Ballet and Modern Dance

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Ballet and Modern Dance
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Italian Beginnings
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Italian 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 used to refer to dance in
  ballrooms, came to be used to refer to dance in
  theatres.

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Le Balet Comique De La Reine Performance
commissioned by Catherine de Medici at the Valois
Court of Henri III
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Le Balet Comique De La Reine

• 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.

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Ballet de Cours Court Ballet at Versailles
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Ballet de Cours Court Ballet at 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.

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Romantic Ballet
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Romantic 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

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Ballet dAction Story Ballet
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Ballet dAction 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

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Russian Ballet
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Russian 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.

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Diaghilevs Ballets Russe
Nijinsky
Anna Pavlova
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Diaghilevs Ballets Russe

• Preeminent Ballet Company of first three decades
  of 20th C.
• Led by Serge Diaghelev, the companty toured
  Europe and N.and S. America
• 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 Diaghelevs death in
  1929, many artists moved to America

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Diaghilevs Ballets Russe

• Diaghilevs Ballets Russe

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New 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 --
• Collaborated with Stravinsky and moved ballet to
  a purer, abstract expression
• NYCB stars include Suzanne Farrell, Jacques
  d'Amboise, Edward Villella, and Peter Martins.

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New York City Ballet and George Balanchine

• George Balanchine
• New York City Ballet

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Modern Dance
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Isadora Duncan

• First to raise the status of interpretive dance
  to that of creative art
• Rejected ballet as unsuited to the American
  character
• Performed barefoot and without tights, preferring
  a filmy, loose-fitting tunic
• Sought models and inspiration from ancient Greek
  arts, nature, social dances and American
  athleticism
• Although she founded schools in Europe and
  America, her improvisational style proved
  difficult to replicate

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Isadora Duncan

• Isadora Duncan 1878-1927
• Isadora Duncan Foundation for Contemporary Dance

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Denishawn Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn
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Denishawn Ruth 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, draining
  male dancers and creating dances based on Native
  American and Western folklore. Founder of
  Jacobs Pillow Festival

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Martha 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.

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Martha Graham

• Martha Graham
• Times 100 Most Influential Artists of the 20th
  C Martha Graham

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Katherine 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 Senegals Cultural Minister
• Ran inner-city school in East St. Louis teaching
  performing arts to gang members

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Katherine Dunham

• The Kennedy Center Honors Katherine Dunham
• Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities

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FUSION
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American Ballet Theatre

• 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.

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American Ballet Theatre

• American Ballet Theatre

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Dance Theatre of Harlem

• 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.

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Dance Theatre of Harlem

• Dance Theatre of Harlem

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Alvin 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

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Alvin Ailey

• Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre