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Ballet and Modern Dance

Ballet and Modern Dance. Italian Beginnings. Gugliemo Ebreo (William the Jew), teacher of dance to the nobility, wrote a study of dance that includes first examples of choreography.

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Ballet and Modern Dance

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  1. Ballet and Modern Dance

  2. Italian Beginnings

  3. GugliemoEbreo (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 Beginnings

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

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

  6. 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.

  7. Ballet de Cours: Court Balletat Versailles Louis XIV performing in a ballet

  8. Ballet de Cours: Court Balletat 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 courdancers 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.

  9. 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”

  10. '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. Romantic Ballet

  11. Ballet d’Action: 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

  12. Ballet d’Action: Story Ballet

  13. Russian Ballet

  14. 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. Marius Petipa 1819-1910

  15. Sleeping Beauty

  16. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russe • 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.

  17. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russe Anna Pavlova Vaslav Nijinsky 1881-1931 1880-1950

  18. 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 -- • 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.

  19. New York City Ballet and George Balanchine1904-1983

  20. Modern Dance

  21. Isadora Duncan1878-1927

  22. Denishawn: Ted Shawnand Ruth St. Denis 1891-19721879-1968

  23. 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, training male dancers and creating dances based on Native American and Western folklore. Founder of Jacob’s Pillow Festival

  24. Martha Graham1894-1991

  25. 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.

  26. Appalachian SpringMusic by Aaron CopelandChoreography by Martha Graham

  27. Katherine Dunhamb. 1909

  28. 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 Senegal’s Cultural Minister • Ran inner-city school in East St. Louis teaching performing arts to gang members

  29. Katherine Dunham

  30. FUSION

  31. American Ballet Theatre

  32. 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.

  33. Dance Theatre of Harlem

  34. 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.

  35. Alvin Ailey1931-1989

  36. 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 AileyAmerican 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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