Dance, music and scenery were brought together to support the plot. Venice was also a centre of dance. Dancers travelled there for cultural exchange. In Hungary professional ballet troupes performed throughout the country.
In the 19th century, female ballet dancers were more popular. Ballerinas played male roles in the story. Viena became an important center for teaching ballet. Ballet moved away from the just aristocratic audience. Some famous ballerinas experimented with a new formal element of a ballet called pointe technique. In that way, ballerina got the ideal stage figure. Boxed toe ballet shoes were developed and stayed as formal part of ballet code.
In romantic movement ballet choreography became free, light, airy, and ballerinas appeared as fragile beings who could be lifted effortlessly creating the feeling of floating in the air. Russian ballet is thought as traditional ballet and had great importance in the history of ballet. Colonialism had an influence on stories with oriental, Asian and African elements.
It also developed in Denmark. A stiff short skirt worn as a costume, called tutu, became the formal element of ballet. Tutu skirt is supported by crinoline to enable the acrobatic legwork. In the 20th century, Russian ballet was brought back to Paris because of the exile after the Revolution.
In Russia, there was a stagnation on ballet scene. In an age when few women ventured into the public spotlight, danseuses were a fascinating and often highly regarded novelty. Poetry was written in their praise, gossip exchanged, and paintings commissioned by earnest admirers; Frederick the Great kept a portrait of Barbara Campanini in his study.
The French Revolution and the wars that followed profoundly altered ballet, sweeping away the lingering, courtly trappings of baroque dance. Dancers shed their heeled shoes and heavy brocades in favour of light, looser-fitting outfits that allowed them a wider range of movement.
The era became synonymous with dazzling feats. The introduction of soft slippers encouraged multiple pirouettes and higher leaps, and a new trick — posing en pointe — was pioneered by dancers like Fanny Bias and Amalia Brugnoli. While ballets based on mythological themes persisted, choreographers increasingly focused on character, realism and nationalist values.
New works, inspired by Romantic themes, transported audiences to the medieval past or exotic locales like China, Arabia or Mexico. Aided by innovative scenic effects, ballet by the s was an enchanting realm of Gothic ruins and distant lands, enticing an ever-growing audience. In , the Paris premiere of La Sylphide introduced a distinctive Romantic style of dancing: a theatrical vision in which femininity, landscape, folk elements and the supernatural fluidly combined.
The new style, popularised by Marie Taglioni as the eponymous sylph, was one of airy restraint and softened arms, and was marked by the use of pointe work as an artistic element, rather than a show of virtuosity.
However, their appeal was equalled by an extraordinary vogue for national dances. The great Romantic ballerinas, including Fanny Elssler, Fanny Cerrito and Taglioni herself, danced a dazzling array of balleticised czardas, polkas, mazurkas and boleros. The period remains synonymous with the poetry and fire of these intrepid female celebrities.
By the s, ballet was flourishing around the globe as an essential ingredient of popular entertainment. In Britain alone, dozens of new venues for ballet opened across the country. Some staged divertissements, pantomimes or narrative ballets based on well-known works like La Sylphide and Paquita. Over time, hundreds of leading dancers from Europe travelled to work in the Imperial Theatres, helping foster an outstanding native ballet tradition. The visitors included ballet masters like Franz Hilverding and Charles Didelot, celebrities such as Fanny Elssler, and virtuosic Italian ballerinas who starred alongside Russian-born talent.
However, none left a greater legacy than Frenchman Marius Petipa, who was appointed ballet master of the Mariinsky Theatre in By the late 19th century, ballet had cheerfully given itself over to popular culture. They collectively spearheaded the appeal of new dance techniques, encouraging freer forms of expression influenced by nature and spirituality, as well as Symbolism and other artistic movements.
In the 20th century, America and Germany emerged as important centres for modern dance, producing choreographers such as Kurt Jooss and Martha Graham, whose approaches to movement and expression have immeasurably enriched ballet. Since the s, numerous ballet companies have supported experimentation and cross-pollination by inviting modern choreographers to create new ballets.
In the spring of , Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev assembled an exceptional group of dancers, artists and musicians to present a short season of ballets in Paris. For the next 20 years the nomadic Ballets Russes was synonymous with glamour, sophistication and the kaleidoscopic brilliance of the avant garde. Despite its name, the Ballets Russes never performed in Russia, but provided a dynamic haven for artists separated from their homeland by conflict, many of whom founded their own schools and companies.
The first professional ballet companies and troupes began forming and touring Europe to perform ballets for royalty and aristocratic audiences. The history of ballet gets very interesting during the s due to significant change and growth from new ideas. The focus became mostly on the ballerina, even having females portray male roles. As the 19th century was a period of significant social change, the themes of new ballets changed too, moving away from the royal and aristocratic and into romantic ballets.
Several ballerinas also began experimenting with dancing en pointe, bringing pointe shoes to ballet in the early s. This was significant because up until then, pointe shoes were seen as a type of ungraceful stunt. This undoubtedly brought a new sense of allure and excitement to ballet, fostering admiration for the obvious difficulty of dancing on your toes. The pointe shoe would soon become an icon of both graceful movement and technical skill.
During this time, famous choreographers such as Marius Petipa, Enrico Cecchetti, August Bournonville and Jules Perrot, were creating what would eventually be known as the great story classical ballets. Much like today, the classical tutu looked like a short skirt, made to stick out by using layers of tulle and crinoline a stiff fabric made originally to give volume for petticoats.
The idea for ballet companies in Europe also grew in popularity, with a new generation of dancers and teachers forming companies that are still performing today. Collaboration between companies, operas and acting theatres was also very common, allowing composers and choreographers to create works with huge casts.
0コメント