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Comparison and contrast of ballet eras
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Ballet, a form of dance has been around for many years and did not start in America. Ballet has made its mark around the globe and many have and still are enjoying the art and entertainment that the ballet brings. Ballet is known as being the “core” of the other forms of dance as in modern, contemporary and even hip hop. People enjoy the form of dance on an everyday basis at family functions, parties and even just being home alone and many do not know that the dances they particularly like all originated from ballet. The history of ballet has been put into nine well defined sections the Renaissance Period, the Baroque Period, the Classical Period, the Pre-Romantic Period, Romantic Era, the Russian Classics, the Ballet Ruses, Ballet in Europe …show more content…
The Classical Period which happened in the late 1700’s became one the most evolutionary times in ballets history. The Classical Period is where performance and expression became extremely important. With ballet this period is where the use of storytelling became one of the main focuses for the dancer’s performances. The use of their emotions and the character they portrayed were more important than the use of the costumes. The “father of classical ballet” was known as Marius Petipa. Petipa was born in French but he came to Russia to create in the ballet. In the early 1800’s came the Pre-Romantic Period which was short but needed because of Marie Taglioni. Marie Taglioni was the first ballerina to ever dance en pointe. This time was the time pointe surfaced, em pointe which means “on …show more content…
Many different ballet companies opened The Royal Danish Ballet and the Royal Ballet which are two of the most successful and talked about. During the expansion of ballet in Europe Margot Fonteyn became a well-known ballerina. Fonteyn started her dance career at the age of four. She studied under many great influencers like George Goncharov and Serfina Astafieve. While growing her ballet career by 20 she was Prima Ballerina and toured the United States becoming very well known. She is also known for her partnership with Rudolf Nureyev where they are known for their wonderful dancing and
Ballet has been an art form since the late fifteenth century, but society did not truly see the impact of ballet until the nineteenth century. Modern day thinkers possess the idea that ballet began with tutus and pointe shoes, but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that this opinion was observed. Ballet has come a long way. It has survived the turmoil of many wars and has changed itself by accepting new ideas and impressing the audience with its unique stylistic views.
Ballet is one of the world's oldest and newest forms of dance. One man that created new audiences for ballet and mastered the dance to its fullest was none other than George Balanchine. He brought the standard ballet to levels no one has ever seen before. In the world of dance, there have been many wonderful and talented choreographers but Balanchine's work affected the dance world so much that he was a legend long before his death. Not only was he legendary worldwide but also his influenced American Ballet. George Balanchine's unique style of dance created the "American style" of Ballet.
Ballet is one of the oldest types of dancing. Originating in France, ballet was entertainment for the king, and has now further developed into the ballet we know today. A key component of ballet is the shoe. Pointe shoes are made to make it appear as if the dancers are floating across the stage. By the time a dancer is professional she is en pointe, meaning she is using pointe shoes. Only a few dancers out of the many that enter the competitive world of ballet, rise to fame. Those that do normally do not become famous until they reach soloist or principal status in their respective companies. Principal and soloist dancers almost always dance the leads in ballets, such as The Firebird and The Nutcracker. The Firebird and The Nutcracker are
New Dance is described as a developing art form; this dance was articulated in the early 20th century. According to Chapter 8 in History of Dance book, “the new dance emerged as a response to the ballet that populated the variety shows and music halls, which had a rigid formula of steps and poses” (Kassing). The New Dance was a product of several strands that interlaced together dancers’ studies and backgrounds; these strands and others were woven together in a historical, political, and societal framework. For instance, one strand of New Dance consisted of the concepts, techniques, costumes, and stage settings from around the world. These strands influenced major dancers and choreographers, such as, Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn.
Dance today is completely different from what it was like during the Renaissance. Steps and movements were much more simple than what choreography is today. Performances were at courts, provinces, bourgeois houses and marketplaces (Mccowan 1) instead of on a stage or in auditoriums that were invented later by Italian set designers (Homans, 11). Dance studios, as the world knows them today, would not exist without the influence of the renaissance kings and queens.
On the first day of classes there was a total of 25 students (only three of which where male) and none had experianced the classical training that balanchine grew up with in russia. Part of the reason there where such few students was that the united states was still going through a time of great depression. The arts in general where hard to afford, and dance was primarily used to represent the social struggle of the people. Classical ballet, being posh and very structured did not well represent the feelings of the average American citizen. However, the few students attending the school where shocked about balanchines training; how innovative it was compared to their old technique. One student, Lisa Chalmers, recalls, “at the school of amerian ballet I had a feeling of importance that I ahd never felt before. Balanchine took ballet from being an old artform into a modern one that didnt need story to be entertaining”. Also Ruthanna Boris, one of the first 25 students to attend, claims balanchine was the first teacher she ever had to lead by example, and use physical contact to help improve form. Balanchine explored different styles with his students and pushed their capabilities to the limit, ultimately creating ballet dancers that the public enjoyed. These dancers where neoclassical, or ballet dancers with western influences incorporated into their classical
Dance is the word that is broadly that used to define a human behavior characterized by expressive movements of the body. It is the grace, artistry, and classicality and precision that distinguishes ballet from other dance styles. People have danced for many different reasons such a religious, entertainment, tribal rituals, exercise or to simply to express something that cannot find voice in words. For as long as people inhabited Canada, there has been dance and it has subsequently played a role throughout Canadian history. In Canada dance history began with indigenous dance of First Nations Peoples, but with the arrival of European settlers came more European dance forms such as ballet, which have shaped dance in Canada into what it is today. Canada is still considered a newer country and yet has still managed to produce ballet productions that dupe the standards of worldwide companies who have had ballet within their society for hundreds of years longer. Canada’s most renowned classical ballet company is the National Ballet of Canada, a dance company which has been a key patron of the arts and is in many ways responsible for the popularity of success of ballet in Canada.
Modern dance as a category covers a broad variety of highly individualized dance works dealing with the twentieth century, American in origin, and anti- balletic in philosophy. It started as a rebellion against the conventional and tradition-bound rudiments of ballet. The essential value of modern dance could be specified as an examination of normal and impulsive or uninhibited movement, in solid difference with the conventionalized and stated movement of ballet. Martha Graham a
According to Jennifer Homans, she describes ballet as “ a kind of freedom, and a focus on the body, purely clearing your mind.” Ballet is also a form of communication, instead of speaking, the dancer uses their body movements to speak to the audience. The real question is, how different is ballet from then to now? Ballet first originated in the Italian renaissance, occurring around the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. There are also many different types of ballet. One of the first being classical ballet, many of which originate from their country For example, French ballet, Italian ballet, or Russian ballet. Furthermore, George Balanchine created neoclassical ballet. It consist of contemporary ballet, and post-structural ballet. Another type of ballet is contemporary ballet, consisting of classical and modern dances. As for present day ballet, it still follows many of the rules, costumes that the dancers wear, and techniques. Back then, majority of the dances choreographers created contained plots and stories. As for today, many dancers dance to just music, meaning it does not have to have a story within every dance. It could be based off of expression, and movement instead. The audience has the decision to choose which types of dances they prefer to watch, it could a musical inside of a theatre or a dance recital. Speaking of techniques and positions, ballet still follows the five basic positions of movements in ballet. One of the many popular and known techniques of ballet is called the point technique consisting of five different positions. The ballet dancer weight is fully supported by the tips of their toes, while wearing a pointe shoe. Ballet costumes are also a important essential to a ballets everyday life style, practices, and routined dances. To begin with, they had just began shortening the skirts, and stopped wearing heels. Dancers began wearing skirts that were half away above
When one thinks of a ballet they hear soft rhythmic notes and see elegantly dancing ballerinas softly tip-toeing around the stage. This is also what people in early 1900’s expected to see when they planned to attend a ballet. However, a couple of motivated artists in 1913 literally planned to change the design of ballet, music and dance forever. On May 29, 1913 a ballet named The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris, France. The original title as it translates from Russian to French is; Le Sacre du Printemps, meaning the rite of spring, but the literal translation from Russian to English means “Sacred Spring”. The ballet and music were composed by Igor Stravinsky, with the help of Nicholas Roerich, who proposed the general idea behind the ballet to Stravinsky. Roerich wanted to put into motion the ideas behind pagan pre-Christian rituals in Russia. Together the two created the story line behind the ballet; a sacred pagan ritual where a young female dances herself to death and is then offered to the “Gods” of spring to make them happy. The music was composed by Vaslav Nijinsky and the ballet was produced by Sergei Diaghilev for the Russian Ballet. This ballet was so different from what the spectators expected to see that it caused a riot. The Rite of Spring turned the tables of ballet in every sense: the dance, the music and the general idea of ballet was modernized by the group of artists who created and produced it.
Within this environment, modern dance was born as an expression of the worries of that time. As opposed to the discipline of the ballet of the major Academies of Europe, which had its roots in the aristocracy, it was logical that modern dance was linked to the poor masses and established itself as a means of expressing the concerns of the American citizen. The dance technique and the choreographic view have been influenced by the problems of everyday life, representing the anxieties of the people, under the slogan "Dance is weapon in the revolutionary class struggle" of the Workers Dance League.
The Russian ballet started in 1737 when a letter was written to the Empress Anne, from the teacher of gymnastics at the Imperial Cadet School. The letter states:”I humbly ask your majesty that I shall be given twelve children-six males and six females- to create ballets and theater dances using twelve persons of comic and serious character. These pupils, by the end of the first year, will execute different dances; in three years they will not be less than the best of foreign dancers.” Anna Pavlova was one of the most famous classical dancers. She inspired many ballerinas. But, she was not the only ballet artist that inspired people. Each generation of beautiful Russian swans wins worldwide fame.
Even though people always tend to attribute “authentic” knowledge of a practice or product by tracing its culture, in the currently globalizing world where the cultures are overlapped and intertwine with one another, the criteria is ineffective due to the difficulty of ascribing the practice to a specific culture; hence, the notion of cultural authenticity is no longer legitimate. The cross-cultural origins and further developments of the Contemporary Ballet illustrate that to simply consider this dance form authentically American is inappropriate, whereby demonstrates the high degree of illegitimacy in the pursuit of cultural authenticity.
When one thinks of different dance forms, one tends to look at the beauty of it and how it makes people feel. Understanding the origin of some of the dances should help one to appreciate the importance the art form of dance has made in history. Through both of the dance forms there will be a discussion between the origins as well as the similarities and contrasts of ballet and classical Chinese dance. Ballet was first brought to light in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th Century, where the dancing masters would teach the steps to the nobility and the royal court would partake in performances. In the 16th century an Italian noblewoman by the name of Catherine de Medici, wife of King Henry II of France began to invest in ballet in the French court.
Ballet is one of the most popular types of dance. It is known for its grace and elegance. Ballet is a very disciplined style of dance and may take many years to develop the proper technique. Ballet is the foundation for many other types of dance.