![Chopiniana Baku](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Chopiniana_Baku.jpg)
A ''ballet blanc'' (, "white ballet") is a scene in which the
ballerina
A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on yea ...
and the female ''
corps de ballet
In ballet, the ''corps de ballet'' (; French for "body of the ballet") is the group of dancers who are not principal dancers or soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and often work as a backdrop for the principal dancers.
...
'' all wear white dresses or
tutus. Typical in the
Romantic style
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
of
ballet
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 ...
from the nineteenth century, ''ballets blancs'' are usually populated by ghosts, dryads, naiads, enchanted maidens, fairies, and other supernatural creatures and spirits.
History
A precursor of the genre was ''
Ballet of the Nuns
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 ...
'', an episode in act 3 of Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera ''Robert le Diable''. The ghosts of cloistered nuns who, in life, were unfaithful to their vows are summoned from their graves to tempt the hero, Robert, with dancing, gambling, drink, and love making. Choreographed by
Filippo Taglioni
Filippo Taglioni (aka Philippe Taglioni; 5 November 1777 – 11 February 1871) was an Italian dancer and choreographer and personal teacher to his own daughter, Romantic ballerina Marie Taglioni. (He had another child who also danced ballet, ...
and first presented in Paris in November 1831, it starred his daughter,
Marie Taglioni
Marie Taglioni, Comtesse de Voisins (23 April 1804 – 22 April 1884) was a Swedish-born ballet dancer of the Romantic ballet era partially of Italian descent, a central figure in the history of European dance. She spent most of her life in th ...
as Helena, the abbess of the ruined convent of Saint Rosalia. Costumes in modern productions are usually white dresses with black sashes and headpieces.
The next year, 1832, Marie Taglioni appeared in the title role of ''
La Sylphide
''La Sylphide'' ( en, The Sylph; da, Sylfiden) is a romantic ballet in two acts. There were two versions of the ballet; the original choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in 1832, and a second version choreographed by August Bournonville in 1836. Bo ...
'', the story of a wood nymph (a sylphide) who tempts a Scottish farmer, James, to abandon his rural sweetheart and follow her into the woods, in pursuit of ethereal beauty. Dance historians consider this work, as the first fully-fledged ''ballet blanc'', to be the beginning of the Romantic movement in ballet.
The name of the genre is derived from the white costume designed by Eugène Lami for Taglioni, which became the recognized dress for dancers of the academic school. The
skirt
A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards.
At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of fabric (such as pareos). However, most skirts are fi ...
of the Romantic tutu is either mid-calf or ankle length in design. Despite the introduction of Romantic elements of otherworldly spirits, the dancing in ''La Sylphide'' was of the purely classical school.
Ghosts, shades, shadows, spirits, and other elemental beings dominated ballet stages for decades after ''La Sylphide''. Famous ''ballets blancs'' were staged in act 2 of ''
Giselle
''Giselle'' (; ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (, ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet (" ballet-pantomime") in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, ...
'' (1842), in acts 2 and 4 of ''
Swan Lake
''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoye ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, link=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failur ...
'' (1877/1895), in act 3 of ''
La Bayadère
''La Bayadère'' ("the temple dancer") ( ru. «Баядерка», ''Bayaderka'') is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. The ballet was staged especiall ...
'' (1877), and in act 1 of ''
The Nutcracker
''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaiko ...
'' (1892).
In modern productions, dancers in the lakeside scenes of ''Swan Lake'' and the Kingdom of the Shades scene of ''La Bayadère'' sometimes wear short, classical tutus rather than the traditional calf-length or ankle-length ballet dresses, but the visually stunning effect of the ''ballet blanc'' is undiminished. In 1908,
Michel Fokine
Michael Fokine, ''Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin'', group=lower-alpha ( – 22 August 1942) was a groundbreaking Imperial Russian choreographer and dancer.
Career Early years
Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant and a ...
revived the genre in a ballet set to the music of Frédéric Chopin that he entitled ''Chopiniana''. When a revised version was presented in Paris in 1909 by the Ballets Russes of
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...
, it was given the more Romantic title of ''
Les Sylphides
''Les Sylphides'' () is a short, non-narrative ''ballet blanc'' to piano music by Frédéric Chopin, selected and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov.
The ballet, described as a "romantic reverie","Ballet Theater", until 1955. A compact disk ...
''.
[George Balanchine and Francis Mason, ''101 Stories of the Great Ballets'' (New York: Doubleday, 1954), ''passim''.] It has remained a popular staple of the ballet repertory for the past century and more.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanc, Ballet
Ballet terminology