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Ballet Through The Centuries During the early history of Ballet, music composition
went hand in hand with dance composition. But as Ballets became independent
theatrical forms, music was reduced in importance. Serious composers did not
write dance music a lot. In the late 1800’s, Russian composer, Tchaikovsky
wrote several beautiful ballet pieces that brought back the reputation of music
composed especially for ballet. In the 1900’s, Igor Tchaikovsky continued this
tradition by writing 15 ballet scores that greatly influenced the art form. The Italian court ballets were further developed in France. Le Ballet Comique de la Reine (The Queen’s Ballet Comedy), the 1st ballet that a complete score survived, was performed in Paris in 1581. It was danced by aristocrats’ amateurs in a hall with the royal family on a dais at one end and audience in galleries on three sides. Poetry and songs accompanied the dances. Most French court ballets contained dance scenes linked by a minimum of plot. Because they were designed mainly for the entertainment of the aristocracy, rich costumes, scenery, and elaborate stage effects were stressed. The court ballet reached its climax during the reign (1643–1715) of Louis XIV, whose title the "Sun King" was derived from a role he danced in a ballet. Many of the ballets presented at his court were created by the Italian–French composer Jean Baptiste Lully and the French choreographer Pierre Beauchamp, who said to have identified the five positions of the feet. In 1961 Louis XIV established the Academie Royale de Danse, a professional organization for dancing experts. He himself stopped dancing in 1670 and his courtiers followed his example. By then the court ballet was already giving way to professional dancing. At first all the dancers were men, and men in masks danced women roles. The first female dancers to perform professionally at a theater production appeared (1681) in a ballet called Le Triomphe de l’Amour (The Triumph of Love). 18th – century dancers were laden with masks, wigs or large headdresses, and healed shoes. Woman wore panniers, hoopskirts draped at the sides for fullness. Men often wore the tonnelet, a knee-length hoopskirt. The French dancer Marie Camargo, however, shortened her skirts and adopted heelless slippers to show her sparkling jumps and beats. Her rival, MarieSallé, also broke with costom when she discarded her corset and put on Greek robes to dance in her ballet, Pygmalion, which was done in 1734.During the 2nd half of the 18th century, the Paris Opéra was dominated by male dancers such as the Italian-French expert Gaétan Vestris and his son Auguste Vestris, well known for his jumps and leaps. But woman such as the German-Born Anne Heinel, the 1st female dancer to do a double pirouettes, also were gaining in technical ability. Despite the brilliance of the French dancers, choreographers working outside of Paris achieved more dramatic expression in ballet. In London the English choreographer John Weaver removed words and tried to convey dramatic action through dance and pantomime. The most famous 18th-century advocate of the dramatic ballet was the Frenchman Jean Georges Noverre, whose Letters on Dancing and Ballets, which was written in 1760, influenced many choreographers both during and after his lifetime. Toe dancing began to develop at about 1796, although the dancers balanced on their toes for only a moment or two. Blocked toe shoes had not been invented yet, and dancers strengthened their light slippers with darning. The Italian choreographer Carlo Blasis, recorded the dance technique of the early 19th century in his Code of Terpsichore, (1830). He is credited with inventing the attitude derived from a statue of the Mercury balanced lightly on the toes of the left foot. |
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