ballet

Theatrical representation in dance form in which music also plays a major part in telling a story or conveying a mood. Some such form of entertainment existed in ancient Greece, but Western ballet as we know it today first appeared in Renaissance Italy, where it was a court entertainment. From there it was brought by Catherine de' Medici to France in the form of a spectacle combining singing, dancing, and declamation. During the 18th century there were major developments in technique and ballet gradually became divorced from opera, emerging as an art form in its own right.

In the 20th century Russian ballet had a vital influence on the classical tradition in the West, and ballet developed further in the USA through the work of George Balanchine and the American Ballet Theater, and in the UK through the influence of Marie Rambert.

Modern dance is a separate development.

History

The first important dramatic ballet, the Ballet comique de la reine, was produced in 1581 by the Italian Balthasar de Beaujoyeux at the French court and was performed by male courtiers, with ladies of the court forming the corps de ballet. In 1661 Louis XIV founded the Académie Royale de Danse, to which all subsequent ballet activities throughout the world can be traced. Long, flowing court dress was worn by the dancers until the 1720s when Marie-Anne Camargo, the first great ballerina, shortened her skirt to reveal her ankles, thus allowing greater movement à terre and the development of dancing en l'air.

During the 18th century ballet spread to virtually every major capital in Europe. Vienna became an important centre and was instrumental in developing the dramatic aspect of the art as opposed to the athletic qualities, which also evolved considerably during this century, particularly among male dancers. In the early 19th century a Paris costumier, Maillot, invented tights, which allowed complete muscular freedom. The first of the great ballet masters was Jean-Georges Noverre, and great contemporary dancers were Teresa Vestris, Anna Friedrike Heinel, Jean Dauberval, and Maximilien Gardel.

Carlo Blasis is regarded as the founder of classical ballet, since he defined the standard conventional steps and accompanying gestures.

Romantic ballet

The great Romantic era of the dancers Marie Taglioni, Fanny Elssler, Carlotta Grisi, Lucile Grahn, and Fanny Cerrito began about 1830 but survives today only in the ballets Giselle (1841) and Les Sylphides (1832). Characteristics of this era were the new calf-length white dress and the introduction of dancing on the toes, sur les pointes. The technique of the female dancer was developed, but the role of the male dancer was reduced to that of being her partner. Important choreographers of the period were Jules Joseph Perrot, Arthur Saint-Léon, and August Bournonville. From 1860 ballet declined rapidly in popular favour in Europe, but its importance was maintained in St Petersburg under Marius Petipa.

Russian ballet

Russian ballet was introduced to the West by Sergei Diaghilev, who set out for Paris in 1909 and founded the Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet), at about the same time that Isadora Duncan, a fervent opponent of classical ballet, was touring Europe. Associated with Diaghilev were Mikhail Fokine, Enrico Cecchetti, Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Léonide Massine, Bronislava Nijinska, George Balanchine, and Serge Lifar. Ballets presented by his company, before its break-up after his death in 1929, included Les Sylphides, Schéhérazade, Petrouchka, Le Sacre du printemps/The Rite of Spring, and Les Noces.

Diaghilev and Fokine pioneered a new and exciting combination of the perfect technique of imperial Russian dancers and the appealing naturalism favoured by Isadora Duncan. In Russia ballet continues to flourish, the two chief companies being the Kirov and the Bolshoi. Best-known ballerinas have been Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya, and male dancers have included Mikhail Baryshnikov, Irek Mukhamedov, and Alexander Godunov, now dancing in the West.

American ballet

American ballet was firmly established by the founding of Balanchine's School of American Ballet in 1934, and by de Basil and René Blum's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and Massine's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, which also carried on the Diaghilev tradition. In 1939 the dancer Lucia Chase and ballet director Richard Pleasant founded the American Ballet Theater. From 1948 the New York City Ballet, under the guiding influence of Balanchine, developed a genuine American neoclassic style.

British ballet

Marie Rambert initiated in 1926 the company that developed into the Ballet Rambert, and launched the careers of choreographers such as Frederick Ashton and Anthony Tudor. The national company, the Royal Ballet (so named in 1956), grew from foundations laid by Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton in 1928. British dancers include Alicia Markova, Anton Dolin, Margot Fonteyn, Antoinette Sibley, Lynn Seymour, Beryl Grey, Anthony Dowell, David Wall, Merle Park, and Lesley Collier; choreographers include Kenneth MacMillan. Fonteyn's partners included Robert Helpmann and Rudolf Nureyev.

Ballet music

During the 16th and 17th centuries there was not always a clear distinction between opera and ballet, since ballet during this period often included singing, and operas often included dance. The influence of the court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully on the development of ballet under Louis XIV in France was significant (Lully was a dancer himself, as was the king). During this period many courtly dances originated, including the gavotte, passepied, bourrée, and minuet. In the 19th century, as public interest in ballet increased, Russia produced composers of international reputation such as Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, whose ballet scores include Swan Lake (1876), Sleeping Beauty (1890), and The Nutcracker (1892).

With the modern era of ballet which began in 1909 with the founding of the Ballets Russes, innovative choreography transformed the visual aspects of ballet and striking new compositions by Achille Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and especially Igor Stravinsky (in, for example, The Rite of Spring, 1913) left their mark not only on the ballet composers who followed, but on the course of music history itself. Later in the century, the formal tradition of ballet was upset by the influence of jazz, jazz rhythms, and modern dance originating in the USA, which introduced greater freedom of bodily expression.

Today there exists a wide range of musical and choreographic styles, ranging from the classical to the popular. Many full ballet scores have been reduced by composers to ballet suites or purely orchestral works, which incorporate the essential musical elements, tending to omit musically nonthematic and transitional passages which may be, nevertheless, essential to the choreography and visual narration. Examples include Stravinsky's The Firebird (1910) and Ravel's Boléro (1928).

ballet - events

1738	Russia	The Imperial Ballet School is founded in St Petersburg, Russia.
1841	France	The ballet Giselle, by the Italian choreographer Jean Coralli and the French choreographer Jules Joseph Perrot, is first performed, in Paris, France.
1870	France	The ballet Coppélia, ou La Fille aux yeux d'émail/Coppelia, or the Girl with Enamel Eyes by the French composer (Clément-Philibert-) Léo Delibes is first performed, in Paris, France. The choreography is by the French choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon.
1890	Russian Empire	A new version of the ballet Spyashchaya krasavitsa/The Sleeping Beauty by the Russian composer Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky is first performed, in St Petersburg, Russia. The choreography is by the French choreographer Marius Petipa.
1892	Russian Empire	A new version of the ballet Shchelkunchik/Nutcracker by the Russian composer Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky is first performed, in St Petersburg, Russia. The choreography is by the Russian choreographer Lev Ivanovich Ivanov.
1895	Russian Empire	A new version of the ballet Lebedinoe ozero/Swan Lake, written in 1877 by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is first performed, in St Petersburg, Russia. The choreography of this, the most familiar version, is by the French choreographer Marius Petipa and the Russian choreographer Lev Ivanovich Ivanov.
1911		The ballet Petrushka, by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokine, is first performed in Paris, France, under the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev.
1912		The ballet L'Après-midi d'un faune/The Afternoon of a Faun, by the French composer Claude Debussy and the Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, is first performed in Paris, France, under the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev. The sets and costumes are by the Russian artist Léon Bakst and Nijinsky dances the central role.
1913		The ballet Le Sacre du printemps/The Rite of Spring, by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and the Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, is first performed, in Paris, France, under the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Nijinsky dances the central role. Audiences riot, judging the work to be crude and offensive.
1924		The US composer George Antheil completes his Ballet mécanique/Mechanical Ballet, scored for aeroplane propellers, anvils, motor horns, and several musical instruments.
1938	Russia, USSR, Czechoslovakia	The ballet Romeo i Dzhulyetta/Romeo and Juliet, by the Russian composer Sergey Prokofiev, is first performed, in Brno, USSR. The choreography is by the Czech choreographer Ivo Vána Psoda.
1944	USA	The US composer Aaron Copland completes his score for the ballet Appalachian Spring, with choreography by Martha Graham. It is first performed the same year in Washington, DC.
1949	USA	The ballet The Age of Anxiety by US choreographer Jerome Robbins and US composer Leonard Bernstein, is first performed, in New York City. It is based on a poem of that title by the English-born US poet W H Auden.
1978	Germany	The ballet Orpheus and Eurydice by the German choreographer Pina Bausch, to music by the 18th-century composer Christoph Gluck, is first performed, in Germany.

ballet (redirected from Ballet lesson)