Ballet and Giselle

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.

Mats Ek is a world renowned choreographer, known for his works adapting classic ballets into ground breaking, game changing modern works of art. Mats Ek was born in Malmo Sweden in 1945, son of the choreographer Brigit Cullberg and Ander Ek, a famous Swedish actor. The young Mats Ek did not particularly want to be a dancer, and he spent some years producing plays. Soon later Mats Ek trained in classical dance with Lillian Katrina and later with Donya Feuer in 1962. After discovering his newfound love for dance Mats Ek joined the Cullberg ballet in 1973. In 1982 Mats Ek created his greatest work, the reinterpretation of the classical ballet Giselle was seen as ground breaking and inspirational creating a new

Costumes during the period immediately preceding the Revolution, commonly known as the Baroque period, were extremely showy. Dances were typically cold and extremely stylized, they did not seek to connect with the audience but rather to astound them with extreme wealth. Watching a ballet from the time period would more likely leave the audience in awe at the scenery and intricacies rather than feeling raw emotion from a moving storyline. Ballet’s that were shown in the theaters leading up to the fall of the Bastille were always subject to scrutiny and censorship. Each ballet or play that was shown on stage had to be consistent with the political and social views of the monarchy.

Some of the themes of a romantic ballet are shown in the plot of ‘Swan Lake', along with a few from the classical Ballets. A theme of romance between Odette and Prince Seigfried, is evident with their oath of undying love for each other. Romance was very important in a classical ballet, as the romantic era affected peoples emotions, and Although the plots may be fictional, the themes were always real and universal

“Balanchine abolished scenery and turned rehearsal clothes into costumes. But even ballets will less severe aesthetics--Western Symphony, with its dancers gussied up like cowboys and showgirls--usually skipped the over-the-top characterizations and fairy-tale plots of classic story ballets, like Swan Lake.” (Tonguette) While these are some significant differences, there are many other differences to be found in other aspects of a ballet.

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.

The New York City Ballet conducted a dance performance titled “New Beginnings” on the 57th floor of the Four World Trade Center in New York. The performance took place September 12th, 2013 and was intended to commemorate September 11th, 2001. A tragic event, such as September 11th, tends to leave a bitter taste in one 's mouth. The public is generally heartbroken, angry, and distressed. This performance seeks to influence the general US audience by using dance as a means of changing the perception of the aftermath of disaster. By following a narrative structure, the dance performance begins by setting the scene of New York City. The performance is then followed with analogies through dance designed to provide moments of action, climax, and resolution. The New York City Ballet uses pathos and an instance of logos through movements to enforce their attempt to alter one’s perspective. There is plenty of pathos used throughout the dance performance in order to motivate a change in thinking from the audience. I believe this strategy was extremely effective because by influencing how the audience emotionally reacts to the performance there is more likely to be a change in audience perception. The ballet incorporates inductive reasoning by taking the specific situation of September 11th and implying that, after tragedy, we will ultimately have a “new beginning”. I believe the logical appeal of this implication is effective because the audience is naturally inclined to believe if

Giselle is one of the few many famous ballets still know in the ballet world today. A little about this ballet is a peasant girl in a village

Something I found interesting is that Ballet was actually FIRST introduced during the Renaissance time and Modern dance history in Europe actually started with Renaissance (http://www.ducksters.com). There were also several new dances that were invented at the time (http://www.dancefacts.net). Music and dance were actually the main forms of entertainment (http://www.ducksters.com). However, dance quickly rose to importance among art and science (https://socialdance.stanford.edu). Unfortunately, no choreographic descriptions of the dances survived from the 14th century, the Renaissance time (https://socialdance.stanford.edu).Most dances were actually a passionate form of flirting. The actual true purpose of the dance steps were flirtations (http://dance.lovetoknow.com). Dance was considered as much a part of education as reading or eating with a knife or fork (http://dance.lovetoknow.com). Dance was mainly to socialise (http://www.streetswing.com). These are some interesting facts I learned about the past of Renaissance

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.

Dance critic Théophile Gautier states, “Nothing resembles a dream more than a ballet...” (Anderson 77). The effortless technique of the ballerina paints most ballets as exactly this. Consequently, there is more to a ballet than technique and dancing. Different types of ballets and their structural components separate one ballet from the next. It is important to understand the difference between the two main types of ballets: Romantic Ballet and Classical Ballet. Romantic ballet in the 19th century differs from Classical ballet in the 20th century structurally, technically, and socially. The two dance forms also vary in costumes and narrative. However, with all of those differences, they both use ballet technique for a specific purpose.

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.

In the opening scenes Giselle is seen joyously dancing and being pursued by her lover Albrecht. She dances with him for an extended period of time which seems to make her a little faint; at 0:13:45 in the ballet she

Giselle is a classical ballet performed by the Teatro Allo Scala Ballet Company and originally choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The ballet company was founded in 1813 as an academy of ballet in Milan, Italy. The choreographers were famous French ballet dancers known for their choreographies in pinnacle performances such as Giselle and Childreich, King of the Franks. Giselle, a romantic ballet, was one of their most famous pieces created in 1841. It is the story of a naive peasant girl, named Giselle, who fell in love with a man that was betrothed to another. After a psychotic breakdown, she kills herself leaving her the man she loved feeling guilty about her death. After her death, Giselle was initiated into a group of supernatural beings known as the Wilis. These supernatural beings would lure men to their deaths by wooing them with their dances. Giselle finds it in her heart to forgive her guilty lover and does everything she can to save his life from the vengeful Wilis.