NEXT ARTICLE A Potted Pre-history of Classical Ballet
Dancing is not a phenomenon new to the modern ages of man; throughout history, people have danced as part of religious ritual and social celebration. It is traceable through prehistoric art, Biblical documentation, Roman dance-drama, Eastern art and religion, and Celtic ritual. Court dancing has existed perhaps as long as there have been kings and queens. However the first emergence of ballet in a form we would recognise today, was the ballet du cour, which evolved in the renaissance of the 1500s in France.
Ballet rose out of the new philosophies and modes of thought which were the basis of the Enlightenment, namely, that man was the focal point of the universe and could control his existence through the arts and sciences. ‘By using music that imitated exactly the proportions of the harmony of the spheres, sixteenth century man believed he could attract planetary influences. Dance in itself was an imitation of the movement of the heavens. To combine both would produce an art form of extraordinary power, for, as Mersenne wrote in his L’Harmonie Universelle (1626), ‘The author of the largest universe is the Ballet Master’. The ballet du cour (court ballet) was a profound expression of one of the intellectual quests of the age, the revival of antique drama in which music, poetry, painting and dance were fused.’ (Designing for the Dancer, Elron Press, London, 1981)
It was during the late 1500s that the court ballet came into its own as a movement art, funded entirely by the French monarchy for the purpose of extolling its own greatness. The ballets took place as a part of the magnificences, huge celebratory extravaganzas lasting several days and including all kinds of entertainment, that were basically exercises in self-exaltation by the French Court.
By the 1700s ballet had migrated from the French court to the Paris Opera, and the director Lully ‘preserved the ballet du cour’s basic concept of a composite form, in which the dance was an essential and important element.’ ibid. During this century the ballet was to develop throughout Europe, from a courtly arrangement of moving images used as part of a larger spectacle, to a performance art in its own right, the ballet d’action. This new form swept away much of the artificiality of the court dance and strove towards ‘the neo-classical concept that art should aspire to imitate nature’. This ultimately resulted in costuming and choreography that was much more liberating to the dancer, and conducive to a fuller use of the expressive capacity of the body. It also opened the door to pointe-work, for this acceptance of more naturalistic costuming allowed the development of the heel-less shoe, which led to the dancer being able to make more use of the rise onto demi-pointe.
The era of Romanticism in the early 1800s, with ballets that focussed more on the emotions, the fantasy and the spiritual worlds, heralded the beginning of true pointe-work. Now, on her toes, the deified ballerina (embodied in this period by the legendary Taglioni) seemed to magically skim the surface of the stage, an ethereal being never quite touching the ground. It was during this period that the ascending star of the ballerina quite eclipsed the presence of the poor male dancer, who was in many cases reduced to the status of a moving statue, present only in order to lift the ballerina. This sad state was really only redressed by the rise of Nijinsky, with the Ballet Russes, in the early twentieth century. Ballet as we know it had well and truly evolved by this time, with all the familiar conventions of costume, choreographic form, plot, pomp, and circumstance firmly fixed in place.
Name: Catherine de Medici
Date: 1519-1589
Famous for: Poisoning People
Less Famous for: The birth of the Ballet of the Court
It was the staging of Catherine de Medici’s indulgent magnificences which provided the platform for the development of the ballet du cour, the Ballet of the Court, the predecessor of today’s Classical Ballet.
Name: Louis XIV ‘The Sun King’
Date: 1638-1715
Famous for: Fostering and encouraging the development of the ballet
Louis XIV was himself a talented dancer and as such starred in numerous ballets produced at court as vehicles for his talent and to extol his greatness as a ruler. One of his most famous roles was as The Sun King, for a ballet in which all the greatest virtues of man, roles which were danced by other nobles, paid homage to him.
Name: Filippo Taglioni
Date: 1778 - 1871
Famous for: Choreography
Taglioniwas Marie and Paul’s Father and made his professional debut in Pisa in 1794. He was premier danseur at Florence, Venice, Paris and Ballet Master and dancer at Stockholm in 1803. He was the driving force behind the career of his daughter, Marie. Marie Taglioni made her debut in Vienna in 1822 in a ballet created for her by her father. Although she danced with the Paris Opéra from 1827, she did not achieve success until 1832, when she interpreted the title role of her father's new work, La Sylphide, which all Europe acclaimed.
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Name: Enrico Cecchetti
Date: 1850-1928
Famous for: Enrico was born in the smell of grease paint - the dressing room of a theatre in Rome, in 1850. The family toured the United States in 1857/58 with the Ronzani Ballet and by 1866, the talented Encrico made his debut in a ballet choreographed by his father in which he partnered his sister Pia.
He became a sensation as he toured Italy and other countries in Europe. He married Giuseppina De Maria, also a dancer, and they pursued their dance careers while their family grew.
In 1887, as Enrico was reaching his prime, he was invited to teach in the Imperial School in St. Petersburg and to dance in ballets at the Marinsky Theatre, Enrico startled the Russian audiences. As Giannandrea Poesio states: "Before Nijinsky ... Cecchetti showed the Russian audiences that a man could `fly' ". His technical ability coupled with an innate theatricality, proved his performing artistry at age 40.
His influence on the Russian ballet was profund and was responsible for seeding the next generation of the Imperial School's emerging stars such as Karsavina, Nijinski and Pavlova.
In 1894, his intuitive understanding of the dancer's body resulted in what appears to be his first writings, in which he describes his "method" of ballet training. Later in 1903, he prepared a book of classes for Pavlova in which he not only provided exercises, but also wrote musical accompaniment.
Clearly, Diaghilev recognized Enrico's importance as a pedagogue and as a performer by bringing him to the Ballets Russes in 1911, where he and Giuseppina created many mime roles in the company's remarkable repertoire.
Four generations of Cecchettis held a strong attachment to the small seaside town of Civitanova Marche, on the eastern coast of Italy. In the late 1980's, Livia Brillarelli, an historian and resident of the town came across this Cecchetti connection . She located the dancer Maria Ambrogi, the wife of Enrico's grandson Riccardo and uncovered the family story in her book, CECCHETTI - A Ballet Dynasty, published in 1995 by Dance Collection Danse.
http://balletdance.about.com/musicperform/balletdance/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.web.net%2Fdancecol%2Fececcht.html
Name: Sergei Diaghilev
Date: 1872-1929
Famous for: Founder of the Ballets Russes
The
great impresario belonged to the Russian nobility and was born in Russia in 1872.
At University he was supposed to study law, but soon discovered that he only
wanted to study the arts. He edited a review The World of Art and then joined the administration of of the
Imperial Theatres.
He decided that the ballet needed revitalising but his unconventional ideas
were not appreciated in Russia and he was obliged to go to France to mount the
new ballets that fired his imagination. In 1909 he took Russian dancers and
singers to Paris, the first step in 20 years of ballet presentation. Les Ballets
Russes de Serge Diaghilev then appeared often in Paris, London and other
European cities, and later America.
Diaghilev, whose break with Russia was made final by the Great War, immediately
recruited any well-trained dancer. New dancers and choreographers included
Nijinsky, Massine and Balanchine, and all the leading European composers and
artists of the period were commissioned by him to take part in new ballets.
Diaghilev died in Venice in 1929.
The continuity of the Diaghilev heritage in Britain was ensured by his regisseur Serge Grigoriev through whose influence we are able to see ballets such as Les Sylphides, The Firebird and Petrushka today.
Name: Ninette de Valois
Date: 1898-2001
Famous for: founding British Ballet
‘Starting from the tiniest beginnings, she built up the Sadler's Wells Ballet in less than a decade into an institution capable not only of surviving years of touring during the war but of triumphantly moving into the Royal Opera House at the end of it. She encouraged and developed choreographers, contributing her own ballets until the demands of running the company became too heavy; and under her guidance generations of dancers grew from school children to fine artists.
Not everything is perfect in the Royal Ballet of today, but the structure of school and companies remains as she intended. She herself would no doubt brush off any hankerings for the glories past, and look forward to the next stage. All of us who love ballet are profoundly and permanently in her debt. ‘
Name: Marie Rambert
Date: 1888-1982
Famous for: founding British Ballet
Born in Warsaw as Miriam Rambam. Trained by Jacques Dalcroze in eurythmics, Rambert joined the Diaghilev Ballets Russes as an instructor in 1913. She danced with the company after studying ballet with Enrico Cecchetti. In 1920 she opened her own school in London; her Ballet Rambert became the first permanent school and company in England when, in 1930, she founded the Ballet Club at the Mercury Theatre. Rambert discovered and fostered the talents of many great dancers and major choreographers, including Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor.
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Name: George Balanchine
Date: 1904-83
Famous for: founding American Ballet
Born in Russia as Georgi Balanchivadze. Balanchine attended the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg, and performed in Russia. In 1924 he toured Europe and joined Diaghilev's Ballet Russes as a principal dancer and choreographer (1924-29). After moving to the United States (1933), he became director of ballet for the Metropolitan Opera House (1934-37) and a founder of the School of American Ballet (1934). In 1948 he became artistic director and principal choreographer for the New York City Ballet.
In 1987 two of his former associates founded the Balanchine Trust, an organization that maintains the integrity of the choreographer's work by overseeing the leasing and staging of his ballets.
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Name: Edouard Borovansky
Date: 1902-1959
Famous for: Laying the foundations of the Australian Ballet.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Borovansky studied at the national school of ballet in Prague, and joined the school’s company, becoming Premier Danseur. It was with Colonel de Basil’s Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo that he visited Australia. Once settled there, he started a ballet school in Melbourne with his wife Xenia. From it grew the Borovansky Ballet, a pioneer force that ultimately was absorbed by the Australian Ballet.
The Australian Ballet, 25 years – A Pictorial Souvenir from the Australian Women’s Weekly, 1987
Name: Peggy Van Praagh
Date:
Famous for: Founding the Australian Ballet. When Borovansky died in 1959, van Praagh was invited to run his company. Her training as a dancer had been with some of the greatest teachers in Europe and she had since built up the Sadler’s Wells Ballet repertoire and encouraged the development of such choreographers as John Cranko and Kenneth Macmillan. Van Praagh gave herself five years to give 12 month contracts to dancers, establish a school attached to the company, encourage Australian choreographers, bringing guest artists of international repute, and set up regular international tours. She did it in four years.
She reproduced many important works for the Australian Ballet, and her production of Giselle, was awarded the Grand Prix of the City of Paris at the Third International Festival of Dance in 1965. Dame Peggy received her DBE in 1970 and there are few who don’t have heartfelt praise for her capabilities and dedication.
The Australian Ballet, 25 years – A Pictorial Souvenir from the Australian Women’s Weekly, 1987