Lyrical

Modern Ballet Cosutme and Classical Ballet Costume

CONTEMPORARY BALLET

What is Contemporary Ballet?

Contemporary Ballet is a more modern form of ballet that allows a dancer to use a larger range of movements and use the floor more often. In Contemporary Ballet the feet can be parallel or even turned in, this is never seen in Classical Ballet. Contemporary Ballet was formed by George Balanchine, he used flexed hands and feet, off center positions and different costumes such as leotards and tunics, not tutus. In Contemporary Ballet and Modern dance, dancers sometimes dance in “dance paws” which are small pads that go over the toes and only cover the balls of the foot, or bare foot while in Classical Ballet dancers wear ballet slippers or pointe shoes. Mikhail Baryshnikov also trained with George Balanchine and used his new modern forms of dancing.

From the website:

There are some similarities between contemporary and classical ballet:
• Both styles have a vocabulary that uses the French language.
• Both styles utilize dancers who are trained in technique as well as performance.
• Both styles emphasize a strong relationship to music.
There are also distinctions between contemporary and classical ballet:
• Classical ballet always has a storyline, while most contemporary ballet focuses on the movement.
• Classical ballet appears symmetrical, with both sides of the stage equally balanced. Contemporary ballet does not focus on symmetry, and having a stage that is unbalanced is characteristic of the style.
• Classical ballet choreography may incorporate pantomime and literal gestures; contemporary ballet does not, rather it focuses on a physical interpretation of the theme.
• Dancers in a classical ballet will mostly keep their backs straight and posture upright, while dancers in a contemporary ballet curve, twist and bend their upper bodies.

http://balletjazztapdance.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_history_and_style_of_contemporary_ballet

Joffrey Ballet

Gerald Arpino

BALLET IN AMERICA

Ballet made its way into America through immigrant dancers and ballet masters. The first ballet preformed in America that was documented was The Adventures of Harlequin and Scaramouch, with the Burgo'master Trick'd February 4, 1735, given in Charleston by Henry Holt, a British dancing master. The next major figure in American ballet was Alexander Placide. Alexander trained in the Paris Opéra as a dancer and a tightrope walker. He brought companies of dancers and tightrope walkers with him to Santo Domingo, New York and Charleston in the late 1700’s. Augusta Maywood and Mary Ann Lee are considered America’s first native born ballerinas. They were born into theater families and studied with the Paris Opéra and preformed in their home state in Philadelphia and along the Mississippi River. They later went to Paris for further study and work in their dance careers.
Ballet spread across America because a large number of Russian and European dancers chose to stay in America, becoming teachers, choreographers, and ballet masters for theaters. Companies and choreographers decided that ballet in America should be American. From this idea became the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and the Joffrey Ballet.

Cohen-Stratyner, Barbara. "Ballet." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 389-391. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.

BALLET IN RUSSIA

Ballet can be traced back to the 18th century, in St. Petersburg where Empress Anna Ivanovna created the first dancing school in 1738. Jules Perrot led the Petersburg ballet from 1848-1859 and he is known for creating “narrative” in Russian ballet. Saint-Léon led the ballet for 10 years after Perrot. Saint-Léon overemphasized the dancing aspect of ballet and left the story line lacking.
Ballet began to become more familiar during the decades of 1818-1910 when Marius Petipa worked in the Imperial Theaters. Marius was a dancer and came to St. Petersburg in 1847 his ambition was to become a choreographer and a ballet master to the Imperial Ballet. this was achieved with his ballet "Pharoah's Daughter" and he became a balletmaster in 1862. Petipa choreographed beautiful ballets with as much as 5 acts in them. Petipa combined Perrot and Sait-Léon’s styles to create a ballet that was both spectacular dancing with as well of a story line. Petipa’s ballets are still used in classical ballet today in dances such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. Under Petipa’s leadership, there became more focus on the female dancer, this new focus eventually became the result of the Pointe Technique. Pointe allows a dancer to rise onto the tips of their toes and balance in a posed position and eventually dance. Petipa created the adagio, where a woman is standing on pointe and is turned be her partner(go to Gerald Arpino Video time: 0:50 for example). He also created brilliant allegro variations (solos) to show off his new type of dancers, those who dance on Pointe.
A new type of ballet was born in the Soviet Union in the 1930’s and dominated in the Soviet dance theaters for 20 years. It was Drambalet or Dramatic Ballet. Dramatic Ballet had a narrative that was easier to understand and made ballet more abstract. Russian ballet had been set aside by new choreography.

SCHOLL, TIM. "Ballet." Encyclopedia of Russian History. Ed. James R. Millar. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 117-119. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.

Clarke, Mary, and Clement Crisp. The Ballet Goer's Guide. London: Michael Joseph Ltd, 1981. 335. Print.