Russian

balletKalkova O.K.

 Roots of Classical Ballet

The history of ballet dates back to Italy of the 15th century when rich princes hired professional dancers to give luxurious performances that would impress their noble guests. In the 17th century choreographers of

Italy, France and England strived to find a new distinct form for the new ballet and new possibilities of dance

technique.

Russian Emperors Welcome Foreign Art

Russia possessing rich national dance folklore and subjected to

European cultural influences during the reign of Peter the

Great turned to be fertile ground for the development of ballet theatre. From the early 18th century ballet in Russia was

inculcated by Italian and French teachers. Learning foreign art the Russians brought in their specific

features.

In the 18th c. the Russian ballet was developing in the tideway of the European classicism. At the turn of the 19th century,

however, the hey-day of Russian ballet started. Russian composers started writing music for ballet. Melodramatic ballet

became the leading genre.Special privilege was extended to ballet among all other

theatres. The authorities paid great attention to ballet development and provided it with governmental grants. The Bolshoi Theatre was opened in 1825. Both Moscow and St.-

Petersburg ballet troupes performed in well equipped theatres. The Russian Ballet blended in with the romanticism born in

Western Europe. The spectacles shined with splendour, eurhythmy and topnotch artistry

It was Russian ballet that was destined to revive ballet art in a new quality. Great role in that belonged to the French ballet

master Marius Petipa who was chief choreographer for the Imperial Ballet School. He started his artistic activity

following the principles of the aesthetics of romanticism

which was about to play out. Petipa went on the process of

enriching the dance, the process which romanticism

started.

Costume and Set Design History of the Ballets Russes

Serge Diaghilev was a true impresario. His visions brought together designers, artists,

composers, choreographers and dancers in a collaborative manner not equaled since his death in 1929. There are many key design moments in the history of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. During its 20 year history, 1909-1929, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes’ costumes were designed by then artist

friends of Serge’s, now iconic artists.

In 1909, Alexander Benois was the first Artistic Director of

Diaghilev's Ballest Russes. He designed both the costumes and

stage designs , for Le Pavillon d'Armide in 1909.

Benois wrote the libretto of the ballet in 1903 and Tcherepin

composed the music to suit the plot. The ballet was brought and presented to the Maryinsky but

left unstaged until Fokine.

Serge Sudeikin - March 19, 1882 – August 12, 1946

Sudeikin was a a Russian artist and set-designer

associated with the Ballets Russes and the Metropolitan Opera. He designed the sets and costumes for Diaghilev's production of La tragédie de Salomé by Florent Schmitt in

1913, and assisted in the execution of Nicholas Roerich's designs for

Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring the same year.

Nicholas Roerich October 9, 1874 – December 13, 1947

During Serge Diaghilev’s famous Russian Seasons in 1909, Roerich designed both

the set, (photo left), and costume designs for “Polovets

Dances” from Borodin’s Prince Igor, Pskovityanka by Rimsky-Korsakov. Nicholas

Roerich also designed costumes for the ballet The Rite of Spring, set to Igor

Stravinsky’s music.

After the revolution of 1917 a lot of artistes left the country thus causing intense development of the Russian

ballet in Europe. Throughout the 1920-1940s Russian artists (Anna Pavlova

with her troupe), choreographers (Fokin, Myasin, B. F. Nijinskaya, Dj.

Balanchin, B. G. Romanov, S. M. Lifar) headed ballets (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Original Ballet Russe, Russian

Romantic Theatre, etc.), created schools and troupes in many countries

of Europe and America thus had a great impact on the world ballet. For many years keeping to the traditional

Russian repertoire, those collectives at the same time assimilated the

influences of the countries they worked in

After the revolution ballet remained being in the

centre of nationwide art. In spite of the emigration of a

number of leading figures of ballet theatre, the school of Russian ballet survived and put forward new performers.

The turning point came in the late 1950s with the appearance of a new

generation of choreographers. Among the first were Leningrad ballet masters Y.N. Grigorovich and I.D.Belski who based

their ballets on musical and dance dramaturgy that conveyed the spectacle meaning through dance. Forgotten genres were

revived, such as one act ballet, ballet-poster, satirical ballet, ballet symphony and choreographic miniature.

The 1980s saw a growing number of tours of big and small opera and ballet companies abroad. Some artists

and ballet masters started working abroad, staging spectacles and even heading ballet troupes in Europe

and America (among them Nureyev, Makarova, Baryshnikov, Grigorovich, Vinogradov, Plisetskaya, Vasilyev, etc). Russian ballet dancers work in many

foreign ballet troupes these days.

After 1991 domestic ballet resorted to assimilating the experience of the Western ballet in the field of modern, jazz, and free dance. The State Academic Bolshoi Theatre staged

quite a number of ballets by Western choreographers, among them Balanchine’s Symphony do major, Agon, and

Mozartiana (1998–1999), Noymeier’s Midsummer Night Dream (2004), and others. Mariinsky Theatre also turned to Balanchine’s ballets. The company was awarded with the

Golden Mask prize for its stage production of Sergei Prokofiev’s Prodigal Son in 2003. The same year the theatre

showed the three famous avant-garde ballets by William Forsythe: Steptext set to music by Bach, The Vertiginous

Thrill of Exactitude to Schubert, and Approximate Sonata set to music by Dutch composer Thom Willems.

Independent private dance companies of various schools and styles have sprung up in Russia: Dance Theatre under the guidance of Alexei Fadeyechev (aka Ratmansky Ballet Theatre),

Imperial Russian Ballet of Gedeminas Taranda, and a range of post-modern dance theatres (those of Y.A. Panfilov, G.M. Abramov, A.Y.

Pepelyaev, and other).

The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich

Tchaikovsky (op. 71). The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg

on Sunday, December 18, 1892, on a double-bill with Tchaikovsky's opera, Iolanta.

The Nutcracker is one of the composer's most popular compositions. The music belongs to the Romantic Period

and contains some of his most memorable melodies, several of which are frequently used in television and film.

(They are often heard in TV commercials shown during the Christmas season.) The Trepak, or Russian dance, is one of the most recognizable pieces in the ballet, along

with the famous Waltz of the Flowers and March, as well as the ubiquitous Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

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