Dance 21 B: Dance History – Spectacle and Performance Art
Final Exam Review
Early Ballet
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In the 16th century court ballets were performed for the nobility
Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, was a great supporter of court ballets which
had elaborate sets, costumes; He himself performed and established the first
academy of dance, called the Paris Opera Ballet in 17th century France.
 A set vocabulary of movement was developed, including position of the feet,
arms, head and use of turn-out of the legs for speed and efficiency.
 By 17th century ballet masters trained dancers in a rigorous technique and
continued to develop theatricality, meaning and message in the performance
presentation.
 Jean George Noverre created ballet d’action, having plot and using emotion in
ballet.
 In the 19th century the Romantic ballet came to the forefront. Important Romantic
ballets are La Sylphide (first full length ballet of romantic era) and Giselle. This
period introduced the pointe shoe and the rise of women ballerinas as the stars and
icons of ballet.
 The next period was Classical Ballet beginning in the late 1800’s. The center of
ballet now is established in the Imperial theaters of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Famous ballets of this period are “The Sleeping Beauty”, “The Nutcracker”,
“Swan Lake”.
 Two composers who created many scores for classical ballets are Peter
Tchaikovsky and Igor Stravinski.
 A signature element of classical ballet is the “pas de deux” (duet) featuring the
technical prowess of the lead ballerina and male dancers. Pantomime and
elements of folk dance are also present.
Contemporary Ballet
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Contemporary ballet evolved in Russia in the early 1900’s. Michel Fokine is the
first master choreographer of the Ballet Russes and is credited as establishing the
contemporary ballet aesthetic.
Ballet Russe was created by cultural impresario, Serge Diaghilev. Diaghilev
brought together dancers, choreographers, painters and visual artists, musicians
and composers creating collaborative vision of Russian ballet outside of Russia.
Vaslav Nijinsky was one of the stars of the Ballet Russes whose choreography is
highly controversial; he took the contemporary aesthetic further, using turned in
positions, 2 dimensional forms (“Afternoon of a Faun”) and themes depicting
sexual innuendo.
“Rite of Spring” was the infamous ballet choreographed by Nijinsky with music
by Igor Stravinsky that caused a riot in the Paris Opera house when premiered in
1913, it was so innovative and outside the norm of classical ballet.
George Balanchine, formerly with Ballet Russes, came to New York in the 1940’s
and established the New York City Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein. His works
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sometimes called “Neo-classical” (meaning abstracting classical lines) extended
the ballet vocabulary to include speed, syncopation and expansive use of space.
Today contemporary ballet choreographers continue to extend upon the tradition
while still using the ballet vocabulary. Some contemporary choreographers and
artists we have viewed are: Maurice Bejart, Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Matthew
Bourne, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Nacho Duato, Jerome Robbins (also important in
musical theater as well as ballet, created “Westside Story”),
Cedar Lake Dance, Ballet Rambert, Netherlands Dance Theater and others.
Many modern dance choreographers create works for ballet companies, such as
Twyla Tharp and Mark Morris.
Modern Dance- The Individual and Tradition
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In the past dancers and choreographers were supported and commissioned by the
nobility. Primary creators of ballet are male, but modern dance in America is
primarily founded by women.
The development of modern dance at the beginning of the 20th century evolved
from personal experiences, feelings, emotions and lives of the individual
choreographers who created and extended it.
Modern dance is rooted in “rebellion”.
Pushing the boundaries, defining and redefining the rules, dance being a medium
of personal expression is the “imperative” (a guiding principle) of modern dance.
One of the early icons of modern dance was Isadora Duncan, who first introduced
dance as an art form, and created the first modern dance language. The idea of
freedom is the core principle of dance she establishes.
Duncan’s dances included natural movements like walking, running, skipping,
gestures and flowing movements. She was also influenced by Greek culture and
art.
Another early American dancer of this period is Ruth St. Denis, whose works
often exotic, depicted an Oriental aesthetic. With her husband Ted Shawn they
formed their company, Denishawn. He later created an all male company with
themes of the heroic and virile male. (“Kinetic Molpai”)
Two students of St. Denis who went on to form their own companies are Martha
Graham and Doris Humphrey.
Graham represents the next generation of choreographers. Her choreography is
angular, hard edged, using the weight of the body with gravity, and built around
the principle of the breath through the contraction and release.
She also developed the psychological dance drama using her own inner life as a
source for the universal themes of emotional conflict. Many next generation
dancers first danced with Graham’s company, including Merce Cunningham, Paul
Taylor and Eric Hawkins.
Doris Humphrey also created her own dance language and approach to
choreography based on the principle of fall and recover, working with breath and
suspension of lifting away from and giving into gravity. Humphrey mentored
next generation dancer Jose Limon.
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Humphrey also wrote the first modern dance book about the process of
choreography, titled “The Art of Making Dances”.
African-American choreographer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham studied
the ritual dance of the Caribbean and created a fusion dance form with roots in the
African dance aesthetic, along with classical ballet and modern. Her contribution
was articulating and isolating the movements of the torso and using poly-rhythms
with one body part playing against another.
Other important European dancers of the modern dance tradition are Rudolf
Laban (developed dance notation and a system to define movement principles)
and Mary Wigman (“Hexen Tanz” or Witch Dance).
Balanchine was also influenced by the energy of the modern city and of New
York, with its urban, fast paced and industrial edge, and the modern dance.
Grounded in the ballet vocabulary his work is more flexible, spontaneous and
syncopated.
Merce Cunningham rejects the notion that dance must tell a story, have a message
or must follow music; dance is the subject of itself and movement is inherently
interesting. He used chance techniques in his choreography, took dance outside
of the proscenium theater into public spaces and created major collaborations with
composers (John Cage his life long partner and collaborator), artists (Robert
Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and others) and initiated the post modern era in
dance.
The creative anarchy of the 1960’s was about rebellion against the theatricality of
dance and “Post Modern” dance is born; characterized by pedestrian movement,
everyone and anyone can dance, movement games as source material, stripped
dance of meaning and affectation, no music or text is often spoken by the
performers.
Yvonne Rainer publishes her “No Manifesto” rejecting all theatricality. She is a
member of the Judson Church movement.
Some post-modern choreographers we have been introduced to from the DVD,
“Making Dances: 7 Post Modern Choreographers” are: David Gordan, Lucinda
Childs, Sara Rudner, Douglass Dunn, Trisha Brown, Kenneth King, Meredith
Monk.
The imperative continues as each new generation of artists and dancers seek to
express their own voice, freedom, to reinvent the rules.
Some modern dance artists and choreographers of interest whose works we have
viewed are: Alvin Ailey, Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp, Merce Cunningham, Paul
Taylor, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, Akram Khan (fusion of contemporary and
classical Indian Kathak dance), Lester Horton, Alwin Nikolais, Pina Bausch, Eric
Hawkins, and others.
Dance on the Screen
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Choreographers we have viewed and have contributed to this genre are the
following:
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Busby Berkeley-created intricate changing scenes of dancing formations with the
camera from above, underneath, upside down, etc. Films of note are “Lullaby of
Broadway”, “42nd St”.
Fred Astaire, a vaudeville star who later turned to film. Many famous partners
like Ginger Rogers, used the camera to always view full body to see all of the
movement.
Gene Kelly-many choreographic achievements and directed all of his dance
scenes; Famous film sequences, “Singing in the Rain”, “An American in Paris”
with jazz dance influence.
Michael Kidd, trained in ballet but known for musical theater, choreography is
very athletic with acrobatics and virtuosic movements. Barn dance in “Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers”
Bob Fosse, iconic jazz style- “All that Jazz”, “The Pajama Game”
Jack Cole, earthy, stylized form of jazz, syncopated and connected with the
abstract qualities of jazz music; “Beale St. Blues” from What is Jazz?
Review also summaries from chapters on Dance Technique and Choreography,
Dance Lighting and Costumes, Collaboration in the Arts.