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Fonteyn & Nureyev

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“If you look at a dancer in silence, his or her body will be the music. If you turn the music on, that body will become an extension of what you're hearing.”

― Judith Jamison, Dancing Spirit: An Autobiography

#Fonteyn #Nureyev #Judith Jamison #Dancing Spirit #dancers #dance #quotes

#fascinating!!#ballet #history #fonteyn #pavlova #Jane Pritchard #Youtube

I hope you know reading your tags was cathartic for me 🗣🗣🗣

You know I love reading other peoples tags but somehow forget that other people might read mine, which is terrifying to consider. I’m sorry to subject y’all to some of that lol. Please know that I always think I’m just screaming into the void but this was the first thing I read this morning (terrible for my general health and wellbeing) so I’m glad my emotional 5am rant was appreciated in this case 💕

#ask #fonteyn

Ballet preserves the cultural heritage of generations, allowing us to experience the emotions and stories of our ancestors through dance.

Margot Fonteyn

Ballet's origins grew out of the Renaissance court cultures of Italy and France. Dancers would perform at the royal courts - and then invite the audience members to participate. It was a dance that was done by courtiers and kings and princes at court in social situations. It was not a theatrical art set off from social life

The first ballet dancers did not wear tutus or dance in satin shoes, but they did formalise the footwork patterns - known as first, second, third, fourth and fifth position - that are still used today. Louis XIV of France realised that if his art form was going to be disseminated throughout his realm and even to other European countries, he would have to find a way to write it down. So he asked the famed French choreographer Pierre Beauchamp to write some these positions. The positions themselves are the grammars of ballet, they're the ABC's, the classical building blocks of ballet.

In ballet's early days, men were expected to perform the more extravagant and intricate footwork. It wasn't until years later, during the French Revolution, that female dancers became stars. During the French Revolution, the aristocratic male dancer was really discredited. The hatred and bitter animosity toward the aristocracy had direct consequences for ballet. Why should you have this aristocratic art? If you're going to take down the aristocracy, why not take down ballet, too?"

By the 1830s, men were actually reviled onstage. They're thought to be a disgrace. Female dancers take the ideals that existed in the aristocratic art form and turned them into a feminine and spiritual ideal of which they are the masters. Then you get this image of the ballerina on toe, in these more romantic-era ballets of sylphs and unrequited love and the romantic themes that carried ballet into the 19th century.