Dance History Test 2

Russia and petipa

St. Petersburg

• Maryinsky

  • director: Ivan Vsevolojsky

• Imperial Court watched ballet

• Imported talent (francomania)

• conservative - almost stiffling

• Balletomanes - obsessed with ballet, called the shots behind the scenes - basically policing petipa (part of reason its so conservative) 

• dancers treated like pampered pets lowkey, objectified and prized (treated well for the time I suppose)

Moscow

• Bolshoi

  • director: Alexander Gorsky

• regular people watch ballet

• Russian Nationalism

  • Actors and writers: Anton Tchekov, Stanislavsky - not appreciated in St. Petersburg because of francomania

• Liberal - more willing to experiment

• dancers pretty much treated like regular people - had other jobs,

Ivan Vsevolojsky

• director of Maryinsky (imperial therater)

• pushed hard for reform and improving state of ballet company

• fostered tchaikovsky collab

• imported talent from france

  • Virginia Zucchi - dramtics

  • Pierina Legnani - tricks and 32 fuettes og. in Cinderella

  • Carlotta Brianza - technician and drama - og aurora

Ballet masters in St. Petersburg Lineage (francomania)

1. Charles Didelot - reps transition to romanticism, post boroque reform, Noverre Ballet d’Action

2. Jules Perrot - reps romantic era

3. Arthur Saint-Leon - also romantic, russian nationalism

4. Marius Petipa - Classical Era

5. Michel Fokine - shows russian ballet off the west

Arthur Saint-Leon

• romantic era

• produced ballets trying to promote russian nationalism

  • *humpback horse 1864

• jumping back and forth to choreograph in the west - did Coppelia in france - petipa does daughter of Pharaoh while he’s gone and arthur gets jealous

Marius Petipa

• Classical Era

• from a dance family - brother to lucien petipa → sent to russia to be a dancer out of luciens shadow

• works as #2 to perrot and saint leon - learns a whole lot during his awful long apprenticeship, also learned what not to do

• Daughter of Pharoh 1862 (before he’s ballet master

• had a ballet formula

• forced to resign after last ballet “Magic Mirror” is booed off the stage cuz new director told everyone it would be bad

Petipa Formula - Hallmarks for classical ballet

• processionals and divertissments 

• grand pas de duex - entrée, adagio, male variation, female variation coda

• classical, demi-character, character dances

• mime

• classical tutu

• ****no dramatic cohesiveness - breaks in story for bows and solos to shoe off technique 

Romanticism in decline

• en travestie - women wearing men’s clothes and doing their roles

• green room

• ideas of ballet d’action are all gone, no more drama, only pretty girls

• new interests - opera/singing - Jenny Lind (swedish nightingale)

• Exodus to Russia - Perrot and Saint Leon - no one wanted to see them dance anymore, and the arts were stagnating

• tragedies of romantic ballerinas

• arrival of Can-Can (gentlemen’s entertainment)

• Franco-Prussian War

Russia As next “leader” in ballet world"

• doesn’t go through industrial revolution at same time as western Europe

• French revolution mean’t no more elite in france → funding for arts is inconsistent

• ***Czar and elite still in Russia (St. Petersburg) → consistent funding for the arts

• strong agricultural heritage - men and women equally respected and responsible for making a living

• **Francomania - they were obsessed with what was going on in western europe (france especially)

Balletomanes

• people obsessed with ballet to a point that it’s lowkey weird

• rich guys usually - had the money so called the shots behind the scenes

• more conservative 

Christian Johansson

• dancer: trained by Vestris and Bournonville, Danish ballet trad.

• teacher - taught Bournonville tech., “class of perfection”

• petipa lowk stole some of his class combos and put them into his men’s variations

Pavel Gerdt

• first prince Desiré in Sleeping Beauty

• teacher - considered guardian of the classical tradition

• daughter Yelisaveta inspires balanchine

Colonel Telyakovsky

• replaces Ivan Vsevolojsky as director of the imperial theater (Maryinsky) in 1901

• wanted new and exciting → petipa out - told everyone petipa’s new ballet was bad

  • petipa forced to resign - replaced by fokine

court composers who worked with petipa

• Ludwig Minkus

  • Don Quixote

  • La Bayadère

  • Paquita

• Cesare Pugni

Erico Cecchetti 

• og bluebird sleeping beauty

• Italian - ideals of Carlo Blasis

• part of exporting russian ballet ot the west

Tchaikovsky

• Russian composer - went through the imperial system for training musicians

• ballets in order of fame

  • sleeping beauty

  • the nutcracker

  • swan lake*

The nutcracker

• petipa was sick so he gave his notes to Lev Ivanov to choreograph it

• og a flop but stuck around long enough to find audience because of incredible music

Swan lake

• actually first ballet Tchaikovsky wrote but didn’t succeed until after his death

• act 2 choreographed by Ivanov as a memorial tribute to Tchaikovsky

  • success→ they do the whole ballet

    • Acts 1 &3 Petipa- castle scenes, divertissments

    • acts 2 &4 Ivanov- romantic lake scenes

• “ultimate” classical ballet

  • huge emotional narrative 

  • razzle dazzle and pas de deux

classical tutu

short or pancake tutu - to show off legs and technique

divertissements

• pause in the story for dances to show off kinda

• dancing for the sake of dancing 

• cue second act of nutcracker

types of dances in petipa ballet

• Classical

  • technique

  • pointe work

  • think dancer noble type

• demi-character

  • still pointe but extra movements - usually animals

• character dances

  • like folk dances - usually directly inspired and integrated

  • in heels or boots

classicism 

• Apollonian - technique

• formality, control,

• rigidity - specific rules

• pancake tutus 

• Petipa’s formula, symmetrical formations, all kinda looked the same - it’s also what the balletomanes wanted

Processional

• dance to kick off divertissement or an act

• basically where everyone comes out

• ex angels in nutcracker