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Neoclassical Ballet
Neoclassical ballet is the style of 20th-century classical ballet exemplified by the works of George Balanchine. The term "neoclassical ballet" appears in the 1920s with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, in response to the excesses of romanticism and post-romantic modernism. It draws on the advanced technique of 19th-century Russian Imperial dance, but strips it of its detailed narrative and heavy theatrical setting while retaining many key techniques, such as pointe technique. History and development Neoclassical ballet is a genre of dance that emerged in the 1920s and evolved throughout the 20th century. Artists of many disciplines in the early 1900s began to rebel against the overly dramatized style of the Romantic Period. As a result, art returned to a more simplistic style reminiscent of the Classical Period, except bolder, more assertive and free of distractions. This artistic trend came to be known as Neoclassicism. The ballet choreographer who most exemplified this ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballets Russes - Apollo Musagète
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary. Ballet has been influential globally and has defined the foundational techniques which are used in many other dance genres and cultures. Various schools around the world have incorporated their own cultures. As a result, ballet has evolved in distinct ways. A ''ballet'' as a unified work comprises the choreography and music for a ballet production. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained ballet dancers. Traditional classical ballets are usually performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, whereas modern ballets are often performed in simple costumes and without elaborate sets or scenery. Etymology Ballet is a French word which had its origin in Italian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serenade (ballet)
''Serenade'' is a ballet by George Balanchine to Tchaikovsky's 1880 '' Serenade for Strings in C'', Op. 48. Serenade is credited as being George Balanchine's first full-length ballet in America. Using the students of his newly formed School of American Ballet, Balanchine choreographed this ballet for an American audience that had not been widely exposed to ballet before.Bird, "Principles of Choreography as Exemplified in the Works of George Balanchine" (1980). Master's Theses. 1851 Students of the School of American Ballet gave the first performance on Sunday, 10 June 1934 on the Felix M. Warburg estate in White Plains, N.Y., where '' Mozartiana'' had been danced the previous day. It was then presented by the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet on 6 December at the Avery Memorial Theatre of the Wadsworth Atheneum with sets by the painter William Littlefield. Balanchine presented the ballet as his response to the generous sponsorships he received during his immig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dream (ballet)
''The Dream'' is a one-act ballet adapted from Shakespeare's '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'', with choreography by Frederick Ashton to music by Mendelssohn arranged by John Lanchbery. It was premiered by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 2 April 1964 in a triple bill with Kenneth MacMillan's ''Images of Love'' and Robert Helpmann's ''Hamlet''. Background The ballet was presented to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. Ashton drastically trimmed Shakespeare's plot, discarding Theseus and Hippolyta and the play-within-a-play, ''Pyramus and Thisbe''. The focus of the ballet is on the fairies and the four lovers from Athens lost in the wood. Lanchbery adapted the overture and incidental music Mendelssohn had written for the play in 1826 and 1842. Ashton and his designers, Henry Bardon and David Walker, set the action in or about the 1840s. Plot In the forest outside Athens, Oberon, king of the fairies, fights furiously with his wife Titani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Fille Mal Gardée (Ashton)
''La fille mal gardée'' (English: ''The Wayward Daughter'', literal translation: "The Poorly Guarded Girl"), Frederick Ashton's Royal Ballet production, began in 1959 when British choreographer Frederick Ashton created a new version of ''La fille mal gardée'' for the Royal Ballet of London. This production premiered on 28 January 1960, with Nadia Nerina as Lise, David Blair as Colas, Stanley Holden as the Widow Simone, and Alexander Grant as Alain. Since its inception Ashton's staging has become a celebrated classic of the ballet repertory. Background Originally Ashton intended to use the 1864 score of Peter Ludwig Hertel, as it had been used for nearly every revival of the ballet since the late 19th century, but after close inspection of this music Ashton decided it would not suit his plans for the revival. At the suggestion of the ballet historian and musicologist Ivor Guest, Ashton studied the 1828 score by Ferdinand Hérold, and found the light, simple music more su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ondine (ballet)
::''See also Ondine, ou La naïade for the ballet on the same theme by Pugni and Perrot'' ''Ondine'' is a ballet in three acts created by the choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton and composer Hans Werner Henze. Ashton originally produced ''Ondine'' for the Royal Ballet in 1958, with Henze commissioned to produce the original score, published as ''Undine'', which has since been restaged by other choreographers. The ballet was adapted from a novella titled ''Undine'' by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué and it tells the tale of a water nymph who is the object of desire of a young prince named Palemon. The première of the ballet took place at the Royal Opera House, London, on 27 October 1958, with the composer as guest conductor. The first major revival of this Ashton/Henze production took place in 1988. History The three-act ballet of ''Ondine'' was commissioned and produced for The Royal Ballet in 1958 by the choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton. The resulting ballet was a collaborati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romeo And Juliet (Prokofiev)
''Romeo and Juliet'' (russian: Ромео и Джульетта, Romeo i Dzhulyetta), Op. 64, is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet''. First composed in 1935, it was substantially revised for its Soviet premiere in early 1940. Prokofiev reused music from the ballet in three suites for orchestra and a solo piano work. Background and premiere Based on a synopsis created by Adrian Piotrovsky (who first suggested the subject to Prokofiev) and Sergey Radlov, the ballet was composed by Prokofiev in September 1935 to their scenario which followed the precepts of "drambalet" (dramatised ballet, officially promoted at the Kirov Ballet to replace works based primarily on choreographic display and innovation). Following Radlov's acrimonious resignation from the Kirov in June 1934, a new agreement was signed with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on the understanding that Piotrovsky would remain involved. However, the ballet's original happy en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvia (ballet)
''Sylvia'', originally ''Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane'', is a full-length ballet in two or three act (theatre), acts, first choreography, choreographed by Louis Mérante to music by Léo Delibes in 1876. ''Sylvia'' is a typical classical ballet in many respects, yet it has many interesting features that make it unique. The work is notable for its mythological Arcadia (paradise), Arcadian setting, creative choreographies, expansive sets and, above all, its remarkable Sheet music, score. When ''Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane'' premiered on 14 June 1876 at the Palais Garnier, it went largely unnoticed by the critics. The first seven productions of ''Sylvia'' were not commercially successful. The 1952 revival, choreographed by Frederick Ashton, Sir Frederick Ashton, popularized the ballet. The 1997, 2004, 2005 and 2009 productions were all based on Ashton's original choreography. History Preparations The origins of the ballet ''Sylvia'' are in the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, Ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinderella (Ashton)
This version of the ''Cinderella'' ballet, using Sergei Prokofiev's ''Cinderella'' music and re-choreographed by Frederick Ashton, is a comic ballet. Ballet productions Plot outline Ashton's ''Cinderella'' is his own realised dream of a Petipa ballet and the ballet itself enacts the realisation of dreams, notably Cinderella's own. When we first see her she is a demi-caractere dancer dreaming of being a ballerina—that seems to be the balletic point of her solo with the broomstick in the kitchen—and it is as a ballerina that she magically enters the ballroom, stepping ''en pointe'' down the stairs and advancing in ''pas de bourree'' to the front of the stage. Back in the kitchen she recalls the slipper (or rather the pointe shoe) that she carries in her apron; the shoe is the clue to her dream and persuades her it was true. The Prince finds Cinderella, but in his arms she discovers her own identity as a ballerina and her dream of herself has been realised. Cinderella's mic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symphonic Variations (ballet)
''Symphonic Variations'' is a one-act ballet by Frederick Ashton set to the eponymous music (M. 46) of César Franck. The premiere, performed by the Sadler's Wells Ballet, took place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 24 April 1946 in a triple bill; the other works were Ashton's '' Les Patineurs'' and Robert Helpmann's ''Adam Zero''. The ballet was conducted by Constant Lambert and the set designed by Sophie Fedorovitch. Background During the Second World War, Ashton listened to Franck's '' Symphonic Variations'' a great deal and he decided to develop an elaborate scenario to be set to the music. Constant Lambert, music director for the Sadler's Wells Ballet, at first objected to the use of Franck's music for a ballet; Ashton dropped his original scenario and created an abstract ballet. During the war, the repertory had become increasingly literary, and Ashton's purpose was to counteract this. It was not his intention to display ingenuity of invention but to construct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue. Determined to be a dancer despite the opposition of his conventional middle-class family, Ashton was accepted as a pupil by Léonide Massine and then by Marie Rambert. In 1926 Rambert encouraged him to try his hand at choreography, and though he continued to dance professionally, with success, it was as a choreographer that he became famous. Ashton was chief choreographer to Ninette de Valois, from 1935 until her retirement in 1963, in the company known successively as the Vic-Wells Ballet, the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Royal Ballet. He succeeded de Valois as director of the company, serving until his own retirement in 1970. Ashton is widely credited with the creation of a specifically English genre of ballet. Among his best-known works are ''Façade'' (1931), '' Symphonic Varia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serge Lifar
Serge Lifar ( ua, Сергій Михайлович Лифар, ''Serhіy Mуkhailovуch Lуfar'') ( 15 December 1986) was a Ukrainian ballet dancer and choreographer, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century. Not only a dancer, Lifar was also a choreographer, director, writer, theoretician about dance, and collector. As ballet master of the Paris Opera from 1930 to 1944, and from 1947 to 1958, he devoted himself to the restoration of the technical level of the Paris Opera Ballet, returning it to its place as one of the best companies in the world. Biography Early life and education Lifar was born in Kyiv, Russian Empire. His year of birth is officially shown as 1904 (as on a 2004 Ukrainian stamp commemorating his centenary). He became the pupil of Bronislava Nijinska in her ballet studio «School of Movement» in Kyiv, 1920. In 1921 he left Soviet Russia and was noticed by Sergei Diaghilev, who sent him to Turin in order to improve his tech ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewels (ballet)
''Jewels'' is a three-act ballet created for the New York City Ballet by co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine. It premièred on Thursday, 13 April 1967 at the New York State Theater, with sets designed by Peter Harvey and lighting by Ronald Bates. ''Jewels'' has been called the first full-length abstract ballet. It has three related movements: ''Emeralds'', ''Rubies'', and ''Diamonds'' (usually separated by intermissions). It can also be seen as three separate ballets, linked by their jewel-colored costumes. Balanchine commented: "The ballet had nothing to do with jewels. The dancers are just dressed like jewels." Each of the three acts features the music of a different composer: ''Emeralds'' is set to the music of Gabriel Fauré, ''Rubies'' to the music of Igor Stravinsky and ''Diamonds'' to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Costumes The costumes were created by Balanchine's long-time collaborator Barbara Karinska, who created a distinct look for each differen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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