Ballet : Women And Women

All six dances in the ‘black and white’ ballets are based on sexuality. The male

The history of ballet dates back to the 18th century starting with Baroque dance. Fabritio Caroso da Sermoneta was a famous Italian Renaissance dancing master. He was born around 1526-1535 and died around 1605-1620. His dance manual "Ballarino" was published in 1581, with a subsequent edition, significantly different, Nobiltà de dame, printed in 1600 and again after his death in 1630. In the 19th century there was the pre-romantic, romantic and the classical ballets. Anthony Tudor deserves an honorable mention for his choreography and teaching. Pre-romantic ballet occurred sometime circa ?? up to 1831. The romantic period covered the early to mid 1800's. This era also introduced the calf-length dress. A few of the great Romantic dancers were Marie Taglioni, Fanny Elssler and Carlotta Grisi. The tequnique became more developed, but the role

Dance is found in all cultures. It is considered a way to communicate without talking. During the Renaissance period, ballet was considered a Russian specialty. The highly qualified and sought after dance companies would tour the world performing in front of those who had never experienced ballet before. By exposing ballet to the United States of America, the Russians inspired and sparked a demand for legitimate ballet in America. It took place throughout the 20th century, currently known as the Russo-American Era.

Another one of the main differences between Russian ballets and Balanchine ballets are the people or items of importance that might inspire a ballet to be created. There are so many ballets that have been inspired by things like old folklores or ancient fairy-tales. These ballets are likely to be of Russian origin. Many ballets such as Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, or even The Nutcracker are just few of the many examples of Russian originated ballets based on fairy-tales. “Petipa’s later works showed the way to much of the innovation of the future, and the choreography and pedagogy of Balanchine (though carried on primarily in the United States) represent the most important creative response to the legacy of Petipa’s nineteenth-century ballet academy - and the most significant twentieth-century development of Russian ballet traditions.” (Scholl 2) However, Balanchine was not so quick to rely on thing such as old stories or folkloric tales. Many of Balanchine’s ballets rely on the things that were around

Whether we look at a romantic ballet like La Sylphide or a classical ballet such as Sleeping Beauty, audiences are constantly mesmerized by the gracefulness and weightlessness of the ballet dancers. They seem to defy the laws of physics, which is greatly possible due to the use of the pointe shoe. However, many masterworks that were created in the Romantic era did not solely rely on the pointe shoe to help convey messages. Instead, the choreography, dancers, scenic elements, subject matter, and music all helped shaped masterworks such as La Sylphide, Napoli, and Giselle. Similarly, in the Classical era, these elements all played a role in shaping famous ballets like La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake. But once we take a closer look at these ballets from the Classical era, we can see how much ballet evolved. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the Romantic era was the stepping stone for this pure art form that we have been able to preserve for more than 160 years.

As ballets were about telling stories or formulating movements, modern dance broke the rules and started to focus more on individual expressions. Loie Fuller (1862 – 1928), Doris Humphrey (1895-1958), and Ruth St. Denis (1877-1968) were pioneering women who took a stand and used their dance performance to speak up for women’s rights. Using dance, they significantly contributed to the Feminist movement in which they embraced self-expression and creativity so that women could be acknowledged in the dance field and in the society as a whole. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, they found for women’s rights by “taking dance to a new form, and creating dances to speak directly and intimately to the viewer” (Au 89). Loie Fuller, Doris Humphrey, and Ruth St. Denis demonstrated the transformation of dance with their innovation of costumes and stage lighting, incorporation of foreign cultures into performance, and creation of natural movements and individual expression that rejected the formal structures of ballet to deform a woman’s body, allowing women to be free from stereotype of a traditional woman.

Ballet started in the late 1400s during the Renaissance. When Catherine de Medici who married King Henry the second of France know for throwing large parties. These parties would last for 8 hours straight of music, food, dancing and other entrainment. These

Holding Onto the Air an autobiography by Suzanne Farrell takes the reader backstage in the dramatic life of the world-renowned Balanchine ballerina. From her childhood in Cincinnati to her retirement from ballet in 1989, Farrell's story is truly a remarkable one. The book describes at length her time with the New York City Ballet as well as her complex relationship with the legendary Balanchine. Although Mrs. Farrell goes a bit too far into the ballet descriptions, her beautiful imagery allows reader to experience the joy of performing on stage.

Dance is one of the most beautiful, expressive forms of art known to mankind. It expresses joy, love, sorrow, anger, and the list truly goes on for all the possible emotions that it can convey. Dance not only can express how one feels, but it can tell a story or even be used to praise a higher power. Dance has intricately played an important role to every culture over the course of time. Two forms of dance that have not only stood against the test of time but have influenced the development of other various styles of dance is none other than Classical Ballet and Modern Dance.

The history of ballet is rich, complex and full of powerful meanings depending on the time period. Ballet in the 15th century was seen as something that only select individuals could do, whereas, the 20th century ballet can be preformed by anyone. By thinking about how ballet performers have changed, a question may be thought is, have the people attending these ballet performances changed as well as the performers themselves? Today, children from ages two and up start taking ballet and family members come and watch their final recitals. National ballet companies are also an event and often draw attention to the higher-class individuals who have a taste for ballet. The ballet world could be seen as to having a quite array of attendees, events and functions, but that might not have always been the

French Ballet began in the 17th century. It was a flamboyant entertainment presented in front of the aristocracy and royalty in the courts. French Ballet was also performed when they were celebrating marriages and showing off the wealth and power of the ruler. Besides, Ballet was called “la belle danse”, and it means “the beautiful dance.” In order to help the audience to recognize the characters in the story, dancers usually wore extravagant costumes. Moreover, the idea of different ballet movements was based on the social dance of royal courts, like beautiful arm and upper body movements and floor patterns were included. Also, in the beginning, only men were allowed to dance ballet, and women played the first ballet with parts until 1681.

The dancers’ movements throughout the performance seem to challenge and uphold gender binaries at the same time. At the beginning, when only female dancers are present their movements are agentive, strong, quick, and athletic-characteristics not usually allowed for female dancers. Their movements are similar to the wild and physical movement of Louise

Women play a very important in ballet. Just like George Balanchine said, “Ballet is woman.” However, as much as I love his choreography, I do not agree with what he said. Although Balanchine preferred female performance in his work, the type of women he like to use did not represented the real feeling of female. According to Catherine L. Tully, Balanchine preferred girls with small bones and small breasts, instead of mature and curvy women. Also, the choreography work women will have. It is obvious that Balanchine preferred the dancers to have characteristics that belongs to immature and adolescent girls. So the statement “Ballet is woman” is not true.

The art form, Ballet emerged in Italy during the Renaissance (late 1400’s) and was developed throughout the world as history went on. Following its introduction to France, Ballet exploded and became a very significant part of society; reaching its height in the late 1600’s under the rule of King Louis XIV who was a great patron of the arts and the founder of the Académie Royale de Danse. There were many eras of Ballet such as Ballet de Court (1600’s) and Ballet de action (1700’s). The 19th Century in particular saw a significant development in Ballet as part of the Romantic Era.

Male dancers dominated ballet for the second half of the 18th century in Paris. During this time woman was not equal to men during this time. Many people stereotypically believed that woman was inferior in technique to men during this time. The woman was mainly given secondary roles compared to the men.