How much has ballet changed over the years? Would a ballet audience from 1830 or 1890 or even 1915 recognize the work of a modern ballet company as being ballet? Or would they find it unusual? What would modern ballet audiences think of ballet as it was performed in the past?
Have you ever been to a ballet before? Do you have a favorite?
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looked a bit different
Ballet goers from the 1800s would certainly recognize ballet today, but obviously it would be different. More unusual moves, more unusual music.
Today there are 2 types of Ballet - the old standards (mostly Tchaikovsky), and contemporary ballet. Contemporary has a lot of unconventional movements and obviously contemporary music.
For example, here's a section of a more recent Ballet by Lera Auerbach:
youtube.com
>Have you ever been to a ballet before?
yes, it was a mix of traditional Tchaikovsky in the first section and contemporary in the second section. The second section had a part that involved 2 newlyweds in underwear and used a mattress as a prob. Although it was well done, and easily accepted by the audience, (although a bit risqué) this kind of thing might come as a shock to someone from 1830.
The Royal Opera House has a really great series on the evolution of ballet, including visual demonstrations.
youtube.com
It's changed profoundly from the 17th century until now. Someone in the 17th-century would not recognize modern classical ballet as ballet. They might recognize some of the foot positions, but our concept of ballet differed greatly from theirs.
It's changed substantially from the 19th century until now. It's changed significantly from the 1920s until now.
Ballet audiences from the 19th-century and early 20th-century would recognize modern classical ballet productions as being ballet, however they would probably find it unusual, perhaps even garish at times. Assuming they could get over any reservations regarding any pancake tutus on stage being scandalous, they might marvel at the exceptionally high extensions and moves like fast, crisp pirouettes and fouttes. They would be surprised at the differences in the body of ballet dancers has changed as well. The typical ballet dancers in the 19th century and early 20th century were not willowy, tall and thin but muscular and even somewhat stocky. They would probably be shocked at the athleticism which in modern classical ballet focuses on using the entire body ,whereas in the 19th century the focus of athleticism was on your lower legs, feet and arms.
It depends on the modern audience, but, some modern ballet audiences would probably find 19th century style ballet to be underwhelming. They did not do as much pointe work, their extensions were quite low, they did not do as much intense technical techniques like constant fouttes and pirouettes or giant athletic leaps. Moves and techniques which modern ballet considers base standard, 19th-century ballet considered to be the "ooooh, ahhhhh" moments. For example, in the original 19th-century The Sleeping Beauty, penché arabesque (pic related) was used after much build-up and was intended to be the "oOoohHh" moment for then-contemporary audiences. Today a penché arabesque, while still requiring great technique, is not considered to be a show-stopper by audiences.
And I should clarify, I'm talking about modern classical ballet, not modern/contemporary ballet as in ballet that incorporates modern dance is or "avant garde" in any way.
Are you ballet-user who makes that great ballet threads? I have a question if you can spare some time to answer it.
From your post and my own knowledge it appears that art form of ballet is getting more and more beautiful as centuries advance. So I believe that in a century, ballet will be even more beautiful art form than today.
So, to the question,
Have you ever come across ideas, books or videos that talk about the future aesthetics of ballet, what beauty could they make in a 100 years from now on? Do you have some ideas of your own perhaps?
And yeah, I am talking about modern classical ballet and how will it look in the future. I am not interested in ballet that incorporates modern dance.
yep I've made ballet threads on Sleeping Beauty, Romeo & Juliet and such, I'm glad you like them!
The most extensive book on ballet history, Apollo's Angels, talks a bit about the potential future of ballet... I'll have to go dig it out so I can quote it in a minute. From what I remember that author wasn't particularly optimistic about the artistic development of ballet, though.
As for me... I don't know about 100 years from now, but recent trends point to a few things that I think we will definitely see more of in the future.
1) Reconstructions of classic works, with lavish costumes and sets; especially with choreographers like Alexei Ratmansky and the late Sergei Vikharev, who see not just historical importance in restaging historic productions to preserve choreography for future generations, but who also understand the appeal of "old world" and even "imperial" ballet to audiences. It also makes audiences feel like they get more "bang for their buck," which certainly doesn't hurt sales. I don't think that the sparse style preferred by Balanchine is going to disappear entirely, but I think productions that go all out will become less rare.
2) Re-imaginings of classic ballets. Matthew Bourne took the Nutcracker and made it into a morality fable about the violent and oppressed lives of poor orphans in Victorian London. Alexei Ratmansky took Cinderella and made it a war story, set in London during WWII. Akram Khan took Giselle and made it into a bleak metaphor for the oppression of medieval peasants by the uncaring nobility. While new ballets will certainly never go away, and many of them are successful, I feel like more directors will turn to reworking the classics because of audience familiarity which makes it a less risky venture, and because of the great potential that so many of these classic ballets have to be fleshed out and explored anew.
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You seemt o know your shit, any good book recommendations?
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3) More diversity in ballet, or at least American ballet, than ever before. And by diversity I don't just mean ballet dancers of different races, but diversity of body type. American companies in particular are becoming more open to not sticking to the European and Russian standard of symmetrical corps who have to all be of similar height and size and color. They're also breaking away from that Balanchine-era enforcement of thin, willowy dancers. We're seeing more female dancers who are taller than the male dancers in the company, female dancers who are muscular and sometimes even stocky, dancers with completely different body lines. Dancers who otherwise challenge the preconception of what a ballet dancer looks like.
Ah, I found the book. The author is way more gloomy and pessimistic than I remembered, there is an entire epilogue about how they feel ballet is dying, the great ballet masters are all gone, people can't appreciate ballet nowadays, the fact that ballet is performed in new theaters and not just historic ones is a sign of ballet becoming culturally sterile, we no longer believe in "ideals" and "high art" and therefore ballet cannot exist, etc etc. Very dramatic! I disagree completely with it. The fact that companies have been able to get audiences in the seats season after season speaks to the ability of ballet to survive, to adapt and change, and to live on in the future.
About ballet in general? Or specific dancers? Or just interesting ballet books regardless of topic?
All 3 mate.
All right! I'll see what I can come up with after dinner.
Alrighty, thanks.
I've tried to pick out books I think would be particularly interesting. Sorry for the 900+ book recommendation in advance.
General Ballet History
>Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans
A broad overview of ballet history from its development in the 17th century until now, written by a former dancer.
>Swans of the Kremlin: Ballet and Power in Soviet Russia by Christina Ezrahi
An in-depth look at ballet companies under the Soviet regime, starting from the early struggles in the Lenin era to the peak of popularity in the '50s and '60s when Russian ballet companies were used as political and diplomatic tools.
>Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet by Stephen Manes
Okay, so this is an absolutely massive book about ballet, clocking it at 908 pages long. The author followed the Pacific Northwest Ballet company for an entire season, diving into every aspect of the "land" of ballet from business and marketing meetings, auditions, rehearsals, performances, firings, hirings, and more. Interviews with adults and children about why they like ballet, discussions with choreographers about how they have to intrrepet choreography and stories passed down to them, etc. It's a daunting prospect to read it, but I don't think there's a better book for understanding those small but important facets of ballet (marketing! auditions! dancer's worried about curses on productions!) that tend to be looked over.
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Ballet Studies and Discussion
>Ballet's Magic Kingdom: Selected Writings on Dance in Russia, 1911-1925 by Akim Volynsky
Akim Volynsky was a respected Russian cultural critic. The book contains 40 articles written he wrote during the peak of his career, ranging from notes and reviews of specific productions or dancers (including Pavlova!) to his treatises on the state of ballet in Russia and the future of ballet/dance as a whole.
>Rethinking the Sylph: New Perspectives on the Romantic Ballet by Lynn Garafola
A selection of essays on various topics related to Romantic ballet, ranging from the use of Romantic ballet as a form of nationalistic expression to addressing contemporary criticism of Giselle to the physically challenging and painful use of pointe work in the Romantic ballet era.
>The Ballet Lover's Companion by Zoe Anderson
A handy guide to 140 ballets, ranging fromthe Romantic classics to modern productions. The book also touches on each era of ballet history, but the meat of the book is the ballet guides. Each ballet entry comes with a synopsis, discussion of various themes, how it was initially received, as well as notable productions or anecdotes related to the ballet.
>Celestial Bodies: How to Look at Ballet by Laura Jacobs
This one isn't set for publishing until May 2018. But everything I've heard about it from ARC reviews makes me think it'll be worthwhile. A guide on how to watch and understand ballet, with definitions of various techniques and steps and discussions of ballet mime and specific movements that a viewer might not fully understand without previous knowledge.
Company Specific Studies
>The Royal Ballet: 75 Years by Zoe Anderson
Written in 2006. A look back on the history and evolution of The Royal Ballet, from its early days to its revitlization after WWII to today.
>Behind the Scenes at the Ballets Russes: Stories from a Silver Age by Michael Meylac
A look at the London-based Ballets Russes, a company of Russian dancers who became both famous and infamous for their sometimes avant garde and even shocking productions.
>Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today by Simon Morrison
A study of the development of the Bolshoi Ballet and its various secrets, scandalous and otherwise, from its beginnings in imperial Russia to the Soviet Era and now modern Russia.
>George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker by Robert Gottlieb
A look at the life and ballet career of choreography George Balanchine, founder of the New York City Ballet and one of the people who changed the landscape of American ballet.
Misc Topics
>Ballerina: Sex, Scandal, and Suffering Behind the Symbol of Perfection by Deirdre Kelly
A look into the past, present and future of the underside of ballet, from drugs to eating disorders to pressure to sleep with patrons.
>Dying Swans and Madmen: Ballet, the Body, and Narrative Cinema by Adrienne L. McLean
A look at the intertwining of commercial films and ballet and how film representations of ballet have helped to shape and inspire audiences' perception of ballet as a whole. More cinema than ballet I suppose, but still an interesting read.
Wow, thank you very much!
And memoirs. There's a lot of ballet memoirs out there, so I just picked a few that I think are particularly interesting.
>I, Maya Plisetskaya by Maya Plisetskaya
Plisetskaya was one of the few notable Soviet dancers who did not defect--primarily because she was considered high risk and always accompanied by minders. Her father was executed during a purge and her mother was sent to a gulag; her Bolshoi-dancing aunt and uncle took her in. Plisetskaya is candid about her experiences in dancing under the Soviet Union, which she called the "swamps of Stalinism."
>Dancing on my Grave by Gelsey Kirkland
Kirkland was invited to join the NYCB at 15 at the personal invitation of George Balanchine; she would go on to become one of his "muses." Kirkland's memoir discusses her career at NYCB, which was rife with stress from her personal relationship with Mikhail Baryshnikov, her struggles to live up to Balanchine's standards, and her descent into an eating disorder and drug addiction that led to self-commitment at an aslyum.
>A Body of Work: Dancing to the Edge and Back by David Hallberg
One of the most popular and lauded male ballet dancers today. This memoir discusses Hallberg's early love for dance, his rise in the ballet world which led to him being the first American to become a principal dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet company, and a devastating injury and subsequent surgery which led him to temporarily retire from ballet for 2 years while he worked with physical therapists to heal.
>Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
A Chinese dancer who was chosen to attend Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy when he was only 11 years old. After 7 years of study at a school famous for its 16-hours-a-day training, he was chosen for a scholarship to attend the Houston Ballet summer school. At the end of this, he decided to defect. His memoir follows his childhood, ballet traniing in China, his defection and his ballet career in America and Australia.
No problem! I hope you found some that interest you.
I'll probably work on getting them all to be honest, thanks again!
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I read Apollo's Angels and in a certain way I do agree with her predictions. I agree with your first point but not with second and third.
Re-imaginings of classic ballets is to me indeed sign of artistic and cultural decline and sterility. Imagine if we started adding hip-hop or blues elements in the music of Mozart or Prokofiev? It is truly sad. Those ballets are beautiful precisely because each and every one of them have their ideal that they embody. Changing it greatly, destroy that ideal.
Balanchine ideal beauty of dancers is also there for a reason, for it serves deep spirituality that underlies Balanchine's choreography. Why should we get rid of that?
Also, it is fairly immersion breaking when I see Odette being played by a black ballerina, just like I hate that in Aida, when a white singer plays the role of a Nubian princess. You may call this shallow but all of this does break immersion into wherever ballet or opera wishes to us to place.
Also, I spoke with you in your last threads, I am truly enjoying talking with someone who has knowledge about ballet.
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Thanks for the thoughtful response!
From my POV, I don't see ballet re-imaginings as a result of cultural decline or stagnation, so much as a natural progression of our continued cultural fascination with certain stories that are important, significant or meaningful to us in some way. So for me, adapting The Nutcracker into a tale about the oppressive life of Victorian orphans (or about the 1893 World's Fair, or expanding the ballet to focus on Clara's growing up, etc) reflects the way that that the base story the Cinderella story has such staying power that it's been adapted not just literally, but in an expanded way ("Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister") and as the basis for films/books/other media that used the base themes as springboard (Ella Enchanted, Roman Holiday, etc). Giselle, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty--the fact that they get reimagined and adapted shows how much they resonate with audiences.
I think re-imaginings also plays a role in keeping ballet alive through engaging audiences into trying something new without forcing them to take a complete risk. I think it was the Houston Ballet--or some American company, I can't quite remember which one--that did a survey of 1,000 of its patrons and found that one of the reasons why they were hesitant about buying tickets to any contemporary ballet was that they didn't know what to expect. Yet even with a re-imagined Cinderella, you can expect to hear the Prokofiev score you know and love, and you can expect that Cinderella will fall in love--whether it's with a classic charming prince or a WW2 soldier. Someone who sees a different version of Cinderella may decide to check out the next "level" of new and see an entirely new production. I know a few people whose gateway to new productions as Matthew Bourne's The Sleeping Beauty, which encouraged them to check out things like Neumeier's Little Mermaid and even the recent Frankenstein in SF.
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I am here, waiting for second part of your reply.
>Balanchine ideal beauty of dancers is also there for a reason, for it serves deep spirituality that underlies Balanchine's choreography. Why should we get rid of that?
I don't think we'll get rid of it entirely, nor do I necessarily think we "should" at least in the context of someone staging a purely Balachine work. But I do think the Balanchine ideal spread far beyond pure stagings of his works and it can be limiting which is something I think ballet, or I should say specifically American ballet, is already starting to softly reject. We're seeing more and more "nontraditional" ballerinas, even in the bigger American companies, and I think that will continue.
>Also, it is fairly immersion breaking when I see Odette being played by a black ballerina, just like I hate that in Aida, when a white singer plays the role of a Nubian princess. You may call this shallow but all of this does break immersion into wherever ballet or opera wishes to us to place.
For Aida I can understand, but not quite for Odette? I can't think of many ballets where the race of the character is vital enough that they need to cast a specific ethnicity at the risk of altering the fundamentals of the story. Then again I have a theater background so color blind casting is the norm and it takes a lot to break immersion for me, so that may play a big role in my perception!
sorry it took a while, I had to wait for a lunch break!
Rejecting Balanchine ideals of beauty in favor of what exactly? What new aesthetic will be potent enough to replace it? I dislike this trend in arts in general, where people love things only because they are new, but are fundamentally empty from aesthetic point of view.
This is precisely the situation that took place in the last century as well. American ballet was all about going modern, while the Russian one was about preserving and empowering the classics plus creating beautiful ones like Romeo and Juliet for example. Result? American ballet just seemed shallow, devoid of any artistic integrity. Russian ballet proved far more capable of the sublime then American ballet.
I love figure skating, and this is a theme that I see there as well. American skaters seem to see figure skating as sport while the Russian skaters see it as a art form first. I now come across as bashing America in favor of Russia, but this is how I see it. Take for example, Elena Radionova. She puts emotion and art into her performance, while I very rarely see that from American side, only sport.
As for the race of the character, well, most ballet stories come from European stories, so it is natural that physical looks of dancers are part of setting as well. It breaks immersion sometimes, seeing a Japanese Juliet for example.
Ah, you have a theater background, might elaborate a bit more if you do not mind me asking?
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I don't think it will be replaced flat out or that ballet will be dropping everything Balanchine brought to the art. I do think that companies, at least those who don't specialize in Balanchine, will not focus as intensely on a dancer having that perfectly Balanchine body type. Almost like theater casting in a way--the director will focus less on "is this Giselle going to be taller than Albrecht?" or "Does this Giselle have long enough legs?" and more on how well that Giselle will be able to convey the emotion, story and arc of Giselle with her technique and expressiveness, despite body type.
The Joffrey Ballet's Giselle from last year is a great example of this, especially with their very non-traditional... err, not "corps" since they don't have one, but their non-traditional set of Willis. You'd probably never see that type of "mismatched" corps in Russia, but it was the most moving Giselle I've seen in ages. It definitely helped that the guest director had experience with companies who aren't very strict classical or Balanchine, though.
Is it bad or good for companies to open themselves to dancers who are tall or have short legs or any other uncommon ballet traits? It's debatable and I think ultimately in the eye of the beholder. I think that in the right hands, having a non-traditional dancer or company of dancers works perfectly fine, as long as you know how to direct them.
Sometimes I wonder if the shift is representative of American audiences wanting more diversity in general on stage; wanting to see dancers who look like them or, at least, with whom they can identify. Not just in terms of race but physical characteristics that can become identifiers ("too tall" being a significant one) especially if they take dance.
oh it's fine! I was a theater kid in school and I've been working on and off with a local theater for a few years as an assistant in casting and marketing. In terms of casting, color blind casting is so common that seeing a Japanese Juliet or a black Cinderella or so on just doesn't seem strange to me. I understand why a lot of people would find it jarring, though.
Oh, and not related to the discussion, but are you in the US? And if so are you anticipating any productions of the 2018-2019 announced seasons so far?
Thank you for your answers.
I am not from US but from Croatia, a small European country. Tell me, is there some online place good for people interested in ballet to gather? A forum or something?
Have you seen Maoist Revolutionary Ballet, fairly interesting in certain ways.
>Tell me, is there some online place good for people interested in ballet to gather? A forum or something?
You might like Ballet Alert, it's pretty active!
I haven't seen that, but that is interesting. It reminds me of the Soviet-era Flames of Paris in a way: youtube.com
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how do you know so much about this? do you know any good books/resources for history of dance other than ballet, particularly folk dance?
Years of being interested in ballet plus reading a lot of books plus reading/watching other media.
I don't know of any offhand but I can look for some that other people have recommended for you!
Here's some books on various international folk dance I've found people recommending on forums and which seem to have decent reviews:
Folk Music and Dances of Ireland by Breandan Breathnach
Ancient Egyptian Dances by Irena Lexova
Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia by Gerald Milnes
Perspectives on Korean Dance by Judy Van Zile
City Folk: English Country Dance and the Politics of the Folk in Modern America by Daniel J. Walkowitz
Cultures and Styling in Folk Dance by Sanna Longden