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Pas De Quatre (ballet)
''Pas de quatre'' (literally, "step of four") is a French term used to identify a ballet dance for four people. ''Pas de quatre'' are usually plotless dances performed as ''divertissements '' within the context of a larger work. However, narrative ''pas de quatre'' and ''pas de quatre'' that stand alone are not unknown. Selected works Among the ''pas de quatre'' best known in the ballet repertory are the following: Selma Jeanne Cohen and others, eds., ''International Encyclopedia of Dance'', 6 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), ''passim''. * 1845. ''Pas de Quatre'', choreography by Jules Perrot, music by Cesare Pugni. It was performed by Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni, four celebrated ballerinas of the time. Fanny Elssler was invited to take part in its creation but declined to do so. Young Lucile Grahn accepted without hesitation. * 1895. '' Swan Lake'', act 2, choreography by Lev Ivanov, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Danse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor (born William Cook; 4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer. He founded the London Ballet, and later the Philadelphia Ballet Guild in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., in the mid-1950s. Early life and education Tudor was born William Cook in East London, and grew up in the Finsbury area. He discovered dance accidentally. Tudor's first exposure to professional ballet was in his late teens when he first saw Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russes. He witnessed the dancer Serge Lifar of the Diaghilev Ballet in Balanchine's ''Apollon Musagète'' in 1928. Later, the Ballet Russes would introduce him to Anna Pavlova, who further inspired his journey into the world of dance. Tudor reached out to Cyril W. Beaumont, the owner of a ballet book shop in the Charing Cross Road district in London, to seek advice regarding training and was instructed to study with Marie Rambert, a former Diaghilev Ballet dancer who taught the Cecchetti m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wayne Eagling
Wayne Eagling (born 27 November 1950) is a Canadian ballet dancer, now retired. After more than twenty years as a popular member of The Royal Ballet in London, he became well known as an international choreographer and company director. Early life and training Wayne John Eagling was born in Montreal, Quebec, to Anglophone parents, Edward and Thelma Eagling. He spent much of his childhood and youth in California, where his family had moved. As a boy, he augmented his academic studies by attending classes at the Patricia Ramsey Studio of Dance Arts. There, he developed into a gifted student of classical ballet and, as he matured, was encouraged by his teachers to pursue a career as a professional dancer. In 1965, when he was 15, he was noticed by Michael Somes and Gerd Larsen of the Royal Ballet during the company's tour of the United States and was offered a place at the Royal Ballet School in London. He moved to England in the late 1960s, when "swinging London," the vibrant cultur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Coleman (dancer)
Michael Bruce Coleman (born 10 June 1940) is a British ballet dancer, a former dancer of The Royal Ballet and a character artist with the English National Ballet. Early life Coleman, was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. He worked as a photographer's assistant then joined The Royal Ballet School, aged 15 before joining The Royal Ballet touring company in 1959 and then The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. Career Coleman's notable stage performances with The Royal Ballet included ''Romeo and Juliet'' (Mercutio), "The Concert" (Husband), ''Giselle'', (Hilarion), ''Cinderella'' (Ugly Sister), "Song of the Earth" (Death), "La Fille Mal Gardee" (Colas), "Manon" (Lescaut), "The Sleeping Beauty" (Bluebird), "The Firebird", "Symphonic Variations", "Concerto", "Dances at a Gathering", "Monotones". Coleman has also appeared in the televised performances of ''Tales of Beatrix Potter'' (as Mr. Jeremy Fisher), ''The Slipper and The Rose'', and as Drosselmeyer in ''The Nutcracker''. C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lesley Collier
Lesley Faye Collier (born 13 March 1947) is an English ballerina and teacher of dance. In 1972 she became a principal dancer of the Royal Ballet. In 1995 she left the company and began to teach at the Royal Ballet School. She is a rèpetiteur at the Royal Ballet. Early life Born at Orpington in Kent to Roy Collier and Mavis (née Head), Collier began dancing at the age of two and won a scholarship to attend the Royal Ballet School. In 1965 she completed her years at the school and for her graduation performance danced the leading role in Frederick Ashton's ''The Two Pigeons''. Dancing career Upon leaving the Royal Ballet School in 1965, Collier joined the Royal Ballet. In 1968 she was given her first solo roles. She went on to perform in all of the important classical ballets, and in 1972 became a principal dancer. On 13 November 1978 Collier danced with Wayne Sleep in a Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium. In 1981 ''The Ballet Goer's Guide'' called her "a dan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth MacMillan
Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 192929 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977, and its principal choreographer from 1977 until his death. Earlier he had served as director of ballet for the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He was also associate director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1984 to 1989, and artistic associate of the Houston Ballet from 1989 to 1992. From a family with no background of ballet or music, MacMillan was determined from an early age to become a dancer. The director of Sadler's Wells Ballet, Ninette de Valois, accepted him as a student and then a member of her company. In the late 1940s, MacMillan built a successful career as a dancer, but, plagued by stage fright, he abandoned it while still in his twenties. After this he worked entirely as a choreographer; he created ten full-length ballets and more than fifty one-act pieces. In addition to his work for bal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music. Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: ''The Firebird'' (1910), ''Petrushka'' (1911), and ''The Rite of Spring'' (1913). The last transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design. His "Russian phase", which continued with works such as '' Renard'', ''L'Histoire du soldat,'' and ''Les noces'', was followed in the 1920s by a period ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Balanchine
George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was an ethnic Georgian American ballet choreographer who was one of the most influential 20th-century choreographers. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its artistic director for more than 35 years.Joseph Horowitz (2008)''Artists in Exile: How Refugees from 20th-century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts.''HarperCollins. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music. Born in St. Petersburg, Balanchine took the standards and technique from his time at the Imperial Ballet School and fused it with other schools of movement that he had adopted during his tenure on Broadway and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agon (ballet)
''Agon'' is a 22-minute ballet for twelve dancers with music by Igor Stravinsky. It was choreographed by George Balanchine. Stravinsky began composition in December 1953 but was interrupted the next year; he resumed work in 1956 and concluded on April 27, 1957. The music was premiered in Los Angeles at UCLA's Royce Hall on June 17, 1957, conducted by Robert Craft. Stravinsky himself conducted the sessions for the work's first recording the following day on June 18, 1957. ''Agon'' was first performed on stage by the New York City Ballet at the City Center of Music and Drama on December 1, 1957. The composition's long gestation period covers an interesting juncture in Stravinsky's composing career, in which he moved from a diatonic musical idiom to one based on twelve-tone technique; the music of the ballet thus demonstrates a unique symbiosis of musical idioms. The ballet has no story, but consists of a series of dance movements in which various groups of dancers interact in pairs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
José Limón
José Arcadio Limón (January 12, 1908 – December 2, 1972) was a dancer and choreographer from Mexico and who developed what is now known as 'Limón technique'. In the 1940s, he founded the José Limón Dance Company (now the Limón Dance Company), and in 1968 he created the José Limón Foundation to carry on his work. In his choreography, Limón spoke to the complexities of human life as experienced through the body. His dances feature large, visceral gestures — reaching, bending, pulling, grasping — to communicate emotion. Inspired in part by his teacher Doris Humphrey's and Charles Weidman's theories about the importance of body weight and dynamics, his own Limón technique emphasizes the rhythms of falling and recovering balance and the importance of good breathing to maintaining flow in a dance. He also utilized the dance vocabulary developed by both Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman, which aimed at demonstrating emotion through dance in a way that was much le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Moor's Pavane
''The Moor's Pavane'' is a 20-minute ballet based upon the tragedy ''Othello'' by William Shakespeare. The ballet was choreographed by José Limón in 1949 to music from Henry Purcell's ''Abdelazer'', ''The Gordion Knot Untied'', and the pavane from ''Pavane and Chaconne for Strings'', arranged by Simon Sadoff. This ballet is José Limón's most famous work and his influence from Doris Humphrey is evident in his choreography. It was created on the Limón Company. There are only four dancers who appear in this rendition of ''Othello''. These dancers represent The Moor, originally played by Limón himself, Desdemona, originally played by Betty Jones, Iago, originally played by Lucas Hoving, and Emilia, originally played by Pauline Koner. Desdemona, an innocent character and tragic victim, is betrayed by Iago who hints that she has been unfaithful. This causes Othello to murder her. These dramatic actions and events take place in the form of a pavane, which is a type of courtly dance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peggy Van Praagh
Dame Margaret van Praagh (1 September 1910 – 15 January 1990) was a British ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, repetiteur, producer, advocate and director, who spent much of her later career in Australia. Early life Peggy van Praagh was born in London and was of Dutch, Scottish and English descent. Her father, Harold John van Praagh, was a British physician with a Jewish background and her mother was Ethel Louise née Shanks. She was educated at King Alfred School, London where she meet A.S. Neill who heavily influenced her passion for dance through artistic thinking and creativity which aided her in the dance community. Throughout the course her schooling, she was involved in a series of plays and productions. Dancing She began dancing very early in London at the age of 4. One review stated: "At last night's concert a dainty extra was a very charming dance by little Peggy van Praagh ... Peggy is only six but she is quite a clever little artiste and is booked again ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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