contrasted the humanand supernatural worlds, and in its secondact the ghostly spirits called wilis wear thewhite tutu popularized in La Sylphide.

Te romantic ballet was not restricted,however, to the subject o otherworldlybeings. Te Austrian dancer Fanny Elsslerpopularized a more earthy, sensuouscharacter. Her most amous dance, thecachucha (in Le Diable Boiteux, 1836),was a Spanish-style solo per ormed withcastanets, and she ofen per ormed verystylized versions o national dances.

Women dominated the romantic ballet.Although good male dancers such as theFrenchmen Jules Perrot and Arthur Saint-Lon were per orming, they were eclipsedby ballerinas such as aglioni, Elssler, theItalians Carlotta Grisi and Fanny Cerrito,and others.

aglioni and Elssler danced in Russia, andPerrot and Saint-Lon created ballets there.Elssler also danced in the United States,which produced two ballerinas o its own:Augusta Maywood and Mary Ann Lee, both

rom Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In Paris itsel , however, ballet beganto decline. Poetic qualities gave way to virtuosic displays and spectacle. Maledancing was neglected. Few ballets onote were produced at the Opra duringthe second hal o the 19th century. Anexception was Copplia, choreographedby Saint-Lon in 1870, but even in it theprincipal male role was danced by a woman.

Denmark, however, maintained thestandards o the romantic ballet. Te

Danish choreographer Bournonville, who


4/8

The romantic ballet was notrestricted, however, to the

subject of otherworldly beings.


5/8


6/8

had studied in Paris, not only establishsystem o training but also created a labody o works, including his own versLa Sylphide. Many o these ballets areper ormed by the Royal Danish Ballet

Russia also preserved the integrity othe ballet during the late 19th century.A Frenchman, Marius Petipa, becamethe chie choreographer o the ImperiRussian Ballet. He per ected the ull-evening-long story ballet that combineset dances with mimed scenes. His besknown works are Te Sleeping Beauty(1890) and Swan Lake (co-choreograpwith the Russian Lev Ivanov), both setto commissioned scores by Peter Ilich

chaikovsky.

20th Century With time, Petipas choreographic methsettled into a ormula. Fokine called

or greater expressiveness and moreauthenticity in choreography, scenery, costume. He was able to realize his idethrough the Ballets Russes, a new comorganized by the Russian impresario SeDiaghilev.

Te Ballets Russes opened in Paris in1909 and won immediate success. Temale dancers, among them the Russian

dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, were particularadmired because good male dancers haalmost disappeared in Paris. Te compapresented a broad range o works, inclFokines compactly knit one-act balletswith color ul themes rom Russian or

olklore: Te Firebird (1910), Shhraz(1910), and Petrushka (1911). Te BalleRusses became synonymous with noveand excitement, a reputation it maintainthroughout its 20 years o existence.

Although the most amous memberso the company were Russian (amongthem the designers Leon Bakst andAlexandre Benois, and the composer IgStravinsky), Diaghilev commissionedmany Western European artists andcomposers, such as Pablo Picasso andMaurice Ravel, to collaborate on theballets. Diaghilevs choreographers,Fokine, Polish choreographer BranislaNijinska, Nijinsky, Russian-born LoniMassine, Russian-born American GeorBalanchine, and the Russian-born Fren

In Paris itself,

however,ballet began todecline. Poeticqualities gave

way to virtuosic

displays andspectacle.


7/8

dancer and choreographer Serge Li ar,experimented with new themes and styleso movement.

Te offshoots o the Ballets Russesrevitalized ballet all over the world. TeRussian ballerina Anna Pavlova, whodanced in its early seasons, ormed her owncompany and toured internationally. Fokineworked with many companies, includingthe uture American Ballet Teatre.Massine contributed to the Ballet Russede Monte Carlo, a company ormed aferDiaghilevs death. wo ormer memberso the Ballets Russes, the Polish-bornBritish dancer Dame Marie Rambert andthe British dancer Dame Ninette de Valois,became the ounders o British ballet.Ramberts students included the Britishchoreographers Sir Frederick Ashton,Antony udor, and John Cranko. De Valois

ounded the company that became BritainsRoyal Ballet. Balanchine was invited towork in the United States by LincolnKirstein, a wealthy American patron o thearts. Li ar worked at the Paris Opra anddominated French ballet or many years.

In the 1920s and 1930s, modern dancebegan to be developed in the United Statesand Germany. Te American dancersMartha Graham and Doris Humphrey, the

German dancer Mary Wigman, and othersbroke away rom traditional ballet to createtheir own expressive movement styles andto choreograph dances that were moreclosely related to actual human li e. Balletsalso reected this move toward realism. In1932 the German choreographer Kurt Joosscreated Te Green able, an antiwar ballet.Antony udor developed the psychologicalballet, which revealed the inner being o thecharacters. Modern dance also eventuallyextended the movement vocabulary o

ballet, particularly in the use o the torsoand in movements done lying or sitting onthe oor.

Popular dance orms also enriched theballet. In 1944 the American choreographerJerome Robbins created Fancy Free, a balletbased on the jazz-dance style that haddeveloped in musical comedy.

Te idea o pure dance also grew inpopularity. In the 1930s Massine inventedthe symphonic ballet, which aimed toexpress the musical content o symphoniesby the German composers LudwigVan Beethoven and Johannes Brahms.Balanchine also began to create plotlessballets in which the primary motivationwas movement to music. His ballet Jewels(1967) is considered the rst evening-length ballet o this type.

wo great American ballet companies wereounded in New York City in the 1940s,

American Ballet Teatre and the New YorkCity Ballet. Te latter drew many o itsdancers rom the School o American Balletestablished by Balanchine and Kirstein in1934. Since the mid-20th century, balletcompanies have been ounded in manycities throughout the United States and inCanada, among them: the National Balleto Canada, in oronto (1951); Les GrandsBallets Canadiens, in Montral (1952); thePennsylvania Ballet, in Philadelphia (1963);and the Houston Ballet (1963).

Beginning in 1956, Russian balletcompanies such as the Bolshoi and Kirovper ormed in the West or the rst time.Te intense dramatic eeling and technical virtuosity o the Russians made a great

impact. Russian inuence on balletcontinues today, both through visits romRussian companies and the activities ode ecting Soviet dancers such as RudolNureyev, artistic director o the Paris OpraBallet rom 1983 to 1989; Natalia Makarova;and Mikhail Baryshnikov, director o theAmerican Ballet Teatre, New York City,

rom 1980 to 1989.

Dance in general underwent an enormousupsurge in popularity beginning in the mid-

1960s. Ballet began to show the inuenceo a younger audience, in both themesand style. Te athleticism o dancing wasenjoyed in much the same way as sports,and virtuosic steps were admired or theirchallenge and daring. Popular musicsuch as rock and roll and jazz was used toaccompany many ballets.

odays ballet repertoire offers great variety. New ballets and reconstructionsand restagings o older ballets coexistwith new works created by modern-dance

choreographers or ballet companies.Choreographers experiment with bothnew and traditional orms and styles, adancers constantly seek to extend theirtechnical and dramatic range. Te requtours o ballet companies allow audienthroughout the world to experience thespectrum o todays ballet activity.


8/8

michael mangal - final ballet booklet

Documents