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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 ...
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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 Var ...
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Vergie Derman
Vergie Derman (Johannesburg, 18 September 1942) is a South African-born British former ballet dancer. With the Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ..., Derman was promoted to a soloist in 1968, and principal in 1972. References 1942 births Living people People from Johannesburg British ballerinas South African emigrants to the United Kingdom {{ballet-bio-stub ...
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Ballets To The Music Of Felix Mendelssohn
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 ...
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Ballets By Frederick Ashton
The following is a list, by decade, of ballets created by the English choreographer Frederick Ashton. 1920s * ''A Tragedy of Fashion'' (music by Eugene Goossens, arranged by Ernest Irving) (1926) * ''Various dances'' for a Purcell Opera Society production of ''The Fairy-Queen'': (music by Henry Purcell) (1927) * ''Pas de deux'' (music by Fritz Kreisler) (1927) * ''Suite de danses'' (music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) (1927) * ''Argentine Dance'' (music by Artello) (1927) * ''Nymphs and Shepherds'' (music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) (1928) * ''Leda'' (music by Christoph Willibald Gluck) (1928) * ''Various dances'' for ''Jew Süss'' (incidental music arranged by Constant Lambert) (1929) 1930s * ''Capriol Suite'' (music by Peter Warlock) (1930) * ''Pomona'' (music by Constant Lambert) (1930) * ''Regatta'' (music by Gavin Gordon) (1931) * ' (music by Léo Delibes) (1931) * ' (music by William Walton) (1931) * ''The Lady of Shalott'' (music by Jean Sibelius) (1931) * ' (music by Lor ...
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1964 Ballet Premieres
Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople meet in Jerusalem. * January 6 – A British firm, the Leyland Motors, Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba. * January 9 – ''Martyrs' Day (Panama), Martyrs' Day'': Armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian civilians in the Panama Canal Zone precipitate a major international crisis, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers. * January 11 – United States Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the first such statement from the U.S. government). * January 12 ** Zanzibar Revolution: The predominantly Arab government of Zanzibar is overthrown b ...
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American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spring and a shorter season at the David H. Koch Theater in the fall; the company tours around the world the rest of the year. The company was scheduled to have a 5-week spring season at the MET preceded by a 2-week season at the Koch Theater beginning in 2020. ABT is the parent company of the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, and was recognized as "America's National Ballet Company" in 2006 by the United States Congress. History In 1939 Pleasant and Chase committed to the creation of "a large scale company with an eclectic repertory". The pair and a small group from Mordkin Ballet formed Ballet Theatre. Their new company's first perfor ...
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National Ballet Of Canada
The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca as the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 by artistic director Hope Muir. Renowned for its diverse repertoire, the company performs traditional full-length classics, embraces contemporary work and encourages the creation of new ballets, as well as the development of Canadian choreographers. The company's repertoire includes works by Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, John Cranko, Rudolf Nureyev, John Neumeier, William Forsythe, James Kudelka, Wayne McGregor, Alexei Ratmansky, Crystal Pite, Christopher Wheeldon, Aszure Barton, Guillaume Côté and Robert Binet. The National Ballet tours in Canada and internationally, with appearances in London, Paris, Hamburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Creation of the Nation ...
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Dutch National Ballet
The Dutch National Ballet (Dutch: Het Nationale Ballet) is the official and largest ballet company in the Netherlands. History The Dutch National Ballet was formed in 1961 when the Amsterdam Ballet and the Nederlands Ballet merged. The company has been directed by Sonia Gaskell (1961–1969), Rudi van Dantzig (1969–1991), Wayne Eagling (1991–2003) and is currently directed by Ted Brandsen. It attracts many international artists. The company has been based at the Dutch National Opera & Ballet (formerly known as ''Het Muziektheater'') in Amsterdam since 1986. It is a regular guest at major festivals across Europe, such as the Edinburgh Festival. The company is committed to new choreography and performs work from current and past resident choreographers: Rudi van Dantzig, Toer van Schayk, Hans van Manen, Maguy Marin and Édouard Lock. On 13 September 2011, the company celebrated its 50th anniversary with a gala performance in the presence of Queen Beatrix. Dancers The Du ...
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Royal Swedish Ballet
The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian dominance in this field; he also founded the Royal Swedish Opera and the Royal Dramatic Theatre. All of these were initially located in the old theatre of Bollhuset. The troupe was founded with the opening of the Royal Swedish Opera, which has served as its home since that time. History In 1773, the cultural professions of acting, opera-singing and ballet-dancing in Sweden were all performed by foreign troupes. The first ballet performance was performed at the Swedish court when the French ballet troupe of Antoine de Beaulieu was hired at the court of Queen Christina in 1638, and the first Public ballet performance were performed by the foreign theatre troupes at the theatre of Bollhuset later the same century. The only exception had been the period of 17 ...
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Benesh Notation
Benesh Movement Notation (BMN), also known as Benesh notation or choreology, is a dance notation system used to document dance and other types of human movement. Invented by Joan and Rudolf Benesh in the late 1940s, the system uses abstract symbols based on figurative representations of the human body. It is used in choreography and physical therapy, and by the Royal Academy of Dance to teach ballet. Benesh notation is recorded on a five line staff from left to right, with vertical bar lines to mark the passage of time. Because of its similarity to modern staff music notation, Benesh notation can be displayed alongside (typically below) and in synchronization with musical accompaniment. History Benesh Movement Notation was created by Joan Benesh and her husband Rudolph Benesh. In 1955, Rudolf Benesh publicly introduced Benesh notation as an "aesthetic and scientific study of all forms of human movement by movement notation". In 1997, the Benesh Institute (an organisation foc ...
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Australian Ballet
The Australian Ballet is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and director Dame Peggy van Praagh as founding artistic director. Today, it is recognised as one of the world's major international ballet companies. History The roots of the Australian Ballet can be found in the Borovansky Ballet, a company founded in 1940 by the Czech dancer Edouard Borovansky. Borovansky had been a dancer in the touring ballet company of the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and, after visiting Australia on tour with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet, he decided to remain in Australia, establishing a ballet school in Melbourne in 1939, out of which he developed a performance group which became the Borovansky Ballet. The company was supported and funded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd from 1944. Following Borovansky's death ...
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Derek Rencher
Derek Rencher (6 June 1932 – 20 December 2014) was a British ballet dancer. A commanding figure among Royal Ballet character dancers for more than four decades, he was probably the most prolific performer in the company's history. Early life and training Rencher was born in Birmingham, an industrial, commercial, academic, and cultural center in the West Midlands of England. He grew up in a working-class family, as his father was employed by the toolmakers John Rabone & Sons. An industrious student, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London, where he pursued a course of study in design and art history. In the early 1950s, at age nineteen, he took a job as an extra during filming of ''Invitation to the Dance'', a Gene Kelly movie intended to educate mainstream audiences about the world of professional dancing. Besides Kelly himself, and such musical theater dancers as Carol Haney and Tommy Rall, the cast included international ballet stars Igor Yousekevitch, Clai ...
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