Painting of ballet dancers by Edgar Degas, 1872.

Edgar Degas, Classical Bell Tutus in "The Dance Class" by Degas, 1874.)

Anna Pavlova in Giselle, wearing a Romantic Tutu

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with most of the audience seated on tiers or galleries on three sides of the dance floor. It has since become a highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary. It is primarily performed with the accompaniment of classical music and has been influential as a form of dance globally. Ballet has been taught in ballet schools around the world, which use their own cultures and societies to inform the art. Ballet dance works (ballets) are choreographed and performed by trained artists, include mime and acting, and are set to music (usually orchestral but occasionally vocal). It is a poised style of dance that incorporates the foundational techniques for many other dance forms. This genre of dance is very hard to master and requires much practice. It is best known in the form of late Romantic ballet or Ballet Blanc, which preoccupies itself with the female dancer to the exclusion of almost all else, focusing on pointe work, flowing, precise acrobatic movements, and often presenting the dancers in the conventional short white French tutu. Later developments include expressionist ballet, neoclassical ballet, and elements of modern dance.

Etymology[link]

The word ballet comes from the French and was borrowed into English around 1630. The French word in turn has its origin in Italian balletto, a diminutive of ballo (dance) which comes from Latin ballo, ballare, meaning "to dance",^[1][2] which in turn comes from the Greek "βαλλίζω" (ballizo), "to dance, to jump about".^[3][4]

History[link]

Harlequin and Columbina from the mime theater at Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The history of ballet began in the Italian Renaissance courts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as a dance interpretation of fencing. It quickly spread to the French court of Catherine de' Medici where it was developed even further. The creation of classical ballet as we know it today occurred under Louis XIV, who in his youth was himself an avid dancer and performed in ballets by Pierre Beauchamp and Jean-Baptiste Lully. In 1661 Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse (Royal Dance Academy) which was charged with establishing standards for the art of dance and the certification of dance instructors. In 1672, following his retirement from the stage, Louis XIV made Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique (Paris Opera) in which the first professional ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet, arose.^[5] This origin is reflected in the predominance of French in the vocabulary of ballet. Despite the great reforms of Jean-Georges Noverre in the eighteenth century, ballet went into decline in France after 1830, though it was continued in Denmark, Italy, and Russia. It was reintroduced to western Europe on the eve of the First World War by a Russian company: the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, who came to be influential around the world. Diaghilev's company came to be a destination for many of the Russian trained dancers fleeing the famine and unrest that followed the Bolshevik revolution. These dancers brought many of the choreographic and stylistic innovations that had been flourishing under the czars back to their place of origin.

In the 20th century, ballet had a strong influence on broader concert dance. For example, in the United States, choreographer George Balanchine developed what is now known as neoclassical ballet. Subsequent developments now include contemporary ballet and post-structural ballet, seen in the work of William Forsythe in Germany.

Classical ballet[link]

Classical ballet is the most methodical of the ballet styles; it adheres to traditional ballet technique. There are variations relating to area of origin, such as French ballet, Danish Bournonville ballet, Italian ballet and Russian ballet, although most ballet of the last two centuries is ultimately founded on the teachings of Carlo Blasis. The most well-known styles of ballet are the Paris Opera Ballet School Method, the Russian Method, the Italian Method, the Danish Method, the Balanchine Method or New York City Ballet Method, and the Royal Academy of Dance and Royal Ballet School Methods, derived from the Cecchetti method, created in England. The first pointe shoes were actually regular ballet slippers that were heavily darned at the tip. It would allow the girl to briefly stand on her toes to appear weightless. It was later converted to the hard box that is used today.

Classical ballet adheres to these rules:

• A step called 'plié' is often used and is where both legs are bent at the same time.
• Everything is turned out except when playing more unusual characters e.g. The Beatrix Potter Ballet's frog for which the legs may be turned in
• When the feet are not on the floor, they're pointed except when playing unusual characters (as above) for which the feet may be flexed.
• When the leg is not bent, it's stretched completely or put behind in a semi-classical position where the leg is slightly bent, but not completely.
• Posture, alignment, strength, balance, feeling and flexibility are vital for becoming a classical ballet dancer.

Neoclassical ballet[link]

Neoclassical ballet is a ballet style that uses traditional ballet vocabulary but is less rigid than the classical ballet. For example, dancers often dance at more extreme tempos and perform more technical feats. Spacing in neoclassical ballet is usually more modern or complex than in classical ballet. Although organization in neoclassical ballet is more varied, the focus on structure is a defining characteristic of neoclassical ballet.

Scene from Act 4 of Swan Lake, Vienna State Opera, 2004

Balanchine brought modern dancers in to dance with his company, the New York City Ballet. One such dancer was Paul Taylor, who, in 1959, performed in Balanchine's Episodes. Balanchine worked with modern dance choreographer Martha Graham, expanding his exposure to modern techniques and ideas. During this time period, Tetley began to consciously combine ballet and modern techniques in experimentation.

Tim Scholl, author of From Petipa to Balanchine, considers George Balanchine's Apollo in 1928 to be the first neoclassical ballet. Apollo represented a return to form in response to Serge Diaghilev's abstract ballets.

Contemporary ballet[link]

A ballet dancer

Contemporary ballet is a form of dance influenced by both classical ballet and modern dance. It takes its technique and body control using abdominal strength from classical ballet, although it permits a greater range of movement that may not adhere to the strict body lines or turnout set forth by schools of ballet technique. Many of its concepts come from the ideas and innovations of 20th century modern dance, including floor work and turn-in of the legs. This style is generally danced barefoot.

Arms in Cecchetti's "Spanish fourth" position.

George Balanchine is often considered to have been the first pioneer of contemporary ballet through the development of neoclassical ballet. One dancer who danced briefly for Balanchine was Mikhail Baryshnikov, an exemplar of Kirov Ballet training. Following Baryshnikov's appointment as artistic director of American Ballet Theatre in 1980, he worked with various modern choreographers, most notably Twyla Tharp. Tharp choreographed Push Comes To Shove for ABT and Baryshnikov in 1976; in 1986 she created In The Upper Room for her own company. Both these pieces were considered innovative for their use of distinctly modern movements melded with the use of pointe shoes and classically trained dancers—for their use of "contemporary ballet".

Twyla Tharp also worked with the Joffrey Ballet company, founded in 1957 by Robert Joffrey. She choreographed Deuce Coupe for them in 1973, using pop music and a blend of modern and ballet techniques. The Joffrey Ballet continued to perform numerous contemporary pieces, many choreographed by co-founder Gerald Arpino.

Today there are many contemporary ballet companies and choreographers. These include Alonzo King and his company, Alonzo King's Lines Ballet; Complexions Contemporary Ballet, under the direction of Dwight Rhoden; Nacho Duato's Compañia Nacional de Danza; William Forsythe, who has worked extensively with the Frankfurt Ballet and today runs The Forsythe Company; and Jiří Kylián, currently the artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theatre. Traditionally "classical" companies, such as the Kirov Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet, also regularly perform contemporary works.

Gallery[link]

See also[link]

Pas de deux

	Ballet portal
	Dance portal

• Glossary of ballet terms

• Ballet styles
  • Ballet d'action
  • Classical ballet
  • Contemporary ballet
  • Neoclassical ballet
  • Romantic ballet

• Ballet techniques
  • French ballet
  • Russian Vaganova method
  • Italian Cecchetti method
  • English Royal Academy of Dance
  • American Balanchine Technique
• Ballet company
• Ballet music
• Ballet costume (French)
• Ballet tutu
• Barre
• En pointe
• Pointe shoes
• Health risks of professional dancers
• Orchestral enhancement
• The Sergeyev Collection
• Western stereotype of the male ballet dancer
  • Dance belt

References[link]

Notes

Sources

• Anderson, Jack (1992). Ballet & Modern Dance: A Concise History (2nd ed. ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company, Publishers. ISBN 0-87127-172-9. 
• Au, Susan (2002). Ballet & Modern Dance (2nd ed. ed.). London: Thames & Hudson world of art. ISBN 0-500-20352-0. 
• Bland, Alexander (1976). A History of Ballet and Dance in the Western World. New York: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-53740-4. 
• Chantrell, Glynnis, ed. (2002). The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Word Histories. New York: Berkley Books. ISBN 0-425-19098-6. 
• Craine, Deborah; MacKrell, Judith (2000). The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860106-7.
• Darius, Adam (2007). Arabesques Through Time. Harlequinade Books, Helsinki. ISBN 951-98232-4-7
• Gordon, Suzanne (1984). Off Balance: The Real World of Ballet. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-023770-0. 
• Kirstein, Lincoln; Stuart, Muriel (1952). The Classic Ballet. New York: Alfred A Knopf. 
• Lee, Carol (2002). Ballet In Western Culture: A History of its Origins and Evolution. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94256-X. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ballet

• American Ballet Theatre: Ballet Terms Dictionary

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ballet". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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Polina Semionova, born in Moscow in 1984, is a classical ballet dancer and Principal with the Berlin State Opera.^[1] She is de facto prima ballerina and is one of the youngest dancers to achieve this particular kind of recognition.

Studying at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow, Russia, she won awards in the top ballet competitions; including a gold medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition 2001, First Prize at the Vaganova-Prix Ballet Competition in St Petersburg 2002, and Junior Prize at the Nagoya (Japan) International Ballet Competition 2002.

Graduating in 2002, Semionova joined the Ballet Staatsoper Berlin as a principal upon the invitation of Vladimir Malakhov,^[2] becoming the youngest principal in the company's history at the age of 18. She toured Japan as Malakhov's partner, the reason he had invited her to be a principal in the company. He gave her the lead roles in The Nutcracker and La Bayadère during her first season, following with the role of Tatiana in Onegin, which became her favourite role.

In 2003, at the age of 19, Semionova performed with the English National Ballet in Swan Lake, receiving approving reviews from English critics. The following year she joined the California Ballet in their production of The Sleeping Beauty, again impressing critics despite what they termed a disappointing overall ballet.^[3]

Appearing in Herbert Grönemeyer's music video "Demo (Letzter Tag)", which was later uploaded to the popular video site YouTube, brought her into the public eye both in the dance community and to the general public.

Semionova is one of the featured artists on EuroArts DVD "Divine Dancers Live from Prague", in which she dances a pas-de-deux from the ballet "Manon".

Partners[link]

• Roberto Bolle, La Scala di Milano
• Vladimir Malakhov, Staatsoper Berlin, American Ballet Theatre, Vienna State Opera, Stuttgart Ballet, National Ballet of Canada
• Jose Manuel Carreno, American Ballet Theatre
• Evan McKie, Stuttgart Ballet
• Mathieu Ganio, Paris Opera Ballet
• Igor Zelensky, Mariinsky Ballet
• Jiri Jelinek, National Ballet of Canada

See also[link]

• List of Russian ballet dancers

References[link]

1. ^ Wilhelmsson, Jörgen. "Polina Semionova", The Ballerina Gallery. Accessed April 13, 2007.
2. ^ Alovert, Nina. On the rise: Polina Semionova: destiny's Ball-a young ballerina's journey from student to Cinderella, Dance Magazine, October 2004. Accessed April 13, 2007.
3. ^ Steinberg, Janice. California Ballet Company, Dance Magazine, March 5–6, 2005. Accessed April 13, 2007.

George Balanchine, born Giorgi Balanchivadze (Georgian: გიორგი ბალანჩივაძე, Russian: Георгий Мелитонович Баланчивадзе) (January 22 [O.S. January 9] 1904 – April 30, 1983), was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States and the co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet.^[1] He was a choreographer known for his musicality; he expressed music with dance and worked extensively with Igor Stravinsky. Thirty-nine of his more than four hundred ballets were choreographed to music by Stravinsky.^[2]

Biography[link]

Georgia and Russia[link]

Balanchine was born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother.^[3] Balanchine's family comprised largely composers and soldiers. His father was a noted Georgian composer Meliton Balanchivadze (1862–1937), one of the initiators of the Georgian Opera, while his mother was a Russian ballet aficionado.^[3] George's brother, Andria Balanchivadze (1906–1992), became a well-known Georgian composer. As a child, Balanchine was not particularly interested in ballet but his mother loved the arts and had the young Giorgi audition with his sister, who shared her mother's passion for ballet.

Based on his audition, during 1913 (at age nine) Balanchine relocated from rural Finland to Saint Petersburg and was accepted into the Imperial Ballet School, principal school of the Imperial Ballet, where he was a student of Pavel Gerdt and Samuil Andrianov (Pavel's son-in-law).^[4] After the Bolsheviks won the Russian Revolution of 1917, they closed and disbanded the school as an elitist symbol of the Czarist regime. To survive the privation and martial law of this period, Balanchine played the piano — for food, not for money — at cabarets and silent movie theaters. Eventually the Imperial Ballet School reopened, but with greatly reduced funding from the government. After graduating with honors in 1921, Balanchine enrolled in the Petrograd Conservatory while working in the corps de ballet at the State Academic Theater for Opera and Ballet (formerly the State Theater of Opera and Ballet and known as the Mariinsky Ballet). His studies at the conservatory included advanced piano, music theory, counterpoint, harmony, and composition. Balanchine graduated from the conservatory during 1923, and danced as a member of the corps until 1924.

While still in his teens, Balanchine choreographed his first work, a pas de deux named La Nuit (1920, music by Anton Rubinstein). This was followed by another duet, Enigma, with the dancers in bare feet rather than ballet shoes. During 1923, with fellow dancers, Balanchine formed a small ensemble, the Young Ballet. The choreography proved too experimental for the new authorities.

Marriages[link]

In 1922, when Balanchine was eighteen years old, he married Tamara Geva, a fifteen-year-old dancer. After his divorce from Geva, Balanchine was with Alexandra Danilova from 1926 through 1933. He married and divorced three more times, all to women who were his dancers: Vera Zorina (December 1938 – 1946), Maria Tallchief (1946–1952), and Tanaquil Le Clercq (1952–1969). He did not have any children.

Escape to the West[link]

On a 1924 visit to Germany with the Soviet State Dancers, Balanchine, his wife Tamara Geva, and the dancers Alexandra Danilova, and Nicholas Efimov fled to Paris, where there was a large Russian community of families exiled by the Revolution. The impresario Sergei Diaghilev, another Russian exile, asked Balanchine to join his newly formed Ballets Russes as a choreographer. Diaghilev drew from all the contemporary arts to create a company with great influence.^[4]

Ballets Russes[link]

Diaghilev soon promoted Balanchine to ballet master of the company and encouraged his choreography. Between 1924 and Diaghilev's death in 1929, Balanchine created nine ballets, as well as lesser works. During these years, he worked with major composers, such as Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Ravel, and artists who designed sets and costumes, such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, and Henri Matisse, creating new works that combined all the arts. Among his new works, during 1928 in Paris, Balanchine premiered Apollon musagète (Apollo and the muses) in a collaboration with Stravinsky; it was one of his most innovative ballets, combining classical ballet and classical Greek myth and images with jazz movement. He described it as "the turning point in my life".^[5]

Apollo 1928

Suffering a serious knee injury, Balanchine had to limit his dancing, effectively ending his performance career. After Diaghilev's death, the Ballets Russes became somewhat disorganized. To earn money, Balanchine began to stage dances for Charles B. Cochran's revues and Sir Oswald Stoll's variety shows in London. He was retained by the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen as a guest ballet master.

When part of the Ballets Russes settled in Monte Carlo, Balanchine joined them and accepted a job as ballet master; directed by René Blum, the company was then named the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. He choreographed three ballets: Cotillon, La Concurrence, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. His protégée in Monte Carlo was the young Tamara Toumanova, one of the original three "baby ballerinas" that the director had selected from the Russian exile community of Paris.

When Blum gave control of the company to Colonel W. de Basil, Balanchine left the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo to act as principal choreographer for the newly-founded Les Ballets 1933. The company was financed by Edward James, a British ballet patron. Boris Kochno, Diaghilev's former secretary and companion, served as artistic advisor. The company lasted only a couple of months during 1933, performing only in Paris and London, when the Great Depression made arts more difficult to fund. Balanchine created several new works, including collaborations with composers Kurt Weill, Darius Milhaud, and Henri Sauguet, and designer Pavel Tchelitchew.

Lincoln Kirstein, a young American arts patron recently graduated from Harvard University, saw Les Ballets 1933. With the goal of establishing a ballet company in the United States, he met with and quickly persuaded Balanchine to relocate there with his assistance. By October of that year, Kirstein had brought Balanchine to New York, where he would begin influencing the character, training and techniques of American ballet and dance.

United States[link]

Architect Philip Johnson designed the New York State Theater to Balanchine's specifications.

Balanchine insisted that his first project would be to establish a ballet school because he wanted to develop dancers who had the strong technique and style he wanted. Compared to his classical training, he thought they could not dance well. With the assistance of Lincoln Kirstein and Edward M.M. Warburg, the School of American Ballet opened to students on January 2, 1934, less than 3 months after Balanchine arrived in the U.S. Later that year, Balanchine had his students play a recital, where they premiered his new work Serenade to music by Tchaikovsky at the Warburg's summer estate. The work, modified by Balanchine over the years, remains a signature work of New York City Ballet nearly eighty years after its premiere.

Between his ballet activities in the 1930s and 1940s, Balanchine choreographed for musical theater with such notables as Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and Vernon Duke.^[6] He greatly admired Fred Astaire, describing him as "the most interesting, the most inventive, the most elegant dancer of our times... you see a little bit of Astaire in everybody's dancing—- a pause here, a move there. It was all Astaire originally."

During 1935, Balanchine formed a professional company named the American Ballet. After failing to organize a tour, the company began performing as the house company for the Metropolitan Opera. In 1936, Balanchine staged Gluck's opera Orfeo and Eurydice and during 1937 an evening of dance works all choreographed to the music of Igor Stravinsky.

Relocation to West Coast[link]

Balanchine relocated his company to Hollywood during 1938, where he rented a white two-story house with "Kolya", Nicholas Kopeikine, his "rehearsal pianist and lifelong colleague",^[7] on North Fairfax Avenue not far from Hollywood Boulevard. Balanchine created dances for five movies, all of which featured Vera Zorina, whom he met on the set of The Goldwyn Follies and who subsequently became his second wife. He reconvened the company as the American Ballet Caravan and toured with it throughout North and South America, but it folded after several years. From 1944 to 1946, during and after World War II, Balanchine served as resident choreographer for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Return to New York[link]

Soon Balanchine formed a new dance company, Ballet Society, again with the generous help of Lincoln Kirstein. He continued to work with contemporary composers, such as, for example, Paul Hindemith, from whom he commissioned a score in 1940 for The Four Temperaments. First performed on November 20, 1946, this modernist work was one of his early abstract and spare ballets, angular and very different in movement. After several successful performances, the most notable featuring the ballet Orpheus created in collaboration with Stravinsky and sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi, the City of New York offered the company residency at the New York City Center. With that arrangement, Ballet Society officially became New York City Ballet in 1948.

In 1955, Balanchine created his version of The Nutcracker, in which he played the mime role of Drosselmeyer. The company has since performed the ballet every year in New York City during the Christmas season. One of its most famous productions, The Nutcracker has been a money-making tradition for NYCB and other companies that perform it. It was filmed for theatrical release in 1993 by director Emile Ardolino, danced by NYCB with specially written narration spoken by Kevin Kline and released on DVD by Warner Brothers Home Video.

Balanchine with Suzanne Farrell in Don Quixote.

When Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts was constructed, NYCB was offered the New York State Theater (renamed the David H. Koch Theater since 2008 when the billionaire made a donation of one hundred million dollars for major renovations). Balanchine collaborated with architect Philip Johnson in determining its design and finally had a theater large enough for the works he wanted to stage when the house opened in 1964. He often created large-scale works there, from American themes and Broadway, such as Stars and Stripes for the premiere performance, to drawing from European traditions and music, such as his 1977 Vienna Waltzes, a lavishly designed one-hour ballet choreographed to music by Johann Strauss II, Franz Lehár, and Richard Strauss.

During the 1960s, Balanchine created and revised nearly forty ballets including in 1965 a rare foray into the genre of evening-length story ballets, Don Quixote in which he played the title role. His created the lead female role for Suzanne Farrell, the young ballerina of whom he was greatly enamored at the time and for whom he would create many roles until the end of his career. Among the most notable is the Diamonds section of the plotless evening-length three-act ballet Jewels to music of Tchaikovsky. Some ballerinas, including his former wife Maria Tallchief, quit the company, citing his obsession with Farrell as the reason. Balanchine obtained a Mexican divorce from then-wife Tanaquil LeClercq during this time.

In the summer of 1972, a year after the death of Stravinsky, Balanchine staged another Stravinsky Festival, for which he choreographed several major new works including the "miracle" ballets Stravinsky Violin Concerto and Symphony in Three Movements, both of which premiered on June 18, 1972.

Death[link]

After years of illness, Balanchine died on April 30, 1983, in New York City of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, diagnosed only after his death. He first showed symptoms during 1978 when he began losing his balance while dancing. As the disease progressed, his equilibrium, eyesight and hearing deteriorated. By 1982, he was incapacitated. The night of his death, the company went on with its scheduled performance, which included Divertimento No. 15 and Symphony in C at Lincoln Center.^[8] In his last years, Balanchine also suffered from angina and underwent heart bypass surgery.^[9]

Legacy and honors[link]

• 1978, Balanchine received the Kennedy Center Honors Award the first year the awards were given.
• With his School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet, and 400 choreographed works, Balanchine transformed American dance and created modern ballet, developing a unique style with his dancers highlighted by brilliant speed and attack.
• 1987, posthumously inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame.
• Presidential Freedom of Honor Medal
• Balanchine 100: The Centennial Celebration ^[10]

Selected Choreographed Works[link]

For Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev[link]

• Le Chant du Rossignol (The Song of the Nightingale) (1925)
• Jack in the Box (1926)
• Pastorale (1926)
• Barabau (1926)
• La Chatte (1927)
• Le Triomphe de Neptune (1927)
• Apollo (1928)
• The Prodigal Son (1929)
• Le Bal (1929)

For Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo[link]

• Cotillon (1932)
• Concurrence (1932)
• Balustrade (1941)
• Danses Concertantes (1944 and 1972)
• La Sonnambula (1946)

For Les Ballets 1933[link]

• The Seven Deadly Sins (1933)
• Errante (1933)
• Les Songes (1933)
• Fastes (1933)

For the American Ballet[link]

• Alma Mater (1934)
• Les Songes (Dreams) (1934)
• Mozartiana (1934)
• Serenade (1935)
• Errante (1935)
• Reminiscence (1935)
• Jeu de cartes (variously, Card Game or The Card Party) (1937)
• Le Baiser de la Fée (originally titled The Fairy's Kiss) (1937)

For Broadway[link]

• Ziegfeld Follies of 1936
  • Words without Music: A Surrealist Ballet, a production number for the singing and dancing ensemble
  • Night Flight, a solo for Harriet Hoctor
  • 5 A.M., a number for Josephine Baker and male dancers
• On Your Toes (1936), music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart; starring Tamara Geva and Ray Bolger
  • Princess Zenobia Ballet (1936)
  • Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1936)

This dramatic ballet served as the climax of this musical production and has subsequently been presented as a stand-alone piece; however, several of the sung numbers in the show featured dance routines as well, notably the title number.

• Babes in Arms (1937), by Rodgers and Hart
• I Married an Angel (1938), by Rodgers and Hart; starring Vera Zorina
• The Boys from Syracuse (1938), by Rodgers and Hart
• Great Lady (1938), music by Frederick Loewe
• Keep Off the Grass (1940), a musical revue
• Lousiana Purchase (1940), music and lyrics by Irving Berlin; with William Gaxton and Vera Zorina
• Cabin in the Sky (1940), music by Vernon Duke, lyrics by John Latouche; starring Ethel Waters and Katherine Dunham, who collaborated with Balanchine on the choreography
• The Lady Comes Across (1942), by Duke and Latouche; a notable flop
• Rosalinda (1942), an operetta with music by Johann Strauss
• The Merry Widow (1943), an operetta with music by Franz Lehár
• What's Up? (1943), lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe
• Dream with Music (1944), a musical fantasy starring Vera Zorina
• Song of Norway (1944), an operetta based on the life and music of Edvard Grieg; Balanchine's most successful Broadway show
• Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston (1945), another flop
• The Chocolate Soldier (1947), an operetta with music by Oscar Straus
• Where's Charley? lyrics and music by Frank Loesser, a long-running show starring Ray Bolger
• Courtin' Time (1951), music and lyrics by Don Walker and Jack Lawrence
• House of Flowers (1954), music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Truman Capote and Harold Arlen; starring [[Pearl Bailey[[, Diahann Carroll, and Juanita Hall; Balanchine's choreography was rearranged by Herbert Ross before the Broadway opening

For Hollywood[link]

• The Goldwyn Follies (1938), with Vera Zorina and William Dollar as principal dancers
  • "Romeo and Juliet," with ballet dancers as the Capulets and tap dancers as the Montagues
  • "Water Nymph Ballet," in which Zorina rose from the depths of a pool
• On Your Toes (1939), the film version of the Broadway show, starring Vera Zorina and Eddie Albert
• I Was an Adventuress (1940), starring Vera Zorina
• Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), a wartime morale booster for military troops
  • "That Old Black Magic," sung by Johnny Johnston, danced by Vera Zorina
• Follow the Boys (1944), with Vera Zorina and George Raft

For American Ballet Caravan[link]

• Ballet Imperial (later referred to as the Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2) (1941)
• Concerto Barocco (1941)

For the Ballet del Teatro de Colón[link]

• Mozart Violin Concerto (1942)

For Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo[link]

• Song of Norway (1944)
• Danses Concertantes (1944)
• Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1944)
• Pas de Deux (Grand adagio) (1945)
• The Night Shadow (1946)
• Raymonda (1946)

For Ballet Theatre[link]

• Waltz Academy (1944)
• Theme and Variations (1947)

For Ballet Society[link]

• The Four Temperaments (1946)
• L'enfant et Les Sortilèges (The Spellbound Child) (1946)^[11]
• Haieff Divertimento (1947)
• Symphonie Concertante (1947)
• Orpheus (1948)

For the Paris Opera Ballet[link]

• Palais de Cristal (renamed Symphony in C) (1947)

For Le Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas[link]

• Pas de Trois Classique (also known as Minkus Pas de Trois) (1948)

For New York City Ballet[link]

• La Sonnambula (1946)
• Bourrée Fantasque (1949)
• The Firebird (1949; later revised with Jerome Robbins)
• Sylvia Pas De Deux (1950)
• Swan Lake (after Lev Ivanov) (1951)
• La Valse (1951)
• Harlequinade Pas De Deux (1952)
• Metamorphoses (1952)
• Scotch Symphony (1952)
• Valse Fantaisie (1953/1967)
• The Nutcracker (1954)
• Ivesiana (1954)
• Western Symphony (1954)
• Glinka Pas De Trois (1955)
• Pas De Dix (1955)
• Divertimento No. 15 (1956)
• Allegro Brillante (1956)
• Agon (1957)
• Square Dance (1957)
• Gounod Symphony (1958)
• Stars and Stripes (a ballet in 5 "campaigns")' (1958)
• Episodes (1959)
• Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux (1960)
• Monumentum pro Gesualdo (1960)
• Donizetti Variations (1960)
• Liebeslieder Walzer (1960)
• Raymonda Variations (1961)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1962)
• Bugaku (1963)
• Meditation (1963)
• Movements for Piano and Orchestra (1963)
• Harlequinade (1965)
• Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (1966)
• Jewels (1967)
  • Emeralds
  • Rubies
  • Diamonds
• La Source (1968)
• Who Cares (1970)
• Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 (1970)
• Stravinsky Festival (1972)
  • Pulcinella (with Jerome Robbins)
  • Stravinsky Violin Concerto
  • Symphony in Three Movements
  • Duo Concertant
  • Lost Sonata
  • Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la fée"
  • Choral Variations on Bach's "Vom Himmel Hoch"
  • Danses Concertantes
  • Scherzo Á La Russe
• Cortège Hongrois (1973)
• Coppélia (1974)
• Variations pour une porte et un soupir (1974)
• Ravel Festival (1975)
  • Sonatine
  • Tzigane
  • Le tombeau de Couperin
  • Pavane
  • Shéhérazade
  • Gaspard de la Nuit
  • Rapsodie Espagnole
• The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1975)
• Chaconne (1976)
• Union Jack (1976)
• Vienna Waltzes (1977)
• Ballo della Regina (1978)
• Kammermusik No. 2 (1978)
• Robert Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze (1980)
• Walpurgisnacht Ballet (1980)
• Tschaikovsky Festival (1981)
  • Garland Dance from The Sleeping Beauty
  • Mozartiana
• Stravinsky Centennial Celebration (1982)
  • Élégie

For New York City Opera[link]

• Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1979)

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Taper, Bernard (1996). George Balanchine: A Biography. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20639-8. 

• Schorer, Suki (1999). On Balanchine Technique. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45060-2. 

• Joseph, Charles M. (2002). Stravinsky and Balanchine, A Journey of Invention. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08712-8. 

• Gottlieb, Robert (2004). George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-075070-7. 

• Goldner, Nancy (2008). Balanchine Variations. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 

• Goldner, Nancy (2011). More Balanchine Variations. Gainesville: University Press of Flordia. 

See also[link]

• Balanchine method
• List of Russian ballet dancers
• List of ballets by George Balanchine
• List of Eastern Bloc defectors
• Category: Ballets by George Balanchine

Articles[link]

• Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times, June 30, 2003
• Robert Gottlieb,"Keeper of the Jewels", The New York Review of Books, volume 55, number 15, October 9, 2008
• Anna Kisselgoff, obituary, Sunday New York Times, May 1, 1983

External links[link]

• George Balanchine at the Internet Movie Database
  • Biography for George Balanchine at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website George Balanchine Foundation
• Official website George Balanchine Trust
• Official website NYCB
  • Official website SAB
• Firebird performed by Maria Tallchief and Michael Maule, Jacob's Pillow, 1951
  • Suzanne Farrell on Balanchine: More than Technique Jacob's Pillow, 2006
• George Balanchine: Master of the Dance American Masters, PBS, January 14, 2004
• Guide to George Balanchine archive at Houghton Library Harvard University

Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton OM, CH, CBE (17 September 1904 – 18 October 1988) was a leading international dancer and choreographer. He is most noted as the founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet in London, but also worked as a director and choreographer of opera, film and theatre revues.

Early life[link]

Ashton was born at Guayaquil in Ecuador, in the artistic neighbourhood called Las Peñas, the original founding site of the city. When he was three years old he moved with his family to Lima in Peru.

When he was 13 he witnessed a life-changing event when he attended a performance by the legendary Anna Pavlova in the Municipal Theater in Lima, Peru. He was so impressed that from that day on he was determined that he would become a dancer.

Career[link]

In 1919 he went to England to attend Dover College and then to study under the famous Léonide Massine and established a working relationship with the ballet troupe belonging to Marie Rambert and Ninette de Valois. His aim was to become a great dancer, but his late introduction to dancing and slight physique made this a highly difficult ambition to fulfill. However, Rambert discovered Ashton's aptitude for choreography and allowed him to choreograph his first ballet, The Tragedy of Fashion, in 1926, starting a tremendously successful career as a choreographer.

He began his career with the Ballet Rambert which was originally called The Ballet Club. He rose to fame with Vic-Wells Ballet (later to become the Sadler's Wells Ballet before it was designated The Royal Ballet), becoming its resident choreographer in the 1930s. Work from this decade that has stayed in repertory includes Les Patineurs, Les Rendezvous, and A Wedding Bouquet.

World War II inspired Ashton to create some works along more sombre lines, including Dante Sonata (recently reconstructed after having been thought lost), and after the war he turned to plotless ballet, with such works as Symphonic Variations and Scènes de ballet.

The end of the war saw his first major three-act ballet for a British company, his version of Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella (1948), which was followed by Sylvia (1952), and Ondine (1958), with choreography created especially to display Margot Fonteyn's unique talents and music by Hans Werner Henze. While Ondine was a vehicle for Fonteyn, Marguerite and Armand displayed the excellence of Fonteyn's partnership with Rudolf Nureyev. His version of La fille mal gardée was particularly successful, and his broad travesti performances as one of two comic Ugly Stepsisters in Cinderella, the other being Robert Helpmann, were annual events for many years.

Ashton was Director of the Royal Ballet from 1963 to 1970. He brought new works by Antony Tudor to the company, as well as guaranteeing the survival of several of Bronislava Nijinska's ballets by having her mount Les Noces and Les Biches. Two important revivals of George Balanchine's works also marked Ashton's time as Director.

He also enjoyed a productive career away from ballet as a choreographer for films, revues, and musicals. His work in opera included, in 1953, directing Kathleen Ferrier in Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice at Covent Garden. In 1971, Ashton performed the role of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle in the Royal Ballet film The Tales of Beatrix Potter, which he also choreographed.^[1]. Ashton was also responsible for choreographing the dance sequences in "The Jealous Lover" segment of the film The Story of Three Loves.

He died in 1988 at his home, Chandos Lodge, in Eye, Suffolk, England.

Personal life[link]

According to biographies such as Secret Muses: The Life of Frederick Ashton, Sir Frederick Ashton was gay.

Ashton was a great friend of the Paget family and was a frequent visitor to the family seat at Plas Newydd; it was there that one of the Paget daughters, Lady Rose fell hopelessly in love with him; he rebuffed her advances and at one point returned her letters - after having corrected her spelling. Despite this, they remained friends.

Ashton's nephew, Anthony Russell-Roberts, was Administrative Director of The Royal Ballet from 1983 to 2009.

Honours[link]

Ashton received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award from the Royal Academy of Dance in 1959. In 1962, he was knighted for his services to ballet. He was admitted into the French Légion d'honneur in the same year. He was made a Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1963, and was awarded the Gold Medal from the Carina Aria Foundation in Sweden in 1972.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Frederick Ashton (1904-1988 Founder Choreographer of The Royal Ballet. John Percival, for Royal Opera House's magazine produced for December 2007 production of Les Patineurs and Tales of Beatrix Potter.

Further reading[link]

• Frederick Ashton: a choreographer and his ballets by Zoë Dominic and John Selwyn Gilbert. London: Harrap, 1971. ISBN-X
• Frederick Ashton and his ballets by David Vaughan. London: A. and C. Black, 1977. ISBN-X
• Secret Muses: The Life of Frederick Ashton by Julie Kavanagh. London: Faber, 1996. ISBN
• Following Sir Fred's Steps: Ashton's Legacy edited by Stephanie Jordan and Andrée Grau. London: Dance Books, 1996. ISBN (also available in an online edition - see below)
• A network of Styles: Discovering the Choreographed Movement of Frederick Ashton by Geraldine Morris. University of Surrey, 2000.

External links[link]

• Ballet.co Ashton pages
• Following Sir Fred's Steps
• Parents
• Frederick Ashton's "Cinderella" ballet
• David Vaughan's chronology of Ashton ballets
• Notes on the 'Fred Step' by Alastair Macaulay
• Dover College
• Danceview's Ashton Archive
• Tutu Revue essay by Clive Barnes
• Rambert Dance Company's Ashton pages
• London Theatre Museum's Ashton pages
• Archive film of Frederick Ashton's Thais Pas de Deux performed by Nina Ananiashvili and David Ananeli in 2010 at Jacob's Pillow

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Dame Monica Mason DBE (born 6 September 1941) is a ballet dancer and has been the director of The Royal Ballet, since 2002.

Early life[link]

Monica Margaret Mason was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1941. A talented dancer, she moved to Britain at the age of 14 to join the Royal Ballet School.

Royal Ballet[link]

At the age of 16 Mason joined the Royal Ballet as the Company's youngest member, and became a principal dancer in 1968. She worked closely with the choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan, who created the roles of Lescaut's Mistress in Manon, Calliope Rag in Elite Syncopations, Summer in The Four Seasons and the Midwife in Rituals for her.

Mason was also given the role of the Chosen Maiden in The Rite of Spring that had been originally created by Diaghilev for Lydia Sokolova in the 1920s. Her last leading role was as Nursey in Isadora by Kenneth MacMillan, in 1981, although she continued to appear in mime roles as a guest artist with the Royal Ballet for some time after that.

Administrator[link]

Following her retirement as a principal dancer, Mason continued to work for the Royal Ballet company and in 1984 she was appointed Principal Répétiteur to the company. In 1991 she became Assistant Director of the company under Sir Anthony Dowell. Following the company's move to its new headquarters at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, Mason replaced Dowell's successor, Ross Stretton, as Director in late 2002.^[1] She recently announced her retirement and will leave The Royal Ballet in August 2012^[2]

Damehood[link]

Mason was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2002. In the 2008 Birthday Honours she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) .

References[link]