Swan Lake: Ballet

The corps de ballet should be used for plot development and as a means of expression.

Ballet in the past had dialogue and speech, unlike today’s ballet, and more like today’s

Petipa’s production of Swan Lake is a beautiful example of the structure movements that dancers must perform; in the clip titled Odile entrance & Black Swan pas de deux, you see “The Black Swan” perfect posture and balance, dancing on en Pointe all the while managing to gracefully seduce the prince through her seductive movements and entrancing expressions. In contrast Modern dance focus is on the dancer expressing their inner most emotions and feelings through free flowing movements. The modern dancer uses their whole body more naturally and fluidly to convey what their current emotional state is, unlike classical ballet where the ballerina at all times keeps an upright posture, and performs with structured, angular lines. Martha Graham’s “Frontier” is a great example of the free movements of Modern dance; In this performance Martha Graham uses her whole body to move to the rhythmic sounds of the drums and music, you can clearly see that there is no confined structure in this performance, she is completely moving organically to how she is feeling and what she is trying to convey through her movements.

By swaying in the delicate phrases and jerking with the harsh ones, the performers became the dancers in the ballet. They expressed different levels of emotion when required which reflected their playing.

Listening to Music class has taught me a new way to listen and enjoy music. I have learned how to differentiate the melodies, rhythms, and instruments in a song. It has also introduced me to different genres in the music world, aside from what is usually played on the radio. I can now attend any concert, listen to any genre, or watch any ballet and easily recognize the many specific aspects the music being played has. Ballets are very interesting to me. The audience is able to enjoy the music being played as it is telling a story, and being acted out through the performer’s body language. In the two ballets, The Rite of Spring and The Nutcracker, a great story is told in both referencing the many great dynamics music has. These two specific ballets are written by different composers, and each one of them have certain conditions they were written under. As well as different receptions, popularity, and development. The Rite of Spring and The Nutcracker’s differences has made some sort of an impact in the performing world back then as well as now.

Luke Hanson12/3/17Journal 7Song – Swan Lake Ballet - Op. 20: Act II: 10. Scene (Moderato)Composer – Piotr Ilyich TchaikovskyLink – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVBNVR1wQT8The melody of this piece starts out in a single clarinet. Then, at about 50 seconds in the melody switches to the horns. At 1 minute and 8 seconds the melody is given to the violins who have it a majority of the time until 2 minutes and 16 seconds when it is given back to the clarinet and horns to finish the song. The harmony to the piece comes from the harp, stringed instruments, and wind instruments.

‘Swan Lake' is a four act ballet, which is a common element amongst the classical era of ballets. During the romantic era they were usually only two acts, where as they were up

Mrs. Farrell’s book is quite technical when it comes to the lengthy descriptions of the dances she rehearses and performs; from a dancer’s view these varied conclusions of the types of movements she was dancing is quite astonishing. In fact, it adds a whole new level to the imagination that can come alive in a person’s thoughts when they read an expressive book. Although the technical explanations will excited, astound, and reveal how much passion and deep meaning ballet had in Suzanne Farrell’s life, but a reader, who may not be involved in the arts will be unfamiliar with the ballet and musical terms in

De Mille felt that dance should behave in relation to the world around it; that dance should not be ambiguous and abstract, but accessible and understandable (Acocella). De Mille’s choreography followed a narrative form and featured overt aspects of American culture; consequently, her work carried the potential for easy consumption by an American audience. One critic wrote of her work, “…Full of fire, even funny, and entirely free of swans!” (Acocella). De Mille’s works was refreshing in that, unlike more classical, abstract ballet, it did not perpetuate the artistic traditions of another nation’s culture; instead, it paved the way for the creation of our own artistic traditions.

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.

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.

A staple in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s repertoire, Kent Stowell’s Swan Lake dazzles audiences every time it revisits. The classic tale continues to draw crowds one-hundred and twenty-three years after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s original. On Thursday night of last week, McCaw Hall’s dazzling red curtain rose to give a sneak-peak of the dress rehearsal process.

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.

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.

The Rite of Spring” is a ballet by Pina Bausch. The original production was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky and premiered in 1913. The music, by Igor Stravinsky, is written about a pagan sacrificial ritual. Pina Bausch’s interpretation of this music through dance emphasizes different gender roles (Savarino, 15). Through dance and the intertwined theme of the ritual sacrifice of a young woman, Pina Bauch’s choreography portrays the self-sacrificial path that women are forced to follow in traditional societies through both desperate and unpretentious movements that are both original and pay tribute to the initial choreography by Nijinsky.