Transcript Russian ballet

Russian
ballet
Kalkova O.K.
Roots of Classical Ballet
The history of ballet dates back to Italy of the 15th
century when rich princes hired professional dancers to
give luxurious performances that would impress their
noble guests. In the 17th century choreographers of
Italy, France and England strived to find a new distinct
form for the new ballet and new possibilities of dance
technique.
Russian Emperors Welcome
Foreign Art
Russia possessing rich national
dance folklore and subjected to
European cultural influences
during the reign of Peter the
Great turned to be fertile ground
for the development of ballet
theatre. From the early 18th
century ballet in Russia was
inculcated by Italian and French
teachers. Learning foreign art the
Russians brought in their specific
features.
In the 18th c. the Russian ballet was developing in the tideway
of the European classicism. At the turn of the 19th century,
however, the hey-day of Russian ballet started. Russian
composers started writing music for ballet. Melodramatic ballet
became the leading genre.
Special privilege was extended to ballet among all other
theatres. The authorities paid great attention to ballet
development and provided it with governmental grants. The
Bolshoi Theatre was opened in 1825. Both Moscow and St.Petersburg ballet troupes performed in well equipped theatres.
The Russian Ballet blended in with the romanticism born in
Western Europe. The spectacles shined with splendour,
eurhythmy and topnotch artistry
It was Russian ballet that was
destined to revive ballet art in
a new quality. Great role in
that belonged to the French
ballet master Marius Petipa
who was chief choreographer
for the Imperial Ballet School.
He started his artistic activity
following the principles of the
aesthetics of romanticism
which was about to play out.
Petipa went on the process of
enriching the dance, the
process which romanticism
started.
Costume and Set Design History of the Ballets
Russes
Serge Diaghilev was a true impresario. His
visions brought together designers, artists,
composers, choreographers and dancers in a
collaborative manner not equaled since his death
in 1929. There are many key design moments in
the history of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. During
its 20 year history, 1909-1929, Diaghilev’s Ballets
Russes’ costumes were designed by then artist
friends of Serge’s, now iconic artists.
In 1909, Alexander Benois was
the first Artistic Director of
Diaghilev's Ballest Russes. He
designed both the costumes and
stage designs , for Le Pavillon
d'Armide in 1909.
Benois wrote the libretto of the
ballet in 1903 and Tcherepin
composed the music to suit the
plot. The ballet was brought and
presented to the Maryinsky but
left unstaged until Fokine.
Serge Sudeikin - March 19,
1882 – August 12, 1946
Sudeikin was a a Russian
artist and set-designer
associated with the Ballets
Russes and the Metropolitan
Opera. He designed the sets
and costumes for Diaghilev's
production of La tragédie de
Salomé by Florent Schmitt in
1913, and assisted in the
execution of Nicholas
Roerich's designs for
Stravinsky's The Rite of
Spring the same year.
Nicholas Roerich October 9,
1874 – December 13, 1947
During Serge Diaghilev’s
famous Russian Seasons in
1909, Roerich designed both
the set, (photo left), and
costume designs for “Polovets
Dances” from Borodin’s
Prince Igor, Pskovityanka by
Rimsky-Korsakov. Nicholas
Roerich also designed
costumes for the ballet The
Rite of Spring, set to Igor
Stravinsky’s music.
After the revolution of 1917 a lot of
artistes left the country thus causing
intense development of the Russian
ballet in Europe. Throughout the 19201940s Russian artists (Anna Pavlova
with her troupe), choreographers
(Fokin, Myasin, B. F. Nijinskaya, Dj.
Balanchin, B. G. Romanov, S. M. Lifar)
headed ballets (Ballet Russe de Monte
Carlo, Original Ballet Russe, Russian
Romantic Theatre, etc.), created
schools and troupes in many countries
of Europe and America thus had a great
impact on the world ballet. For many
years keeping to the traditional Russian
repertoire, those collectives at the same
time assimilated the influences of the
countries they worked in
After the revolution ballet
remained being in the
centre of nationwide art. In
spite of the emigration of a
number of leading figures of
ballet theatre, the school of
Russian ballet survived and
put forward new performers.
The turning point came in
the late 1950s with the
appearance of a new
generation of
choreographers. Among the
first were Leningrad ballet
masters Y.N. Grigorovich
and I.D.Belski who based
their ballets on musical and
dance dramaturgy that
conveyed the spectacle
meaning through dance.
Forgotten genres were
revived, such as one act
ballet, ballet-poster, satirical
ballet, ballet symphony and
choreographic miniature.
The 1980s saw a growing number of tours of big and
small opera and ballet companies abroad. Some artists
and ballet masters started working abroad, staging
spectacles and even heading ballet troupes in Europe
and America (among them Nureyev, Makarova,
Baryshnikov, Grigorovich, Vinogradov, Plisetskaya,
Vasilyev, etc). Russian ballet dancers work in many
foreign ballet troupes these days.
After 1991 domestic ballet resorted to assimilating the
experience of the Western ballet in the field of modern, jazz,
and free dance. The State Academic Bolshoi Theatre staged
quite a number of ballets by Western choreographers,
among them Balanchine’s Symphony do major, Agon, and
Mozartiana (1998–1999), Noymeier’s Midsummer Night
Dream (2004), and others. Mariinsky Theatre also turned to
Balanchine’s ballets. The company was awarded with the
Golden Mask prize for its stage production of Sergei
Prokofiev’s Prodigal Son in 2003. The same year the theatre
showed the three famous avant-garde ballets by William
Forsythe: Steptext set to music by Bach, The Vertiginous
Thrill of Exactitude to Schubert, and Approximate Sonata set
to music by Dutch composer Thom Willems.
Independent private dance companies of various
schools and styles have sprung up in Russia:
Dance Theatre under the guidance of Alexei
Fadeyechev (aka Ratmansky Ballet Theatre),
Imperial Russian Ballet of Gedeminas Taranda,
and a range of post-modern dance theatres
(those of Y.A. Panfilov, G.M. Abramov, A.Y.
Pepelyaev, and other).
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed
by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky (op. 71). The libretto is adapted from E.T.A.
Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was
given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg
on Sunday, December 18, 1892, on a double-bill with
Tchaikovsky's opera, Iolanta.
The Nutcracker is one of the composer's most popular
compositions. The music belongs to the Romantic Period
and contains some of his most memorable melodies,
several of which are frequently used in television and film.
(They are often heard in TV commercials shown during
the Christmas season.) The Trepak, or Russian dance, is
one of the most recognizable pieces in the ballet, along
with the famous Waltz of the Flowers and March, as well
as the ubiquitous Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Dance of the Sugar Plum
Fairy
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