BALLET DANCE

BALLET DANCE

History of Ballet

The word or term ballet is a French term that has its origin in the Italian word ballare, which essentially means ‘to dance’ (Franks, 1954). A female ballet dancer is known as a ballerina, while a male dancer is called a ballerino. A choreographer is a person who invents the steps used in dancing ballet. A ballet Master or Mistress gives instructions and teaches classes on ballet. Some of the terms used in ballet are, plie’ [bend], releve’ [rise], tendu [stretch], glissade [glide], saute’ [jump], elance’ [dart], and tourne’ [turn]. Examples of ballet moves include, Assemblé, Grande Jeté, Plié, Pirouette, Battlement, Brise, balancé and Tour en l’air. Ballet Positions include arabesque, attitude, croisé, and Turn-out. With practice and an understanding of the various roles, anyone can dance ballet (Castro, 2018).

Ballet is a graceful and formal dance that was birthed in western Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries in the Italian courts during the  Renaissance period. It then spread to France into French courts when French and Italian nobles wed (Anderson, 1992). An aristocrat by the name Catherine de’ Medici married king Henry II and through her influence, propagated its spread in France. At first, ballet dancing was introduced in noble courts as a form of entertainment to the nobles but gradually was adopted into dance performances on stage (Nicholas & Morris 2017). In 1573, during the rise of Henry of Anjou as king of Poland, Catherine de’ Medici, commissioned ‘Ballet des Polonais.’ it was recognized as the first-ever formal court ballet in honor of the ambassadors from Poland who visited Paris. In the year 1581, She and Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx were the first to employ the ideologies of Baif’s Academie through the amalgamation of music, dance, set design, and poetry into a storyline.

In the 17th century, the Paris Opera Ballet became the first-ever theatrical ballet company to go professional. They came from the Paris opera, also known as the Académie Royale de Musique, which was founded by Louis XIV (Berardi, 2015). For a long time, ballet dance and opera were one, but with time, Theatrical ballet became independent an art form. However, these ties have not completely been severed as it still maintains a close relation to opera. Though ballet dance has its origin in Italy, the influence of the French is quite pronounced in its terminology, which goes to show its history. Over time ballet would go on to spread not only in Europe but also all over the world in other countries such as Russia, England, Germany, Canada, Australia, and America, which also contributed significantly to its technique and advancement. Numerous dance companies like The Royal Ballet in 1931 in London and The Australian Ballet in 1940, among others, also emerged and flourished in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

More and more ballet styles developed as ballet continued to spread all over the world through the influence of different cultures and choreographers, especially in the 20^th century. An example is the now known neoclassical style of ballet, pioneered and developed by a Russian by the name George Balanchine, a choreographer who transformed ballet dance in the united states. Other forms, like post-structural and contemporary ballet, also developed (Batson, 2017).

In the beginning, ballet dancers were predominantly male. However, with the tremendous social change that came about in the 19^th century, female ballerinas began coming up and taking the spotlight away from their male counterparts as the ideal stage character. Some of these ballerinas included Marie Taglioni, Geneviève Gosselin, and Fanny Elssler (Au, 2012). They also took the focus away from the aristocratic form of ballet dance, which was primarily romantic dance movement, and used new styles like pointework. This unique style also led to the invention of the ballet boxed toe shoe to support ballet dancing using this new technique.

Famous Ballet Dances

La sylphide. It was initially choreographed in 1832 by Filippo Taglioni. In 1836, choreographer August Bournonville went on to create another version of this ballet (Au, 2012).

Giselle. This ballet first performed by an Italian prima ballerina called Carlotta Gisi in Paris in 1842 at the Salle Le Peletier. Marius Petipa also choreographed another version of it in the early 20^th century, which is more accessible to date (Castro, 2018).

Don Quixote. Marius Petipa choreographed this piece composed by Ludwig Minkus. It was performed in 1869 at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow (Hammond & Hammond, 1979).

Swan Lake. This ballet was first composed in 1875 by Tchaikovsky. It did not do so well but has since been reproduced by different choreographers and composers (Batson, 2017).

Sleeping Beauty. Marius Petipa choreographed this ballet. It was performed in Russia, St. Petersburg, in 1890 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre and was based on the story of Undine (Anderson, 1992).

Romeo and Juliet. This piece was composed by Sergei Prokofiev and performed in 1938 at the Mahen Theatre in Czechoslovakia (Berardi, 2015).

Cinderella. Rostislav Zakharov choreographed this piece, which was performed by Galina Ulanova in 1945 at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow (Franks, 1954).

La Bayadere. This piece was composed in the early 20^th century for the prima ballerina, Ekaterina Vazem, by choreographer Marius Petipa. It was performed in St. Petersburg at the Imperial Ballet (Nicholas & Morris 2017).

References

Castro, I. M. (2018). Laura Hormigón, El Ballet Romántico en el Teatro del Circo de Madrid (1842–1850).

Nicholas, L., & Morris, G. (Eds.). (2017). Rethinking Dance History: Issues and Methodologies. Taylor & Francis.

Batson, C. R. (2017). Dance, Desire, and Anxiety in Early Twentieth-Century French Theater: Playing Identities. Routledge.

Berardi, G. (2015). Beginning Ballet. Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, 19(2), 88-88.

Au, S. (2012). Ballet and modern dance. London: Thames & Hudson.

Anderson, J. (1992). Ballet & modern dance: a concise history. Pennington, NJ: Princeton Book Company.

Hammond, P. E., & Hammond, S. N. (1979). The internal logic of dance: a Weberian perspective on the history of ballet. Journal of Social History, 12(4), 591-608.

Franks, A. H. (1954). Twentieth-century ballet (pp. 138-9). London: Burke.