The Three Graces: embodiment of the Romantic ballet, lithograph by Chalon, circa 1840. The lithograph depicts what is considered to be the three greatest ballerinas of the era in their most celebrated roles: Marie Taglioni as the Sylph in La Sylphide, Fanny Elssler as Florinda in the dance La Cachucha from Jean Coralli's 1836 ballet Le Diable boiteux^(fr), and Carlotta Grisi as Béatrix in the Grand pas de Diane chasseresse from the 1842 ballet La Jolie Fille du Gand.

The Romantic ballet is defined primarily by an era in ballet in which the ideas of Romanticism in art and literature influenced the creation of ballets. The era occurred during the early to mid 19th century primarily at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique of the Paris Opera Ballet and Her Majesty's Theatre in London. The era is typically considered to have begun with the 1827 début in Paris of the ballerina Marie Taglioni in the ballet La Sylphide, and to have reached its zenith with the premiere of the divertissement Pas de Quatre staged by the Ballet Master Jules Perrot in London in 1845. The Romantic ballet had no immediate end, but rather a slow decline. Arthur Saint-Léon's 1870 ballet Coppélia is considered to be the last work of the Romantic Ballet.

Many of the works of the Romantic ballet focused on the conflict between man and nature, society and the supernatural, while others focused on bringing the exotic worlds of far off lands and national character into the ballets of the period. The era gave way to decline of the male dancer, while ballerina took centre stage. Furthermore, the development of pointework, although still at a fairly basic stage, profoundly affected people's perception of the ballerina. Many lithographs of the period show her virtually floating, poised only on the tip of a toe. This idea of weightlessness was capitalised on in ballets such as La Sylphide and Giselle and the famous leap apparently attempted by Carlotta Grisi in La Péri.

Other features which distinguished Romantic ballet were the separate identity of the scenarist or author from the choreographer and the presence of specially written music as opposed to a pastiche typical of the ballet of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The invention of gas lighting enabled gradual changes and enhanced the mysteriousness of many ballets with its softer gleam. Illusion became more diverse with wires and trap doors being widely used.

Cult of the ballerina[link]

The Romantic era marked the rise of the ballerina as a central part of ballet, where previously men had dominated performances.

Marie Taglioni became the prototypical Romantic ballerina, praised highly for her lyricism. The movement style for Romantic ballerinas was characterized by soft, rounded arms and a forward tilt in the upper body. This gave the woman a flowery, willowy look. Leg movements became more elaborate due to the new tutu length and rising standards of technical proficiency. Important Romantic ballerinas included, in addition to Marie Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, the first "Giselle", Lucille Grahn, Fanny Cerrito, and Fanny Elssler.

According to an article on answers.com the plots of many ballets were dominated by spirit women—sylphs, wilis, and ghosts—who enslaved the hearts and senses of mortal men and made it impossible for them to live happily in the real world.[1] see also: Cult of the ballerina

Design and scenography[link]

Romantic tutu[link]

The costume for the Romantic ballerina was the Romantic tutu. This was a full, white, multi-layered skirt made of tulle. The ballerina wore a white bodice with the tutu. In the second acts of Romantic ballets, representing the spiritual realm, the corps de ballet appeared onstage in Romantic tutus, giving rise to the term "white act" or "ballet-blanc". The dancers wore pointe shoes to give the effect of floating. However, sometimes they decided to throw in extra sharp, sassy movements to portray the given concept or intent, often using high kicks and fast turns.

Lithograph by Chalon of Carlotta Grisi (left), Marie Taglioni (center), Lucille Grahn (right back), and Fanny Cerrito (right front) in the Perrot/Pugni Pas de Quatre. London, 1845. The premiere of the Pas de Quatre is considered to be the Romantic ballet at its zenith

Special effects[link]

Romantic ballet owed much to the new developments in theater effects, particularly gas lighting (limelight). Candles had been previously used to light theaters, but gas lighting allowed for dimming effects and other subtleties. Combined with the effects of the Romantic tutu, ballerinas posing en pointe, and the use of wires to make dancers "fly," directors used gas lighting to create supernatural spectacles onstage.

Notable ballets[link]

• La Somnambule (1827)
• La Sylphide (1832)
• Le Diable boiteux^(fr) (1836)
• La Fille du Danube (1836)
• La Gipsy (1839)
• Le Diable amoureux, a.k.a. Satanella (1840)
• Giselle (1841)
• La Jolie Fille du Gand (1842)
• La Péri (1843)
• Ondine (1843)
• La Vivandière (1844)
• La Esmeralda (1844)
• Éoline, ou La Dryade (1845)
• Le Diable à Quatre (1845)
• Pas de Quatre (ballet-divertissement) (1845)
• Catarina, or La Fille du Bandit (1846)
• Lalla Rookh (1846)
• Le Jugement de Paris (1846)
• Paquita (1846)
• La Fille de Marbre (1847)
• La Vivandière, a.k.a. Markitenka (1844)
• Electra, ou La Pléiade perdue (1849)
• Le Violon du Diable (1849)
• La Filleule des Fées (1849)
• Les Métamorphoses (1850)
• Vert-Vert (1851)
• Le Corsaire (1856)
• Le Papillon (1861)

Notable choreographers[link]

Notable composers[link]

Notable theatres[link]

v t e Ballet terms Ballet d'action Barre Ballet blanc Comic ballet Contemporary ballet Ballets de cour Demi-soloist Divertissement Narrative ballet Neoclassical ballet Opéra-ballet Pas de deux Pas de quatre Pas de trois Pièce d'occasion Pointe shoes Romantic ballet Turnout Tutu Variation

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Lithograph by Chalon and Lane of Marie Taglioni as Flora in Didelot's Zéphire et Flore. London, 1831 (Victoria and Albert Museum/Sergeyev Collection).

Marie Taglioni (April 23, 1804 – April 24, 1884) was a Italian/Swedish ballet dancer of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance.

Biography[link]

Taglioni was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to the Italian choreographer Filippo Taglioni and the Swedish ballet dancer Sophie Karsten, maternal granddaughter of the Swedish opera singer Christoffer Christian Karsten and of the Polish opera singer and actress Sophie Stebnowska. Taglioni rose to fame as a danseuse when her father (and teacher) created the ballet La Sylphide (1832) for her. Designed as a showcase for Taglioni's talent, it was the first ballet where dancing en pointe had an aesthetic rationale and was not merely an acrobatic stunt, often involving ungraceful arm movements and exertions, as had been the approach of dancers in the late 1820s.

Marie Taglioni was one of the most celebrated ballerinas of the romantic ballet, which was cultivated primarily at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, and at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique of the Paris Opera Ballet.

In 1827 Taglioni left the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre to take up a three-year contract in Saint Petersburg with the Imperial Ballet (known today as the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet). It was in Russia after her last performance in the country (1842) and at the height of the "cult of the ballerina", that a pair of her pointe shoes were sold for two hundred rubles, reportedly to be cooked, served with a sauce and eaten by a group of balletomanes.^[1] In July 1845, she danced with Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, and Fanny Cerrito in Jules Perrot's Pas de Quatre.

Taglioni was also known for shortening her skirt in the performance La Sylphide, which was considered highly scandalous at the time. She shortened all of her skirts to show off her excellent pointe work, which the long skirts hid. Her father was approving of the shortening of the skirt because he also wanted everyone to see how good his daughter was en pointe.

Taglioni retired from performing in 1847; for a time she took up residence at the Ca' d'Oro on the Grand Canal in Venice. When the ballet of the Paris Opera was reorganized on stricter, more professional lines, she was its guiding spirit. With the director of the new Conservatoire de danse, Lucien Petipa, and Petipa's former pupil, the choreographer Louis Mérante, she figured on the six-member select jury of the first annual competition for the corps de ballet, held April 13, 1860.

Later she taught social dance to children and society ladies; she also took a limited number of ballet pupils. Her only choreographic work was Le papillon (1860) for her student Emma Livry, who is remembered for dying in 1863 when her costume was set alight by a gas lamp used for stage lighting. Johann Strauss II composed the "Marie Taglioni Polka" (Op. 173) in her honour, using music from ballets in which she had appeared.

Taglioni died in Marseille in 1884.

References[link]

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Taglioni, Marie". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

External links[link]

Media related to Marie Taglioni at Wikimedia Commons

• Marie Taglioni, the Italian Ballerina
• Marie Taglioni (1804–1884): A life on toe tip (web presentation of the Taglioni collection in the Netherlands Music Institute)
• Marie Taglioni Biography: A Revolutionary Ballerina

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Gerald Arpino (January 14, 1923 – October 29, 2008) was an American dancer and choreographer. He was co-founder of the The Joffrey Ballet and succeeded Robert Joffrey as its artistic director in 1988.^[1]

Life and career[link]

Born in Staten Island, New York, Gerald Arpino studied ballet with Mary Ann Wells, while stationed with the Coast Guard in Seattle, Washington. Arpino first met Robert Joffrey at Wells's school. He studied modern dance with May O'Donnell in whose company he appeared in the 1950s.^[2]

In 1956, Arpino was a founding member of the Robert Joffrey Theatre Ballet with Robert Joffrey. He served as co-director of the company's school, the American Ballet Center, and was the leading dancer until an injury forced him to stop in 1963. ^[3] By 1965 he had choreographed five works for the company, and became the Joffrey's co-director and resident choreographer. In the first twenty-five years of the company's existence, Arpino had created more than a third of all its commissioned ballets.^[4][5]

After the death of Robert Joffrey in 1988, Arpino became the Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet and in 1995 moved the company to Chicago. In July 2007, he was named "Artistic Director Emeritus" as a search for a successor began. Arpino suffered from prostate cancer for seven months and eventually died on October 29, 2008.

Malcolm McDowell plays a character loosely based on Arpino in the Robert Altman film The Company, which had the participation of the Joffrey Ballet.

Choreography for The Joffrey Ballet[link]

References[link]

• Chujoy, Anatole. The Dance Encyclopedia. (Simon and Schuster, 1967) ISBN 0-671-24027-7
• Doeser, Linda. Ballet and Dance: The World's Major Companies, 1977. ISBN 0-312-06599-X
• Whitney, Mary. Joffrey Ballet XXV: Celebrating 25 Years of the Joffrey Ballet from A to Z (Steelograph Co. Inc., 1981). 64 pages.
• Anawalt, Sasha (1996). The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company. New York, NY: Scribner. ISBN 0-684-19724-3. 

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• The Gerald Arpino and Robert Joffrey Foundation
• Joffrey Ballet Website
• Associated Press obituary in the NY Times, October 29, 2008

v t e Ballet General information ballets companies glossary history music timeline Ballet terminology Ballet d'action Barre Ballet blanc Comic ballet Contemporary ballet Ballets de cour Demi-soloist Divertissement Narrative ballet Neoclassical ballet Opéra-ballet Pas de deux Pas de quatre Pas de trois Pièce d'occasion Pointe shoes Romantic ballet Turnout Tutu Variation Ballet by genre character classical contemporary neoclassical Ballet by region British French Italian Russian Dancers American British French Russian Technique Balanchine Bournonville Cecchetti Royal Academy Vaganova Ballet apparel dance belt leotard pointe shoes slippers tights tutu unitard Schools The National Ballet School of Canada Stuttgart Ballet Cuban National Ballet School Elmhurst School for Dance English National Ballet School Moscow State Academy of Choreography Royal Ballet School School of American Ballet La Scala Theatre Ballet School Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet Royal Winnipeg Ballet Companies American Ballet Theatre Anaheim Ballet Atlanta Ballet Ballet Manila Ballet Philippines Barcelona Ballet Berlin State Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet Bolshoi Ballet Boston Ballet Cairo Opera Ballet Company Cape Town City Ballet Carolina Ballet Cincinnati Ballet Cuban National Ballet Dayton Ballet Donetsk Ballet Dutch National Ballet English National Ballet Finnish National Ballet Georgian National Ballet Greek National Opera Guangzhou Ballet Hamburg Ballet Hong Kong Ballet Houston Ballet Iaşi Romanian National Opera Iranian National Ballet Company Joffrey Ballet K-ballet Kiev Ballet Korea National Ballet Company La Scala Theatre Ballet Les Ballets de Monte Carlo Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Los Angeles Ballet Mariinsky Ballet Moldova National Opera Ballet National Ballet of Canada National Ballet of China National Ballet Theater of Puerto Rico National Opera and Ballet National Theatre Munich New Jersey Ballet New York City Ballet Norwegian National Opera and Ballet Oklahoma City Ballet Oregon Ballet Theatre Pacific Northwest Ballet Paris Opera Ballet Philippine Ballet Theatre Polish National Ballet Queensland Ballet Royal Danish Ballet Royal New Zealand Ballet Royal Swedish Ballet Royal Winnipeg Ballet San Francisco Ballet Scottish Ballet Shanghai Ballet Company Spanish National Dance Company Stuttgart Ballet The Australian Ballet The Royal Ballet Tokyo Ballet Tulsa Ballet Universal Ballet West Australian Ballet Ballet portal Did you know? today's news today's article today's biography today's picture recent news 2009 2008