History of Ballet

Classic dance

History of Ballet

Louis XIV the Sun King with costumes "Ballet of the Night", 1653

From the beginning, mankind has danced. While not as art or entertainment, the fact is that man has always expressed himself with movement. Music and literature are spread over time and beyond the life of an artist in painting and sculpture, the ballet holds both ways and stops at least for the visible world, when this artist does not performance it, so the art is more complex. 1581 is considered the date of birth of ballet as a spectacle. In that year Caroso Da Sarmoneta presents his book "Il Balarino" which seeks to codify the art of dance and also premieres "Comic Ballet of the Queen." It is not denied that it was danced before, but in this ballet a show where music, story and art are presented to the public as a whole expressed through dance. This representation of more than five hours' duration was established by Baltazar of Beaujoyeux. In the French capital in 1661 was founded the National Academy of Dancing and the famous five positions were established -first, second, third, fourth and fifth, and most of the technique currently used so that the steps, exercises and positions of ballet known and used today around the world are in French. The Paris Opera, in the second half of the eighteenth century, got to the perfection of the techniques of academic dance. Words were eliminated by the English choreographer John Weaver who tried to convey meaning
drama through dance and gesture

Jean Georges Noverre and the french Jean Geor ges Noverre, the most famous defender of the ballet of action, wrote essays about dance and ballets in which he advised to use the natural, sensitive and realistic movements. Noverre emphasized that all elements of a ballet should work in harmony to express their argument. These letters were an important influence on many contemporary choreographers to his life. Since 1681 there is no more dancing in the halls of the palace but ballet is presented in theaters by professional dancers. In 1760 Jean Georges Noverre book "Letters on Dancing and Ballets" is published, who takes what has been done so far and purifies it so that remains in force and until our modern days. In the Europe of Romanticism-around 1830 - the man is a mere ornament or support to the female dancer, only at the beginning of the twentieth century there is a change taking both as equal to the scene. In 1841 the shoe tip is invented and "Giselle", masterpiece of romance and a foundation of classical ballet, test of the dancer who wants to be a star, gets on the stage for the first time. To dance on tips was only used for brief moments. The Italian choreographer Carlo Blassis, in the early nineteenth century, created the Attitude, derived from a statue of the god Mercury supported slightly above the tip of the left foot. The romantic ballet was born in Paris in 1832, represented first by the sylph ballet. The main role was a supernatural creature, with which it abused of the use of tips to make supernatural character traits.

Some illustrations from the book of Carlos Blazis Treaty elementary theory and practice of the Art of Dance, "published in Milan in 1820 and together with other writings of Blazis compressed 200 years of academic dance technique.

Charles Didelot was born in Stockholm, a student of Noverre, Dauberval and Vestris, reached Russia in 1801. Reorganizing the system in St. Petersburg when combined with French education .Petipa starts work in St. Petersburg in 1847 to, from 1869 assumes the role of ballet master until 1903. Milan was an important center of the ballet, where Carlos creates the "bar" and taught to use it to facilitate learning and development of classical dance; it was in the year 1855. In 1890 we begin to see fruits of labor done in Russia and from it develop the ballet spread throughout all of Europe, that matured up to 1900. In St. Petersburg, Marius Petipa created the choreography of "Sleeping Beauty" (1890), the libretto of "The Nutcracker" and his assistant Lew Iwanow Petipa choreography when sick and finally in 1895 created both the choreography of "The Swan’s Lake". The three pieces of music by P. I. Tchaikovsky and cornerstones from then until nowadays in any company of prestige. Fokine recalls JGNoverre line in terms of pure dance energy and transmits it to ballet in west countries.

Michel Fokine and his wife Vera Fokine dance "Scheherazade." Sergei P. Diaghilev meets his famous Russian Ballets of Diaghilev and the ballet presented by the company and the name and work of the dancers, choreographers and musicians remain in the major theaters in the world. By 1920, the ballet stretches across Europe and America. There is modern dance born in England. In the 40's was founded by the American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet in New York. In the second half of the twentieth century, Russian companies were represented in the West that produced a huge impact for their expressive intensity and technical dramatic virtuosity. Russian influence on ballet is enormous: Rudolf Nureyev, artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1983 to 1989, Natalia Makarova, Mikhail Bartshnikov, director of American Ballet Theater from 1980 to 1989. The current ballet repertoire offers great variety. The dancers are constantly trying to expand their technical and dramatic potentialities. We assist here to the birth of new ballets that are recreations of old ones with new assemblies. Modern dance, which was initiated in the late nineteenth century, began to develop in the U.S. and Germany between the years 1920 and 1930. The American dancers Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey and the German Mary Wigman broke with the traditional ballet to create their own styles.

Martha Graham developed a technique so as codified academic dance. This type of dance is called "Modern and Contemporary," and although it would include other choreographers, she has been one of the personalities of the century. The movement vocabulary in ballet was expanded with modern dance movements that produce the dancers lying, seated and with the use of the torso. After years of antagonism, modern dance and ballet erase borders and it is the dancer who dances both styles, to speak of a "theater dance, new concept but now handled by Jean George Noverre in 1760 in his book. "Heliogabale", choreographed by Maurice Béjart premiered at the Teatro della Scala in Milan on 24 September 1976. Ballet of the Twentieth Century