Ballet first originated in the Italian renaissance courts. It first began in the 15th century. The renaissance courts was a very good period of culture change and achievement, this began in Italy and it was in the 14th century and lasted up until the 16th century. Ballet spread to France, and it was with the help of Catherine de’ Medici. Where ballet was developed and spread even further under her influence. The first ever formal court ballet was staged in 1573, and it was called ballet des polonais. Originally the ballers were performed by royalty in their rooms and their gardens, which then spread on to performing for other people on royalty.
Academie royale de musique was founded in 1669, it was know as d’opera and it was such a big milestone in history, and this meant that quite a lot of dancer were associated with operas.
Court ballet was ballet performances that were performed in the 15th century up until the 17th century in the courts.
Pierre Beauchamps was the creator of the five foot positions in ballet, Beauchamps was know as the ultimate ballet master.
The first court ballet was performed in rooms and gardens of aristocracy and royalty. The first ever performance was called ballet comique de la reine it was a very well known performance and this was performed in 1581,
In the 18th century women abandoned corsets for floating styled dresses and this emphasised their body and meant that they could perform a great range of movements, they also started to ware flat ballet slippers which showed great flexibility in their feet and women began to develop the trick of rising up onto their demi pointe.
The 18th Century was best known for because of king George, and he was a mad king a lot of the public were going mad as they couldn’t handle the information on new technology after the industrial revolution. But also as this was going off some good things were happening such as pointe shoes were beginning to become invented and more people were started to see dance in different ways and it was expressed massively.
Three famous ballet masters from this period
Cralos Blasis was born in Naples on the 4th November 1797 Carlo was an Italian dancer and choreographer and is well known for his very rigorous dance classes which these sometimes lasted for hours long. Blasis insisted in his students learning their theory and definitions of all dance steps. some well known pieces were the code of Terpsichore, on the ballet, and theory of the art of dancing.
Here I’ve attached a YouTube video of a ballet from the 18th and 19th century
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y94SdIlmjbQ&list=PLdcONZVimCyl2_xh2nBp0TnIlKH3DQNI2
in this video they are wearing shoes with heels on which is very different to now. There movements are very upbeat and jump whereas these days ballet is very gentle and elegant. They are spinning around and jumping from foot to foot a lot of the time. They use their feet a lot and jump around most of the dance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EjfGgvsldM
The plie’s and routines have become a lot quicker and shorter, movements have also become more modern and developed and made harder in some places.But all the positioning of the feet has always stayed the same throughout the centuries.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/o/origins-of-ballet/
Romantic ballet was a big style of ballet in the early nineteenth century. The dancers were often performed in romantic tutu, these were long tulle skirts that would either go down to their knees or to their ankles. This is why it was called romantic ballet.
Marie Taglioni was from sweden and was a ballet dancer from the romantic ballet era she influenced it a lot, and she became one of the first people to dance on pointe. She also created a new style which was marked by floating leaps. The tutu was created to expose her foot work. She was one of the best ballet dancers anyone had seen, she was well known all over the world
The romantic costumes changed throughout the era starting off as a long dress that went down to the ankles it was very light floaty material, it then progressed onto being a tutu which was also long but it went out more and was a little higher it was very good for showing their elegant movements. The final change to the costume was the tutu but more improved it was higher as it only went to knee height which helped the audience to see their leaps and leg work so much better and clearer.
some famous romantic ballets for this period.
Giselle- I like this performance I think that it is very elegant, and they make the dance look pretty, i can see their is a story through the dance, and I like the fact that their is a story within the music and dance it makes it very intriguing! But something I don’t like about the dance is that quite a lot of the dancers are just in the back and they are still, I feel they need to get involved with the story/dance more if that was possible.
Britain took ballet to a wider audience, they did this by travelling the UK doing tours, they did this during the war time. Swan lake was a very big ballet performance and was well known and is still well known all over the world, but It also influenced many people from the UK to the style of ballet.
Marie was born in 1888, she really wanted to be a professional dancer for many years but her family didn’t agree with this and so they made her study medicine instead but when the first world war began she moved to Britain to teach dance in private homes and schools. Marie married a man called Alex Duke who supported her in her work of dance which meant she went on to owning her own dance school, she has her own company called ballet Rambert and even today it is very well known!
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Taglioni
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/r/romantic-ballet/
http://www.rambert.org.uk/about-us/our-history/dame-marie-rambert/
The Royal Danish Ballet and the Imperial Ballet of the Russian Empire were founded in the 1740s and began to flourish, especially after about 1850. in 1907 the Russian ballet turned back to France. in the 20th century styles of ballet continued to develop and spread out throughout the world.
Marius Petipa was a French and Russian ballet dancer and choreographer. Petipa was known to be one of the most influenced ballet dancer in the whole of history. He has performed loads of well known shows such as swan lake and giselle, but at that time them ballets were as successful as they are to this day, they are now the most popular dance pieces ever! Marius invented a performance called La fille du pharon this piece ended up to be one of the most successful pieces of that time. In 1869 he was made the premier ballet master of the imperial theatre.
Michel Fokine was a Russian dancer and choreographer, he was a very talented dancer and musician, he also was a very good painter. Fokine attended the imperial ballet school at a very young age in 1889. Fokine believed that the mime should have only been used when it was necessarily needed, he said that it had no meaning to it unless they expression different emotions throughout their dancing piece. Michel started his last ever piece of ballet which was called Helen of Troy, which was for the American ballet theatre, before he passed away but his piece was finished by a man called David Lichine and the ballet was premièred at Mexico city in 1942.
George Balanchine is a huge influence into Ballet in the USA. Find out how Balanchine adapted ballet into a more modern way and what classical pieces he recreated.
George Balanchine is a ballet choreographer, he was the co-finder of the New York City ballet in1948, and he stayed as its director and choreographer, nearly every ballet company have performed parts of his work. Balanchine presented the company with many well known pieces one being the Nutcracker. He also took a like in to choreographing for Hollywood movies and musicals which were in the Broadway. All of his work never really had a specific meaning, he felt that the dance should be equally as good as the dancer dancing the piece.
http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/opera-and-ballet/marius-petipa/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michel-Fokine
https://www.nycballet.com/Explore/Our-History/George-Balanchine.aspx
Classical ballet is formal, it is actually the most formal style out of modern and contemporary, they are very strict sticking to there set of rules. Classical ballet is very well known for its movement and technique, and it also includes pointe work. Contemporary ballet include both modern and classical into its movements and techniques, this allows the body to flow into anyway it possibly wants to because there isn’t a strict ballet rule applied to contemporary.
Modern dance was founded in the 20th century, it is a very well known style and it is also known to go against the traditional rules of ballet. Isadora Duncan was the originator of modern dance and is known for using his upper body movements. Martha Graham is another practitioner who had a different outlook on this style of dance, which included contractions, spine/back work and different ways of pointing the feet and the positioning.
Ballerina’s now a days need to be bale to use their skills and adapt to them, they need to be able to be open to all idea’s including new and old ones, they like to look out for exciting things that they haven’t seen before or things that can take to the next level. Bussell thinks that modern dance “21st century stars would do well to learn to be incredibly diverse” He also said that the dancers today need to bringing something to the dance to keep it high in fame and following the history tradition.
William Forsythe was born in 1949, in New York City. He didn’t start dancing until he was in his teens, later on in his life he was given the job of an artistic director of ballet Franfrut which was made into one of the best dance companies of all time.
Methods of training: Research into Cecchetti ballet training and find out who created this method and what makes it different to other methods. What skills can be learnt from this method?
Who is AugusteBournoville? What type of ballet did he create? Discuss the method of training and how he choreographed pieces, e.g. by using his observations. What skills could be learnt from this method?
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/classic-ballet/
https://danceappreciation4.wordpress.com/classical-ballet/
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