Ballet and Modern Ballet and Modern DanceDance

Italian BeginningsItalian Beginnings

Gugliemo Ebreo (William the Jew), teacher of dance to the nobility, wrote a study of dance that includes first examples of choreography.

Dance moved from court feasts to ballrooms to the theatres.Intermezzos: dances performed between acts of classical drama or operas

Balletti: originally referred to dance in ballrooms, came to refer to dance in theatres.

Italian Italian BeginningsBeginnings

Evening Ball for the Wedding of the Duc de Joyeuse c.1581

Le Balet Comique De La Le Balet Comique De La Reine Reine

Performance commissioned by Catherine de Medici Performance commissioned by Catherine de Medici at the Valois Court of Henri IIIat the Valois Court of Henri III

Le Balet Comique De La Le Balet Comique De La ReineReine

1581: First ballet -- Le Balet Comique de la Reine aka Circe composed by Balthazar Beaujoyeulx

Court entertainment for wedding festivities at the French Valois Court

Three geometrical dance entries carefully woven into the plot of the production

First conscious effort to blend verse, music, dance, scenic elements and costume into a unified and coherent theatrical statement.

Ballet de Ballet de Cours: Cours: Court Court BalletBallet

at Versaillesat Versailles

Louis XIV performing in a ballet

Ballet de Cours: Court Ballet de Cours: Court BalletBallet

at Versaillesat Versailles Ballet as Western civilization knows it is an invention of artists associated with the French court of the Sun King, Louis XIV

The king's own dancing master and perhaps the first great French dancer, Pierre Beauchamps, was head of the Dance Academy.

Court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully oversaw all productions.

The ballet de cour dancers traced inventive patterns on the stage as one component of an elaborate stage presentation.

The codification of technique helped to create the later dance vocabulary and the self-contained ballet.

Romantic BalletRomantic Ballet A trend toward a greater degree of self-

expression began early in the 18th century.

Marie Camargo introduced new steps to the vocabulary and raised her skirt several inches to show off her technique.

Emphasis on en pointe dancing. 19th century ballerinas, Marie Taglioni,

Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito ,Lucile Grahn and Fanny Elssler symbolize the essence of Romantic ballet, a style that stresses above all else an ethereal and floating lightness. Title roles were created in such works as La Sylphide and Giselle that exploited their airiness and “other-worldliness”

Romantic Romantic BalletBallet

'Pas de Quatre' by Jules Perrot "as danced at Her Majesty's

Theatre, London July 12th, 1845 by the four eminent danseuses Carlotta Grisi, Marie Taglioni,

Lucille Grahn and Fanny Cerrito"

in command performance for Queen Victoria.

Ballet d’Action:Ballet d’Action: Story Ballet Story Ballet

Ballet tells a self-contained story. French choreographers in the vanguard:

Pierre Rameau codified the five absolute positions of the feet and encouraged a livelier, less earthbound style of dancing

Jean-Georges Noverre, the father of the ballet d'action, urged a full range of facial and bodily gestures be used to express emotion.

Milanese Carlo Blasis’ Code of Terpsichore, a manual of instruction became the standard ballet handbook throughout Europe

Ballet d’Action: Story BalletBallet d’Action: Story Ballet

Russian BalletRussian Ballet

Russian BalletRussian Ballet Marius Petipa came from Italy to St.

Petersburg in 1847. As ballet master of the Imperial

Maryinsky (now the Kirov) Ballet, Petipa created the core of the Russian repertoire with such works as Don Quixote, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty.

Important composers such as Tschiakovsky collaborated with Petipa.

Rigorous training for dancers from a young age ensured brilliant technique.Marius Petipa

1819-1910

Sleeping Beauty

Diaghilev’s Ballets Diaghilev’s Ballets RusseRusse Preeminent Ballet Company of first three

decades of 20th C. Led by Serge Diaghelev (1872-1927), the

company toured Europe and the Americas. Choreographers included Fokine, Massine,

Nijinsky and Balanchine. Dancers included Pavlova, Nijinsky and

Karasavina. Scenic designers included Leon Bakst and Pablo

Picasso. Composers included Stravinsky, Debussy, and

Satie When company disbanded after Diaghelev’s

death in 1929, many artists moved to America and England.

Diaghilev’s Ballets Diaghilev’s Ballets RusseRusse

Anna Pavlova Vaslav Nijinsky 1881-1931 1880-1950

New York City BalletNew York City Ballet After the Ballets Russes disbanded,

Balanchine was asked by Lincoln Kirstein to form a ballet company in America.

In 1933 the School of American Ballet accepted its first students.

A succession of companies evolved to become the New York City Ballet in 1948.

Balanchine created a body of works unequaled in stylistic range and emotional variety --

Balanchine collaborated with Stravinsky and moved ballet to a purer, abstract expression

NYCB stars include Suzanne Farrell, Jacques d'Amboise, Edward Villella, and Peter Martins.

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet and George Balanchineand George Balanchine

1904-19831904-1983

Modern Modern DanceDance

Isadora DuncanIsadora Duncan1878-19271878-1927

Denishawn: Denishawn: Ted ShawnTed Shawn and Ruth St. Denis and Ruth St. Denis

1891-19721891-1972 1879-19681879-1968

Denishawn: Denishawn: Ruth St. Denis and Ted ShawnRuth St. Denis and Ted Shawn

Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, dance school and company founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and her husband, Ted Shawn;

Fostered such performers as Martha Graham, Doris Humphry, and Charles Weidman

St. Denis turned to Oriental dances for ideas about dance as spiritual art; later cofounded of Authentic School of Oriental Dancing, called Natya, in New York City

Shawn pioneered the role of male dancer, training male dancers and creating dances based on Native American and Western folklore. Founder of Jacob’s Pillow Festival

Martha GrahamMartha Graham1894-19911894-1991

Martha GrahamMartha Graham “Martha Graham was to modern dance what Pablo

Picasso was to modern art.” In a career spanning 70 years, Martha Graham

created 180 dance works using a variety of motifs including: Fusion of abstract gestures to psychological

symbols (Primitive Mysteries) American mythic heritage (Appalachian Spring) Classical tragedy (Medea, Clytemnestra)

Technique includes: emphasis on the center of the body, not its extremities; angular stances; explosive, stylized gestures, spare and abstract stage settings

Trained or influenced every important modern dancer--José Limón, Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, and Twyla Tharp --and made America the center of modern dance.

Appalachian SpringMusic by Aaron CopelandChoreography by Martha Graham

Katherine DunhamKatherine Dunham b. 1909b. 1909

Katherine DunhamKatherine Dunham Anthropologist (PhD, U of Chicago), dancer,

choreographer and educator Ethnic dance research in the Caribbean led

her to found in 1940 the first all-black concert dance troupe, Les Ballets Negre, to perform 'Tropics and le Jazz Hot'

Choreography combined black island dances with ballet and theatrical effects.

1945 the Dunham School of Dance was opened in New York City.

Choreographed opera (Aida, Treemonisha), Broadway (Cabin in the Sky), and film (Stormy Weather)

1965-67 Senegal’s Cultural Minister Ran inner-city school in East St. Louis

teaching performing arts to gang members

Katherine Katherine DunhamDunham

FUSIONFUSION

American American Ballet Ballet

TheatreTheatre

American Ballet American Ballet TheatreTheatre The Ballet Theatre presented its first

performance on Jan. 11, 1940. Struck a balance between tradition and

experimentation. Led for 40 years by Lucia Chase and Oliver

Smith, ABT commissioned works by such leading choreographers as Anthony Tudor, Agnes DeMille and Jerome Robbins.

Celebrated performers have included Alicia Alonso, Rudolph Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, Antony Tudor, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, its artistic director from

1980 to 1989.

Dance Theatre of Dance Theatre of HarlemHarlem

Dance Theatre of Dance Theatre of HarlemHarlem

Arthur Mitchell, the first black dancer to perform with the New York City Ballet, founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1971

Began with 30 children in a church basement--two months later, 400 children were attending classes

The interracial company won a new audience for ballet and opened opportunities for young black dancers

Repertory expanded to encompass classical, modern, and ethnically oriented works

"Dancing Through Barriers" is designed to make

children worldwide aware of dance.

Alvin AileyAlvin Ailey1931-19891931-1989

Alvin AileyAlvin Ailey Born in Texas in 1931, Ailey spent his formative

years going to Sunday School --see Revelations Trained with Lester Horton, Katherine Dunham

and Martha Grahman, Stella Adler among others 1958, Ailey founded his own company, the Alvin

Ailey American Dance Theater, company dedicated to enriching the American modern dance heritage and preserving black cultural expression.

First American dance company invited to the Soviet Union.

1969, Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center now training 3500 students a year