When was the first ballet created? When did ballet appear? Russian seasons of Diaghilev abroad

Ballet is a poetic art. He is characterized by sublime, heroic, lyrical themes. The fabulously wonderful world of dance images deeply excites and awakens noble aspirations.

In ballet performances, a fascinating plot created by a writer, music composed by a composer, a dance invented by a choreographer and performed by artists, picturesque scenery and costumes made according to the artist's idea merge together.

This complex art developed quite late. Ballet is a little over four hundred years old, although the art of dance has existed for several millennia (see the article “Folk Dance”).

Ballet originated in Italy in the 15th century. From folk dances, the name "balletti" (Italian "ballare" - to dance, and "balletti" - dances) moved to more complex dances performed at court balls. At the courts of the rulers, costumed performances with dances, singing and recitation were often arranged, in which the courtiers themselves participated. These first ballets consisted of sparsely connected "exits" of characters, most often taken from Greek mythology. One richly and magnificently dressed couple was replaced by another. After all the “exits”, a general dance, or “big ballet”, began.

Such a performance was arranged in Italy at a grand feast in the city of Tortona (1489). The ancient gods and heroes, dancing, brought food to the guests. Sea deities carried fish dishes, fertility goddesses served fruits and sweets. This gastronomic ballet ended with a magnificent exit of Bacchus - the god of wine. The same ideas appeared in many European courts.

Gradually, in court ballets, mythological heroes are being replaced by comic masks depicting people from the people - laundresses, innkeepers, shoemakers, etc. All roles in the ballet were performed only by men.

The robes and masks of the participants in the court ballet were bulky and uncomfortable. For example, a shoemaker had to dance in a huge shoe covering his head, and a violinist's costume consisted of a large violin. The heroes of antiquity were also dressed in a heavy suit, reminiscent of a court dress. It was very difficult to dance in such costumes, so all ballet movements were limited to smooth walking, graceful bows and graceful poses. In addition, if women participated in court balls along with men, then on stage the female roles were played by boys in masks and wigs.

The courtiers danced in discord, since the rules for performing dance movements did not yet exist.

By decree of the French king Louis XIV, the Royal Academy of Dance was founded in 1661 to develop the rules and system of dances. It included thirteen dance teachers appointed by the king. In 1669, a musical theater (the Royal Academy of Music) was founded, where at first only courtiers danced in opera-ballets. Initially, ballet performances almost did not differ from court performances. Music, dance and singing were weakly connected with each other and did not produce an integral artistic impression. The dances were the same as at the court - slow minuets, gavottes, far from their folk source. Women were allowed to appear on stage only in 1681. They had to dance in heavy long dresses and high-heeled shoes. Such costumes prevented dancers from performing complex virtuoso dances, and therefore the mastery of male dances surpassed female dances in grace, grace, fluidity and technique.

In Italy, the fashion for court ballet passed much earlier, and the dance art became completely professional. Italian dancers were famous for their virtuosity in dance technique. But many other things prevented the ballet from becoming a real art - the texts accompanying the dance, and the bulky costumes, and the mask that hid the entire face of the artist.

Only in 1773 did the dancer Maximilian Gardel throw off the traditional mask for the first time. A little later, the ballerina Marie Camargo achieved some freedom of movement by shortening her skirt just above the ankle and refusing heels, and Marie Salle began to dance in loose, light clothes resembling a Greek tunic. The dances gradually became more meaningful.

An especially great contribution to the development of Western European ballet was made by the French choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810). In his "Letters on Dance" (1760), he called for the creation of an "effective", i.e. meaningful and expressive dance, in which feelings, thoughts and events would be revealed in pantomime and dance movements. These advanced ideas Noverre managed to implement only partially in ballet performances staged at the ducal court in Stuttgart and on other stages.

The views of Noverre had a huge impact on the further development of the ballet. The traditional costume and mask were abandoned. Ballet dancers began to dance in a free, light

clothes. Their dance movements became more natural, expressive and varied. The students and followers of Noverre created the first ballet performances in the history of choreography, where music, costume, scenery and meaningful, spiritual dance merged. Staged by Dauberval more than a hundred and fifty years ago, the ballet "Vain Precaution" continues to live on the stages of ballet theaters to this day.

During the years of the French bourgeois revolution, ballet art was enriched with elements of folk dance, previously unacceptable for court artists. The art of the revolutionary era turned to the heroic images of antiquity.

One of the remarkable choreographic productions of that time, "The Offering to Freedom", was created by the choreographer Pierre Gardel. A dance was introduced into it, performed to the music of the Marseillaise.

In the XVIII century. the choreography was enriched with expressive means. Ballet dancers, dressed in light tunics and sandals, could already dance on high half-toes. Hand movements became free and plastic; in facial expressions, movements, gestures, the actors sought to convey the feelings of their characters.

Around 1800, the leotard was invented (a flesh-colored knitted suit that tightly fits the legs and body), and the movements of the dancers were given complete freedom. The level of dance skills has significantly increased. However, the male dance still continued to be more virtuoso than the female.

Based on the achievements of ballet art, the Italian dancer and teacher Carlo Blasis (1803-1878) developed a dance teaching system based on five starting positions of the legs. Blazis used an "arsenal" of movements borrowed by generations of artists and choreographers from folk and court dance, from ancient art. This system was later called "classical".

In the first half of the XIX century. the Italian and French schools of classical ballet were finally formed.

The Italian ballet theater was characterized by virtuoso technique, complex jumps, sharp, rigid hand movements. Sometimes, for the sake of external brilliance and virtuosity, the performers sacrificed the meaningfulness and expressiveness of the dance. Choreographer S. Vigano, who successfully staged serious and complex ballets to the music of Beethoven, to the plots of Shakespeare's tragedies, remained alone at the La Scala theater in Milan.

Unlike the Italian, the French ballet school was famous for its gracefulness, plasticity, softness of lines, but at the same time, it was characterized by cold performance. Ballet performance in 18th century France usually put on an ancient or mythological plot.

The artists of the royal theater did not even strive to faithfully reproduce historical or national features, but imitated court manners and costumes. Ancient Greek shepherds went on stage in shoes with red heels, modeled on court dandies, in powdered wigs with boucles. All this gave rise to disappointment in classicism among many choreographers and artists, pushed them to search for new means that could more fully convey the truth of life.

In Russia, professional ballet art appeared in the 18th century. Although at first foreigners were teachers and directors, Russian dancers creatively perceived from them what met the requirements of the Russian dance, which was closely connected with folk dance. dance culture that enriched her, ennobled her. They sought to fill the borrowed elements with the national spirit.

This is how the Russian school of classical dance was formed. The most important stage in its development is associated with the stay in Russia of the French choreographer Charles Didelot (1767-1837), one of the creators of romanticism in ballet art. Living human feelings, the poetic loftiness of the content of artistic paintings, the free and bold manner of performance - this is what especially attracted him in his ballets and was a new word in art. He helped the artists to create historically true images, reinterpreted the content of old myths, staging the ballets Acis and Galatea, Zephyr and Flora, Cupid and Psyche on their basis.

Didlo introduced "flying ballet" as a means of artistic expression, that is, the flights of artists over the stage, carried out with the help of mechanical devices.

While still on the English stage, Didlo began staging genre realistic ballets. But the most outstanding creations of Didlo were the dramatic ballets “The Prisoner of the Caucasus” (after A. S. Pushkin), “The Hungarian Hut”, and “Raulda Kreki” staged by him in Russia. Didlo, whom his contemporaries called "the Shakespeare and Byron of the ballet stage", skillfully alternating between funny and dramatic episodes, forced the viewer to follow the fate of the characters with deep sympathy. True, in Didelot's ballets there was still a lot of pantomime, and the dance was of an auxiliary nature, since the characters danced mainly at feasts and all sorts of celebrations.

In Russia, Didlo trained such famous ballerinas as Avdotya Istomina and Maria Danilova. After Didelot, with each new generation, Russian ballet became more distinctive.

The Russian choreographers Valberkh and Glushkovsky introduced national themes into ballet.

No ballet performance can be created without a choreographer. He reveals the content of the music written by the composer in dance images, thinks over the composition and combination of dances, develops all the roles. In the artistic form of dance images, complex emotional experiences, powerful upsurges of the human spirit are transmitted. Sometimes in dance the choreographer manages to express no less thoughts and feelings than words can do.

Didlo's creative imagination gave rise to a romantic ballet, expressing the desire for the sublime, poeticizing a dream and a fairy tale. All sorts of fantastic creatures - elves, sylphs, ghosts and shadows - became the heroes of the romantic ballet itself. Ballerina Maria Taglioni and her father, choreographer Philippe Taglioni, were in the 30s. 19th century the most typical representatives of this new ballet.

The best ballet of the romantic era, Giselle, was staged in 1841 in Paris. It depicts the tragedy of a pure, trusting peasant girl, deeply shocked by the infidelity of her beloved. Giselle dies of grief and turns into a forest fairy-wilis. This eternally young ballet speaks the language of dance about great feelings and is still included in the repertoire of Soviet and foreign theater.

No less exciting creation of the era of romanticism is the ballet "Esmeralda", staged by the outstanding French choreographer J. Perrot (1810-1892) based on the novel "Notre Dame Cathedral" by V. Hugo (see the article "Victor Hugo"). There was not a single fantastic creature here. Perrault strove to directly express the dramatic action in the dance. The talent of this choreographer was not recognized at home and really flourished in England and especially in Russia.

The history of Russian ballet is closely connected with the development of Russian classical music. Before the advent of ballet music by P. I. Tchaikovsky, music served only as an accompaniment to dances: only a certain tempo, rhythm and catchy melody were required from it. Tchaikovsky's symphonic ballet music, deep, colorful, expressive, helped the viewer to think about what could not be expressed in dance. In the ballet The Nutcracker, the composer revealed the bright, joyful world of children's dreams, in Swan Lake he spoke about love that destroys evil spells, in The Sleeping Beauty he showed the triumph of good over evil. The beauty and purity of the inner world of a person, sung by Tchaikovsky, has forever become the main content of Russian ballet art.

While working on The Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky repeatedly turned to the wonderful choreographer Marius Petipa (1822-1910) for advice. A Frenchman by birth, he devoted almost sixty years to Russian ballet. Petipa, a great connoisseur of classical dance, especially succeeded in the ballets Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, in which the dances seemed to merge with the music.

Another outstanding director of Tchaikovsky's ballets, Lev Ivanov (1834-1901), created amazing lyrical swan dances in Swan Lake (acts 2 and 4 of the ballet). Ivanov strove to express in dance all the richness of the content of music.

A complete fusion of music, dance and painting in a ballet performance was achieved at the beginning of the 20th century. choreographers M. Fokin and A. Gorsky. They succeeded not only in faithfully reproducing life on the ballet stage, but also in finding unique expressive means for each ballet that corresponded to the content. Collaborating with the best artists, Gorsky and Fokin raised the art of performance design to a high level.

in the West in the second half of the nineteenth century. ballet fell into decay, lost its independent significance and turned into an appendage to opera, while Russian ballet art continued to develop the best features of classical ballet.

Classical ballet is distinguished by a strict pattern of movement, noble purity and spirituality of performance.

All means of expression in classical ballet serve to reveal the deep content, complex experiences of the characters.

Tours of the Russian ballet in Paris and London (at the beginning of the 20th century) made a stunning impression on Western audiences. The outstanding Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova has been recognized as one of the greatest dancers of the classical school. In the dance "The Dying Swan" (music by Saint-Saens, staged by M. Fokine), which lasted only three minutes, Pavlova revealed a whole range of experiences. The brilliant skill of Russian choreographers and artists, the inspired art of Anna Pavlova had a huge impact on the revival of European ballet. Pavlova, and after her other teachers opened schools of classical dance in England. The talented artists trained by them formed professional troupes that still exist today (Ballet Marie Rambert, The Royal Ballet - the former Sadler's Wells). Their repertoire includes not only ballets by Russian composers, but also wonderful works by Tchaikovsky.

In the 30s. 20th century the national ballet was revived in France, Italy and other countries. He borrowed a lot from the Russian and Soviet school of classical dance, which is extremely popular in the West.

The best of the classical heritage of the Russian school was further developed in the Soviet ballet. It can rightfully be considered a new, higher stage of choreographic art. Classical dance in Soviet ballet is constantly developing, improving and enriching itself in accordance with the requirements of our era, absorbing the best features of the dance art of our country.

On the Soviet stage "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty", "Giselle" live new life. Having retained everything valuable from past performances, they are imbued with a different perception of music, a new idea of ​​the grandeur and beauty of life, filled with special dramatic tension. Soviet ballet art seeks to reveal the best in a person, all the richness of his inner world. It not only pleases the eye, but also awakens noble aspirations, high feelings and thoughts in the audience.

Soviet choreographic art is credited with creating large realistic ballets dedicated to folk heroes and freedom fighters of different countries and eras. This is the “Red Poppy” by Glier (see the article “R. M. Glier”), staged by V. Tikhomirov and L. Lashchilin; “The Flames of Paris” by B. Asafiev, choreographer Vainonen; “Spartacus” by Khachaturian (see article “Aram Khachaturian”); "Laurencia" by A. Crane, choreographer V. Chabukiani; "The Path of Thunder" by Kara Karaeva, choreographer K. Sergeev; "Stone Flower" by S. Prokofiev, choreographer Y. Grigorovich.

The golden fund of the Soviet ballet included such wonderful works as B. Asafiev's The Fountain of Bakhchisaray and S. Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (see the article S. S. Prokofiev), the directors of these ballets are choreographers R. Zakharov and L Lavrovsky managed to translate into the language of dance the poetic content of the great works of Pushkin and Shakespeare.

The Soviet people are proud of such outstanding performers as Ulanova (see article "G.S. Ulanova"), M. Plisetskaya, O. Lepeshinskaya, R. Struchkova, K. Sergeev, V. Chabukiani, and many other glorious pupils of the Soviet ballet schools.

The general admiration of foreign spectators was caused by the tour of Soviet artists, who, together with the directors, managed to turn the ballet into “a tense dramatic staging, full of liveliness, choreographic inventions ... stage effects and emotionality,” as the foreign press wrote. The performances of the Soviet ballet in a number of European countries and America were regarded as "events of historical significance."

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Ballet, the highest level of choreography (from the Greek choreia - dance and grapho - I write), in which dance art rises to the level of musical stage performance, arose as a courtly aristocratic art much later than dance, in the 15th-16th centuries. The term "ballet" appeared in Renaissance Italy in the 16th century. and meant not a performance, but a dance episode. Ballet is a synthetic art in which dance, the main expressive means of ballet, is closely connected with music, with a dramatic basis - a libretto, with scenography, with the work of a costume designer, lighting designer, etc. The ballet is diverse: plot - classical narrative multi-act ballet, drama ballet; plotless - ballet-symphony, ballet-mood, miniature. According to the genre, ballet can be comic, heroic, folklore. 20th century brought new forms to ballet: jazz ballet, modern ballet.

Origins of dance.

Dance appeared as a way of expressing feelings through movement, gesture, plasticity and facial expressions and accompanied various aspects of the life of an ancient person (harvest festival, wedding ceremony, religious worship). From the ancient Greek Dionysian cult, the ancient theater grew up, part of which was the stage dance and its muse Terpsichore . During the Hellenistic era the art of pantomime arose, which developed both in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance (in the comedies dell'arte, harlequinades).

Ballet in the Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism.

The process of theatricalization of dance was especially intensive in Italy, where already in the 14th-15th centuries. the first dance masters appeared and on the basis of folk dance a ballroom dance, a court dance, was formed. In Spain, the plot dance scene was called a sea (Moorish dance), in England - a mask . In the middle of the 16th - early 17th centuries. figured, pictorial dance organized by type of composition geometric shapes(ballo-figurato). Famous Turkish women's ballet, performed in 1615 at the court of the Medici dukes in Florence. Mythological and allegorical characters take part in the pictorial dance. From the beginning of the 16th century equestrian ballets are known in which riders pranced on horseback to music, singing and recitation ( Tournament of Winds, 1608,Beauty battle, 1616, Florence). The origins of equestrian ballet go back to the jousting tournaments of the Middle Ages.

The first ballet performance that combined music, word, dance and pantomime, Circe, or the Queen's Comedy Ballet, was staged at the court of Catherine de Medici (Paris) by the Italian choreographer Baltazarini di Belgiojoso in 1581. Since then, the genre of court ballet (masquerades, pastorals, dance divertissements and interludes) began to develop in France. Ballet 16th century was a magnificent spectacle in the Baroque style with the performance of ceremonial Spanish dances - pavanes, sarabandes. During the time of Louis XIV, the performances of the court ballet reached the highest splendor, included stage effects that gave the spectacle the character of an extravaganza. Louis XIV himself was not a stranger to the muse of dance, in 1653 he acted as the Sun in ballet of the night, from then on he was called the "Sun King". In the same ballet, the composer J. B. Lully, who began his career as a dancer, danced.

The dance began to turn into ballet when it began to be performed according to certain rules. They were first formulated by the choreographer Pierre Beauchamp (1637–1705), who worked with Lully and headed the French Academy of Dance in 1661 (the future theater of the Paris Opera). He wrote down the canons of the noble manner of dance, which was based on the principle of turning the legs (en dehors). This position gave the human body the opportunity to move freely in different directions. He divided all the movements of the dancer into groups: squats (plié), jumps (skirts, entrecha, cabriols, jet , ability to hang in a jump elevation), rotations (pirouettes, fouettes), body positions (attitudes, arabesques). The execution of these movements was carried out on the basis of five positions of the legs and three positions of the hands (port de bras). All classical dance steps are derived from these foot and hand positions. Thus began the formation of ballet, which developed by the 18th century. from interludes and divertissements to independent art.

at the Paris Opera in the 17th century. a special genre of theatrical and musical spectacle was performed - opera-ballets by composers J. B. Lully, A. Kampra, J. F. Rameau. Initially, the ballet troupe included only men. French dancers were famous for their grace and elegance (nobility) of performance. Italian dancers brought a new style of dance to the stage of the Paris Opera - a virtuoso style, a technically complex, jumping dance style. One of the founders of male stage dance was Louis Dupre (1697-1774). He was the first to combine both manners of performance in dance. The complication of the dance technique required changes in the women's costume. In the first third of the 18th century Marie Camargo and Marie Sallet were the first of the ballerinas to start performing jumps (entrecha), previously only subject to men, so they abolished heavy panniers and panniers, and then shortened their skirts and switched to shoes with lower heels. In the second half of the 18th century the brilliant dancers Gaetan Vestris (1729-1808), Pierre Gardel (1758-1840), Auguste Vestris appeared. Antique style light clothing, which came into vogue on the eve of the French Revolution, contributed to the development of ballet technique. However, the content of the ballet numbers was weakly connected with the plot of the opera and had the character of an entre, an exit in the minuet, gavotte and other dances during the opera performance. The genre of the story ballet performance has not yet developed.

Ballet in the Age of Enlightenment.

The Age of Enlightenment is one of the milestones in the development of ballet. Enlighteners called for the rejection of the conventions of classicism, for the democratization and reform of the ballet theater. J. Weaver (1673–1760) and D. Rich (1691–1761) in London, F. Hilferding (1710–1768) and G. Angiolini (1731–1803) in Vienna, together with the composer, opera reformer V.K. Gluck tried to turn the ballet into a plot performance, similar to a dramatic one. This movement most fully expressed itself in the reform of L. Dupre's student Jean Georges Noverre. He introduced the concept of pas d "action (effective ballet). Noverre likened ballet to a classic drama and promoted a new attitude towards it as an independent performance. Giving great importance pantomime, he impoverished the vocabulary of the dance. Nevertheless, his merit was the development of forms of solo and ensemble dance, the introduction of the form of multi-act ballet, the separation of ballet from opera, the differentiation of ballet into high and low genres - comic and tragic. He presented his innovative ideas in Letters about dance and ballets(1760). The most famous are Noverre's ballets on mythological subjects: Admet and Alceste,Rinaldo and Armida,Psyche and Cupid,Death of Hercules- all to the music of J.J. Rodolphe; Medea and Jason, 1780,chinese ballet, 1778, Iphigenia in Aulis- all to the music of E. Miller, 1793. Noverre's legacy is 80 ballets, 24 ballets in operas, 11 divertissements. Under him, the formation of ballet as an independent genre of theatrical art was completed.

ballet sentimentalism.

In the second half of the 18th century the age of sentimentality has begun. Unlike the enlighteners, sentimentalists made the character of their works ordinary person, not an ancient god or hero. The ballet theater became a public spectacle of the townspeople, and its own type of performance appeared - comedy and melodrama. In the foreground was pantomime, which, pushing the dance into the shadows, turned the ballet into a choreodrama, in connection with which increased interest in the literary basis of the action. The first ballet librettos appeared.

The heroines of the ballets were sylphs and forest spirits of the jeeps, characters of Celtic and German folklore. The appearance of a dancer in a white tunic, embodying an unearthly creature with a wreath on her head and wings behind her back, was invented by French costume designers I. Leconte, E. Lamy, P. Lormier. Later, the term “white”, “white-tunic” ballet arose. White is the color of the absolute, "white ballet" expressed romantic longing for the ideal, the ballerina in an arabesque became its graphic formula. The role of corps de ballet dance rose, dance and pantomime, solo, corps de ballet and ensemble dance merged into a single whole. Thanks to the development of finger technique, aerial flight of movements has become a new dance style.

Romantic ballet relied more on a literary source ( Esmeralda, 1844, by V. Hugo, Corsair, 1856 by J.G. Byron), Katharina, the robber's daughter, C. Puni, 1846). The role of music, which became authorial, increased, before ballet music was often a team, it served as a background and rhythmic accompaniment to the dance, created the mood of the performance. The ballet music of romanticism itself created dramaturgy and gave figurative musical characteristics to the characters.

The pinnacle of romantic ballet was Giselle(1841), staged at the Paris Opera by J. Coralli and J. Perrot, based on a libretto by T. Gauthier to music by A. Adam. IN Giselle the unity of music, pantomime and dance was achieved. In addition to pantomime, the action of the performance was developed by musical and choreographic leitmotifs, the intonational expressiveness of the melody gave the characters musical characteristics. Adan began the process of symphonizing ballet music, enriching it with an arsenal means of expression inherent in symphonic music.

M. Taglioni and F. Elsler are the largest representatives and rivals of romantic ballet. Their personalities correspond to two branches of romanticism: irrational (fantastic) and heroic-exotic. The Italian Maria Taglioni represented the first direction, her Sylph became a symbol of romantic ballet, her dance had grace, flight and poetry. The dance of the Austrian ballerina Fanny Elsler was characterized by temperament, impetuousness, virtuosity, she represented the heroic-exotic direction of romantic ballet. Being a characteristic dancer, she performed the Spanish dance kachucha, Polish Krakowiak, Italian tarantella. Other prominent dancers of romanticism: Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito (1817-1909), Lucille Grand (1819-1907). Grisi, the first performer of the role of Giselle, also became famous for her performance of the main role in C. Pugni's ballet Esmeralda. In 1845 Perrault composed the famous divertissement pas de quatre(music by C. Pugni), where Taglioni, Elsler, Grisi, Cerrito performed at the same time.

Standing apart in the history of ballet romanticism is its Danish offshoot, especially in the work of August Bournonville. In 1836 he created his version sylphs to the music of H.S. Levensheld. Danish romantic ballet (Biedermeier style against the background of romanticism) is a more earthy and chamber style with folklore motifs, where pantomime plays a large role and more attention is paid to male dance, less use of finger technique, and female roles are secondary. These features are also characteristic of the Danish ballet of the present. In 1830, Bournoville led the troupe of the Copenhagen Royal Theater and over the course of 50 years he created many ballets. His male dance technique remains one of the leading in Europe.

It is believed that the short period of romanticism was the best period in the entire history of European ballet. If before the symbol of the ballet was Terpsichore, then from the era of romanticism it became the sylph, the jeep. Ballet romanticism existed for the longest time in Russia (swan scenes in swan lake and the dance of the snowflakes in the Nutcracker L. Ivanova, act of shadows in La Bayadère,Daughters of the Pharaoh And Raymond M. Petipa). At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Romanticism received a new birth in Chopinians M.M. Fokina. It was romanticism of another era - the era of impressionism. The genre of romantic ballet was preserved in the second half of the 20th century. ( Leaves wither E. Tudor to music by A. Dvorak, Dancing at parties J. Robbins to music by F. Chopin).

Ballet in the second half of the 19th century (academism, impressionism, modern).

When realism came to other art forms, European ballet found itself in a state of crisis and decline. It lost its content and integrity and was supplanted by extravaganza (Italy), music hall (England). In France, he moved into the phase of conservation of proven schemes and techniques. Only in Russia did ballet retain the character of creativity, where the aesthetics of grand ballet, academic ballet, a monumental performance with complex dance compositions and virtuoso ensemble and solo parts, developed. The creator of the aesthetics of academic ballet is Marius Petipa, a French dancer who arrived in Russia in 1847. Created by him in collaboration with L.I. Ivanov (1834-1901) and composers P.I. Tchaikovsky and A.K. Glazunov ballets sleeping Beauty(1890), Nutcracker (1892), Swan Lake (1895) Raymond (1898), Seasons(1900) became the peaks of classical symphonic ballet and moved the center of choreographic culture to Russia.

At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. the currents of impressionism and free dance (modern, Duncanism, rhythmoplastic dance) penetrated the choreography. Modern dance originated at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. in the USA and Germany. Modern choreography rejected traditional ballet forms and replaced them with free dance, rhythmoplasty, and an intuitive interpretation of music. If the classical school of ballet is built on eversion (en dehors), then modern allows the position of socks inside (en dedans). Modern does not use finger technique, jumps and skids, but actively develops the excesses of the body, the mobility of the shoulders and hips, and the expression of the hands. The ideologists of modernity were the French theorist F. Delsarte (1811–1871), the American dancer Isadora Duncan with her renewed antiquity, and E.J. They declared the undivided dominance of music over dance. Duncanism, in turn, influenced ballet impressionism, represented by the work of the Russian choreographer M.M. Fokin. S.P. Diaghilev's activity became a turning point to a new ballet aesthetics. The Russian Seasons organized by him (1909-1911) and the Russian Ballet troupe (1911-1929) had a huge impact on the development of world ballet.

WORLD BALLET OF THE 20TH CENTURY

History of ballet in the 20th century characterized by the processes of assimilation of the traditions of Russian classical ballet with European ballet companies. The leading trends are metaphor, plotlessness, symphony, free rhythmoplasty, modern dance, elements of folklore, everyday life, sports, jazz vocabulary. In the second half of the 20th century postmodern is developing, the arsenal of expressive means of which includes the use of cinema and photo projections, lighting and sound effects, electronic music, happening (the participation of spectators in ballet), etc. The genre of contact choreography appeared, when the dancer "contacts" with the objects on the stage and the stage itself. The one-act ballet-miniature dominates (novella, ballet-mood). The countries of the most developed choreographic culture were Great Britain, the USA, France, the USSR. An important role in the development of world ballet was played by dancers of the second wave of Russian emigration (R. Nureyev, N. Makarova, M. Baryshnikov) and dancers of the Russian school who worked in the West under a contract (M. Plisetskaya, A. Asylmuratova (born 1961), N .Ananiashvili (b.1963), V.Malakhov (b.1968), A.Ratmansky (b.1968) In Germany, Holland, Sweden, expressionist, then postmodernist ballet developed.

Ballet competitions have been held since 1964.

France.

In the 1920s and 1930s, France became the center of European ballet art, where Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and the groups that grew out of it worked until 1929. Fokine's traditions were developed by L.F. Myasin, B.F. Nizhinskaya, S.M. Lifar, who headed the troupes of Monte Carlo and Paris. In the second half of the 20th century France gave the ballet such distinctive choreographers as Maurice Béjart and Roland Petit.

J. Balanchine worked in France before leaving for the USA in 1933. In 1932-1933 he organized the troupe "Valle rus de Monte Carlo" ( Tradesman in the nobility R. Strauss, Mozartiana P. Tchaikovsky). After Balanchine's departure, the troupe was headed by V. G. Voskresensky (de Basil), the troupe became known as "Balle rus de Monte Carlo of Colonel de Basil" (from 1939 to 1962 she worked in the USA, in 1938-1948 Myasin served as the choreographer of the troupe, who set his task preservation of Diaghilev's ballets). Lifar in 1944-1947 headed the New Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo, from 1947 it became known as the Nouveau balle rus de Monte Carlo of the Marquis de Cuevas.

In 1930-1959, with a break for the military 1944-1947, the troupe of the Paris Opera was headed by Serge Lifar, who staged 50 ballets there in the neoclassical style, modernizing classical dance and combining it with elements of free, folklore, everyday dance. The most famous ballerinas of that time: Claude Bessy (b. 1932), a student of Lifar, who began her career with Balanchine, in 1972 had a resounding success in Bolero M. Bejart, since the same year - the director of the ballet school at the opera theater, as well as the lyrical dancer Yvette Chauvire ( 1917), famous for her performance of the part of Giselle. Choreographic innovations developed outside the walls of the Opera, although since the 1970s ballets by Balanchine, D. Robbins, G. Tetley, P. Taylor, M. Cunningham, Y. N. Grigorovich have been staged there. In 1983-1989, a native of Russia, the Soviet dancer R.Kh. Nureyev again became the head of the ballet troupe of the Paris Opera. He staged a number of classical ballets there, and also invited one of the largest choreographers of our time, W. Forsythe, to cooperate, which brought a fresh impetus to life the dance troupe of the theater, which by that time had turned into a ballet museum. Of the opera dancers, Sylvie Guillem (b. 1965), Isabelle Guérin (b. 1961) gained fame. The eminent classical dancer Patrick Dupont (b. 1957) led the company from 1990–1995.

Maurice Béjart began work in the 1950s with the Ballet Etoile. Since 1960 he has headed the Ballet of the 20th Century, since 1987 - the Ballet Bejart in Lausanne. He creates his own plastic language and solves philosophical problems in ballets, hence his interest in the Eastern world and dances: Bakti, 1968 to Indian music, Our Faust for group music, 1975, Nijinsky, the clown of God to music by P. Henry and P. Tchaikovsky, 1971. The leading dancer of Bejart was the Argentinean Jorge Donn (1947–1992), who passed away early. Bejart dedicated ballets to his memory. priest's house,Ballet for life,Tango, or a rose for Jorge Donna. In 1972 created Songs of the Traveling Apprentice for Nureyev. Béjart's choreography is characterized by plastic metaphor, impetuous rhythm, and the priority of mass male dance. The most famous original editions of ballets Sacred spring(1959) and Firebird I. Stravinsky (1970), Bolero M. Ravel (1961). He organized the "Mudra" school, in which ballet training is based on the study of psychology and modern philosophy.

In 1945-1951 Roland Petit founded the Ballet des Champs Elysées, in 1949-1967 the Ballet de Paris. Among the best works: Youth and death J.S. Bach, 1946, Carmen J. Bizet , 1949, Cathedral of Notre Dame, 1965. Petit works in the genre of dramatic ballet, gravitates toward the dynamism of the plot, vivid imagery and theatricality, skillfully stages mass scenes, uses a combination of classical and jazz dance in his vocabulary. Of his dancers, the following became famous: Zizi Zhanmer (b. 1924, performer of the part Carmen in the ballet of the same name), Jean Babilé (b. 1923, performer of the main role in the cult ballet of the 1950s Youth and death). In 1972, Petit organized the Marseille Ballet ( Light up the stars, 1972, sick rose G. Mahler, staged in 1973 for Plisetskaya, Pink Floyd, 1973, In memory of an angel A. Berg, 1977, own versions of classical ballets Coppelia, 1975 and Nutcracker, 1976). Staged symphonic ballets at the Paris Opera Fantastic symphony G. Berlioz, 1974, enlightened night A. Schoenberg, 1976.

Pierre Lacotte (b. 1932) in 1955-1956 and 1959-1962 - director of the Eiffel Tower Ballet. In 1963–1968 he was the head of the National Ballet of French Musical Youth, then the Monte Carlo Ballet, until 2001 he headed the National Ballet of Nancy, is an expert on the classical heritage of French ballet, masters the subtle art of stylization, reconstruction of the spirit of romantic ballet (films - ballets for television Gallant Europe A. Kampra, restoration of the ballet sylph J. Schneitzhoffer, lady with camellias G. Verdi, 1977). He is called the "ballet archaeologist".

The Art Nouveau movement is represented « Ballet Theater of Modern "J. Roussillo (b. 1941), organized in 1972. From the postmodern troupes, the troupe of A. Preljocaj (b. 1957, troupe - since 1984), a student of M. Cunningham ( white tears, 1985, Memories of our heroes, 1986, soar to the music W.A. Mozart, 1994).

Great Britain.

English ballet of the 20th century leads a family tree from the school of A. Pavlova and Marie Rambert (1888-1982) and Ninette de Valois who worked for Diaghilev. In 1920, the School of Marie Rambert, a follower of E.J. Dalcroze's system of rhythmoplastic dance, was opened. From her school came F. Ashton, E. Tudor, who created in 1930 the troupe "Ballet Rambert". In 1926, Valois opened the Academy of Choreographic Art in London, from which the troupe Sadler's Wells Ballet left in 1942, and since 1957 the Royal Ballet of Great Britain. Valois was its director until 1983. Since 1935, its leading choreographer of the "Royal Ballet" - Frederick Ashton, who created the style of English classical dance - strict, restrained and poetic. It is based on the school of E. Chechetti, who taught at the Imperial St. Petersburg Ballet School and brought up such individuals as Pavlova, T. Karsavina, M. Fokine, V. Nizhinsky. For a long time, Ashton's lead ballerina was Margot Fontaine, whose career was unexpectedly reborn in a legendary duet with Nureyev; together they danced a number of classical ballets, as well as a specially choreographed ballet by Ashton Margarita and Arman based on Ladies with camellias A. Dumas to the music of F. Liszt, 1963. Ashton's productions include: Facade, 1931 W. Walton, A futile precaution, 1960 F. Herold, Undine, 1958 H.W. Henze, A month in the village, 1976 F.Chopin, plotless ballets Symphonic Variations, 1946 S. Frank, monotony, 1965–1966 E. Satie, multi-act Cinderella S. Prokofiev, 1948, with M. Fontaine - Dream, 1964 F. Mendelssohn. In 1970, Ashton created the "New Group" at the theater for avant-garde productions. Anthony Tudor (1908–1987), creator of the psychological drama in ballet, worked in theater until his departure to the USA (1939), staging Lilac garden to music by E. Chausson, 1936, Dark elegies to music Songs about dead children G. Mahler, 1937.

From 1970–1977 the company was led by Kenneth Macmillan. The emergence of the genre of dramatic ballet is associated with his name. His style is a combination of the Cecchetti school with acrobatics and complex lifts, he is characterized by the sophistication of the choreographic pattern. His ballet Romeo and Juliet(music by Prokofiev, 1965, also created for Fonteyn and Nureyev) became a cult. ballets Manon(1974, to music by J. Massenet), Concert dances Stravinsky 1955, Nora,or Diary of A. Frank, 1958, Anastasia A. Sullivan, 1971, Mayerling F. Liszt, 1978, Isadora R. Bennett, 1981; Prince of Pagodas B. Britten, 1989 were created for Macmillan's leading ballerina - Lynn Seymour (b. 1939), who danced in a duet with Christopher Gable (1940-1998), who later made a career in cinema. Macmillan's ballets featured the virtuoso Anthony Dowell along with Antoniet Sibley, Alexandra Ferry (b. 1967). For his contribution to national culture, Macmillan received the title of sir. In the same years, John Cranko worked in the troupe, who is known as the director of many hours of narrative ballets ( lady and jester Verdi, 1954). Since the 1960s, Cranko has worked in Germany, directing the oldest Stuttgart ballet in Europe. After the departure of Macmillan, the ideas of free dance became a priority in the theater. Former dancers of the troupe Norman Morris (b. 1931), Anthony Dowell (led the troupe since 1986), David Bintley (b. 1957) introduced productions by Balanchine, Robbins, Forsyth into the repertoire. The theater's lead dancers also included Beryl Gray (b. 1927), Robert Helpman (1909–1986), Moira Shearer (b. 1926).

Other troupes in Great Britain include the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the London Ballet Festival, which grew out of a troupe founded in 1949 by former Diaghilev dancers Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin (1904-1983). The troupe "Valle Rambert" continues to work. At the beginning, original classical ballets were preserved in her repertoire, and since 1966, priority has been given to works in the style of modern dance. In 1987, Richard Alston (b. 1948), who developed the ideas of the American modernist choreographer Merce Cunningham, became the leader of the troupe. In 1967, R. Cohen, a student of M. Graham, created the "London Theater of Modern Dance", where he staged many of Graham's ballets. The theater is part of the London Center for the Study of Modern Dance.

USA.

The main achievement of American ballet is the work of George Balanchine, a native of Russia, a graduate of the Petrograd Theater School. He created a new direction in choreography - a symphonic plotless ballet of the neoclassical style, a self-sufficient choreographic action (sometimes without a libretto, scenography and costumes). The work of Balanchine was also greatly influenced by the Danish school of choreography, striving for subtlety, lively light work legs (the so-called Bournonville skids), a quick change of direction and increasing rhythms of movements. The largest dance theaters in the USA - "New York City Balle" and "American Balle Theater" were born as a result of the interaction of Russian classical and American (modern dance, acrobatic, jazz, everyday vocabulary) traditions. Plotless and metaphoric, chamber one-act ballet remains the leading trend in American ballet.

When Balanchine arrived in the USA in 1933, the leading trend in American choreography was modern dance, which had a folklore color and included motifs from Negro and Indian dances (excesses of the body, rotational movements of the hips, priority of ensemble dance over solo). Modern dance was developed by choreographers Ruth Saint-Denis and Ted Shawn (1891–1972), who founded the Denishawn School of Dance in Los Angeles in 1915. Many American choreographers studied there, including the most prominent ballerina and choreographer Martha Graham, who created her own troupe in 1926 and developed a special dance technique. Choreographers D. Humphrey, H. Limon, A. de Mille, R. Page created genre ballets using Negro and Indian folklore. On the other hand, thanks to Russian emigrant artists, the American public got acquainted with classical ballet: the studios of Russian dancers M. Fokin, A. Bolm, M. Mordkin worked in the USA; B. G. Romanov (1891–1957) headed the ballet troupe of the Metropolitan Opera Theater (1938–1942, 1945–1950), in 1939 the troupe Balle rus de Monte Carlo arrived in the USA (the troupe of V. G. Voskresensky -de Basil), led in 1938–1948 by L.F. Myasin. The fusion of modernity with national and classical traditions formed the Balanchine style. In 1934, together with philanthropist Leonard Kernstein (1907–1996), Balanchine founded the School of American Ballet and, based on it, the New York City Ballet Ballet Theatre. In 2004 the theater celebrated the centenary of the birth of its founder and its 70th anniversary. The first ballets were staged on American subjects ( Gas station, 1938 L. Christensen to the music of V. Thomson, Billy's boyfriend Y.Loringa, Spring in Apalachia, Rodeo A. de Mille, music. A. Copland), but soon the theater turned into the Balanchine House, where he staged 50 ballets for the troupe. Basically, these are plotless ballets: Four temperaments P. Hindemith, 1946, Serenade, 1934, baroque concerto J.S. Bach, 1940, Symphony in C major or Crystal Palace J. Bizet, 1947, Love songs- waltzes to the music of I. Brahms, 1960, III suite P. Tchaikovsky, 1970, including American music: Symphonies of the Far West H.Key, 1954, Is it all the same J. Gershwin, 1970. At the heart of Balanchine's neoclassical aesthetics is dance expressiveness, born of the expressiveness of the musical image. Balanchine, like Bejart, was a master of staging a mass dance, but he gave priority to women's dance and said: "Ballet is a woman." His favorite composer was Stravinsky, with whom he had collaborated since his time with Diaghilev. During the period 1925-1972 Balanchine staged 27 ballets by Stravinsky, among them: Agon, 1957, Firebird, 1949, Pulcinella, 1972, Jewelry (Rubies), 1967. An analogue of such a fruitful collaboration between choreographer and composer can be found in Petipa's alliance with Tchaikovsky. Leading dancers Balanchine: André Eglevsky (1917–1977), Édouard Villela, Melisia Hayden (b. 1923), Maria Tallchief, Diana Adams, Tanaquil Le Claire (b. 1929), Violet Verdi, Allegra Kent (b. 1938), Karine von Aroldingen (b. 1941), Patricia McBride, Susan Farrell, Merrill Ashley. Balanchine's student Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) is known as the creator of jazz dance with elements of folklore and everyday vocabulary. Staged ballets: Sailors on the coast L. Bernstein, 1944, Facsimile, 1946, Cell to music Basel Concerto for Strings Stravinsky, 1951, new edition Afternoon of a faun (1953), Concert to music by Chopin, 1956, romantic ballet Dancing at the party to music by Chopin, choreographic version Goldberg variations Bach, 1971, Water Mill to music by T.Ito. His musicals are widely known: funny girl, Fiddler on the roof 1964, West Side Story, 1957. In the 1950s and 1960s, Robbins worked extensively on Broadway. After Balanchine's death in 1983, together with P. Martins, he headed the troupe. Balanchine's successor, Danish dancer Peter Martins, became famous in a duet with S. Farrell; how the choreographer staged the ballets: Night in stage lighting C. Ives, 1978, ecstatic orange, 1987, Black and white, 1986, Echo, 1989, Ash, 1991 M. Thorp. In 1991, Martins staged for the first time completely uncut, accepted in the West, the ballet Sleeping beauty.

"American balle theater" created in 1939 by Lucia Chase, philanthropist and ballerina, student of M. Mordkin. Chase directed the theater until 1980. If the New York City Ballet is an author's theater, then the American Ballet Theater is an international creation of several choreographers. The theatre's foundation was laid by the English choreographer Anthony Tudor, who had worked in the theater since its founding as its artistic director (1939–1950 and since 1974). The founder of the so-called. psychological ballet (he was called "the choreographer of human sorrow"), Tudor was interested in the world of the subconscious, when referring to the inner world of a person he used modern vocabulary ( pillar of fire to music by A. Schoenberg, 1942 with Nora Kay, Undercurrent R. Schuman , 1945, Romeo and Juliet F. Dilius, 1943 with Hugh Lang). In 1975 he staged a plotless romantic ballet for Gelsey Kirkland (b. 1952), recognized as the best performer of the part of Giselle in the USA. Leaves wither to the music of A. Dvorak. Tudor's leading dancers were Nora Kay (1920–1989) and Hugh Lang (1911–1988). K. Macmillan, D. Robbins, modern choreographers Glen Tetley (b. 1926), Birgit Kulberg (b. 1908), Tuyla Tharp (b. 1942) also worked in the theater. Leading theater dancers in different years were: Alicia Alonso, John Criza (1919–1975), Igor Yuskevich (1912–1994) and Alicia Markova; Tony Lander (1931–1985) , Sally Wilson (b. 1932), Bruce Marks (b. 1937), Roy Fernandez (1929-1980), Lupe Serrano (b. 1930) ) , Scott Douglas (1927–1996), Cynthia Gregory, Martina Van Hamel (b. 1945), Fernando Bujones, Natalya Makarova, Rudolf Nureyev, Dane Eric Brun, Carla Fracci (b. 1936), Ivan Nagy (b. 1943), V.A. Malakhov.

In 1980–1989 the artistic director of the troupe was Mikhail Baryshnikov, his deputy was K. Macmillan. During that period, the famous production of M. Morris (b. 1955), a choreographer who won the fame of "The Mozart of Modern Dance", Drink for me only with your eyes to the music of V. Thomson. Macmillan resumed Romeo and Juliet, N. Makarova carried out her editorial bayadere Minkus (1980). At the invitation of Baryshnikov, in 1989 the ballerina of the Kirov Theater I. Kolpakova (b. 1933) worked as a teacher of the troupe.

If in the 19th century American ballet was only in its infancy, then in the second half of the 20th century. the country experienced a ballet boom in the 20th century. and turned into a country of highly developed choreographic culture. In 1945, there were 25 troupes, but soon this number grew to 250. Several troupes operate in New York alone (Tuyla Tharp's modern theaters, Robert Joffrey's Joffrey Balle (b. 1930), Arthur Mitchell's African-American Harlem Dance Theater , « Balle Feld" by Eliot Feld, b. 1942 and others). Large cities have their own ballet troupes: Chicago Balle, founded by Maria Tolchief, San Francisco Balle, Boston Balle, Miami Balle, Littlefield Balle of Philadelphia, etc.

Germany.

Unlike the ballet of other European countries, the influence of the Russian dance school is less pronounced in German. At the beginning of the 20th century in Germany and Austria, expressionism developed in all forms of art. On the basis of modern dance techniques, expressionistic ballet developed, represented by the work of choreographers R. Laban (1879–1958), K. Joss ( 1901-1979), M. Wigman and her students H. Holm (1898-1992), G. Palucchi (1902-1992). They abandoned beautiful movements, replacing them with broken lines and coarsened forms. The most famous work of this style was the anti-war ballet by K. Yoss Green table, 1932. In the 1920s and 1930s, the ideas of the Bauhaus school, which promoted constructivism, were also popular in Germany and viewed the dance as a precisely calculated construction and an acrobatic exercise devoid of emotional overtones. This direction found its expression in the work of V. Skoronel.

In the second half of the 20th century interest in modernity grew in Germany into postmodern experiments. A distinctive feature of modern German ballet is the use of choreographic ideas by American, Dutch and Czech choreographers. In 1961, the Stuttgart Ballet was headed by J. Cranko. The style of his ballets was reminiscent of the Soviet choreodrama of the 1930s and 1940s, these are multi-act narrative works: Romeo and Juliet (1962) to the music of Prokofiev, Onegin(1965) to the music of Tchaikovsky, arranged by K.Kh.Stolze, The Taming of the Shrew(1969) to music by A. Scarlatti in the same arrangement with the participation of the outstanding duet Marcia Heide (b. 1939) - Richard Craghan (b. 1944). Cranko created an experimental creative workshop from which William Forsyth (b. 1949), John Neumeier (b. 1942), Jiri Kilian grew up. After the death of Cranko, the troupe was headed by the modern choreographer Glen Tetley (b. 1926), a student of Holm, known for staging the ballet dedicated to Cranko Voluntary(1973) F. Poulenc and own editorial Holy Spring Stravinsky. Neumeier, an American choreographer, worked in the Stuttgart Ballet in the 1960s and 1970s and directed the Hamburg and Frankfurt theatres. He is committed to religious and philosophical themes, which he implements in many hours of ballets (a four-hour ballet Matthew Passion, 1981). Other productions include: Separate travel Barbera (1968) Rondo (1970), Romeo and Juliet (1971), Nutcracker (1972), Twilight A. Scriabin (1972), sleeping Beauty, Elegy Tchaikovsky (1978), Ariel Mozart, Fourth symphony Mahler (1977). Forsyth is the ideologist of postmodern ballet, director of the Frankfurt ballet, he is often called the Balanchine of the 21st century. His choreography is based on associations; texts, films and photo projections are often included in the dance. Such are the ballets love songs(1979) folk music and In the middle, on some elevation to the music of L. Stuck and T. Willems, which was staged by him at the invitation of Nureyev at the Paris Opera in 1988. Forsythe was one of the first to use Willems' electronic music. Modern choreography cannot be imagined without the work of Pina Bausch (b. 1940), with her Dance Theater (Wuppertal, since 1971), a student of K. Joss, P. Taylor, E. Tudor, who simultaneously develops the expressionist tradition of German ballet and the psychological school of American ( Fragments, 1967; Arias, 1979; Palermo, Palermo, 1989; window washer, 1997; In the country of the meadows, 2000; For the children of yesterday, today and tomorrow, 2002). In 1966–1969, the Berlin Opera Ballet was headed by C. Macmillan, currently (since 2002) its art director and leading soloist is V. A. Malakhov, who develops the classical direction of ballet.

Netherlands.

Before the Second World War, the influence of German free dance was the strongest, and in the second half of the 20th century. The Netherlands became the birthplace of postmodern dance. After the war, the Dutch National Ballet troupe was created in Amsterdam, from 1967 under the direction of Rudy van Dantzig (b. 1933). In his outstanding ballets Monument to the dead youth(1965) and Threads of time(1970) to the music of Y. Berman was danced by Nureyev, who recalled that in these productions he performed the dance for the first time, lying on the floor of the stage. Van Dantzig, like Forsythe, uses the harsh sound of electronic music and the futuristic scenery of the Tour van Scheik. From other works: night island J.C. Debussy (1965), Family circle B. Bartok (1958). In 1959, the Dutch Dance Theater troupe was founded in The Hague under the direction of Hans van Manen (b. 1932). The theater has devoted itself exclusively to contemporary choreography. Since 1973, Manin has been the choreographer of the Netherlands National Ballet. Productions: Symphony in 3 parts Messiaen (1965) Metaphors Lesiura (1965), Five Pieces to the music of Hindemith (1966), Mutations K. Stockhausen (1970) , Sacred spring(1974). In 1978 Jiri Kilian became the head of the Netherlands Dance Theatre, who, like Tudor, develops the style of psychological ballet. Kilian uses movements performed while lying on the floor, achieves sculptural poses, composes high lifts and spins ( Return to a foreign country, 1974–1975, symphonietta L. Janachek, 1987; Frequently visited place K. Chavez; Time to sleep Takemitsu. Other troupes of the country: the Dutch "theater 3", the Dutch ballet "Scapino" under the direction of N. Kriste (Rotterdam).

Sweden.

Sweden has also developed alternative forms of ballet to the classical, with Swedish choreographers at the forefront of dance thought. The first Swedish ballet company operated in Paris from 1920–1925 under the daring experimenter Jean Berlin (1893–1930). In 1949-1950 and 1963-1964 he also directed the Royal Swedish Ballet; in 1951-1952 and 1960-1963 this post was held by E. Tudor ( echo trumpets to the music B. Martin, 1963). In 1946–1947 the troupe was directed by Birgit Kuhlberg (born 1908, student of K. Joss and M. Graham). In 1967 she created the troupe Kuhlberg balle, where she staged the famous ballet Freken Julia on music by T.Rangström, as well as ballets Medea Bartok (1950), Romeo and Juliet Prokofiev (1969). Her style is a combination of classical dance and modern, grotesque and pantomime. Mats Ek (b. 1945), son of Kuhlberg, took over the company in 1990 with unconventional postmodern productions of ballets Giselle And Swan Lake. Ek is one of the creators of postmodern aesthetics (theory of allusions, coding, polystylistics). His style is an ironic game with classical plots, quotations, dance canons, which creates the effect of clearing the cliché and a fresh look at the classics.

Denmark.

The Danish Royal Ballet is one of the oldest in Europe. The main task of the Danish choreographers was to preserve the Bournonville school, and thanks to Hans Beck (1861–1952) ( Coppelia, 1896) it was completed, but, on the other hand, further development ceased. In 1932–1951, during the period of director Harald Lander (1905–1971), Vera Volkova (1904–1975), the greatest expert on the Vaganova system in the West, worked at the theater. During this period, the Danish school came out of isolation, released the famous dancers P. Martins and E. Brun. Eric Brun (1928-1986), was distinguished by a restrained, refined and at the same time masculine manner of dancing. He has danced lead roles in classical ballets in theaters across the United States, Canada and Europe. From 1967 to 1971 he directed the Royal Swedish Ballet and in the 1980s the National Ballet of Canada. Staged classical romantic ballets Little concert G. G. Gulda (1953), own editions Giselle(1959), sylphs(1964), coppélia (1975).

Canada.

The leading company, the National Ballet of Canada, was founded in Toronto in 1951 by Celia Franca (b. 1921), a ballerina from the English companies Balle Rambert and Sadler's Wells Balle. She created a school of classical dance based on the principles of English. She led the troupe until 1974, when Brun and Baryshnikov danced in the theater. In 1996, James Kudelka (b. 1955), one of the most interesting choreographers, became the head of the theater. There is a tradition in the theater to invite Russian dancers. Since 1994, V. Malakhov has been working in the National Ballet, A. Ratmansky danced in the troupe of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, founded in 1938. In 1957, the Great Canadian Ballet was created in Montreal.

Other countries.

The ballet of countries with a rich choreographic past (Austria, Italy) is currently on the periphery of ballet ideas. The musical theaters of Vienna and Milan give priority to opera. Although there is a centuries-old school of virtuoso dance in Italy, talented ballerinas, as a rule, realize themselves abroad (Carla Fracci, b. 1936), Alessandra Ferrucci, b. 1963), and Italian ballet is on the brink of survival.

In the second half of the 20th century ballet penetrated into countries where the traditions of folk dance are strong. In Spain, the Ballet Lirico Nacional appeared under the direction of the former artist of the Dutch Dance Theater Nacho Duato (b. 1957), in Latin America there were « National Ballet of Cuba" (1948), created by the ballerina "American Balle" Alicia Alonso, "Argentine Ballet", founded by the dancer of the same theater, Julio Bocca (b. 1967). Ballet troupes have appeared in Japan, where both classical ballet and modern dance are popular: Tokyo Ballet (1964), Saburo Teshidawa's KARAS group (1985) are open to all areas, from classical to performance.

Russian ballet.

Ballet in Russia, as in Europe, originated as a court art under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The first Russian ballet is considered Ballet about Orpheus and Eurydice(1673, music by G. Schutz, choreographer N. Lim, Comedy Khoromina in the village of Preobrazhensky, Moscow). In 1738 the St. Petersburg Ballet School (now the Academy of Choreography named after A.Ya. Vaganova) was opened. The choreographers of the school of J. B. Lande and A. Rinaldi staged a ballet divertissement in the opera at the court of Anna Ioannovna in the Hermitage Theater The power of love and hate(1736). In the future, both served as court choreographers. Since the 1760s, Russian ballet has been developing in the mainstream of the European theater of classicism. Austrians and Italians served as choreographers, composers and set designers.

In 1759-1764, the famous choreographers F. Hilferding (1710-1768) and G. Angiolini (1731-1803) worked in Russia, who staged ballets on mythological subjects ( Semira after the tragedy by A.P. Sumarokov, 1772). In 1773, a ballet school was opened and in Moscow a ballet department at the Moscow Educational House, the basis of the future Moscow Academy of Choreography. The Moscow troupe, created as a public one, enjoyed greater independence than the official St. Petersburg troupe. The art of the Petersburg troupe was more courtly, strict and academic, while the Moscow ballet was more democratic and poetic, committed to comedy and genre ballets ( Christmas fun, G. Angiolini, 1767). Differences persisted even later: the Leningrad ballet is still distinguished by classical rigor, academicism, cantileverness of the dance, while the Moscow ballet is distinguished by bravura, a powerful leap, and athleticism. The playwright Sumarokov sought the right to create his own state theater in Moscow, but Catherine II in the same year gave the monopoly on the organization of the theater to Prince P.V. Urusov and his English companion M.G. Maddox. From the entreprise organized in 1776 by Maddox and Urusov (Petrovsky Theater), the Moscow Bolshoi Theater leads the pedigree. The Maddox troupe was created on the basis of the previously existing troupe of N.S. Titov (1766–1769), the theater of Moscow University. On the opening day of the Petrovsky Theater on December 30, 1780, the Austrian choreographer L. Paradis, who arrived in Russia with the Hilferding troupe, staged a pantomime ballet magic shop. In the 1780s, choreographers F. Morelli, P. Pinyuchi, J. Solomoni arrived from Italy to Russia. staged at the Petrovsky Theater, as well as in the serf troupes of N.P. Sheremetyev and N.B. Yusupov, luxurious divertissements, performed as an addition to opera or drama. Ballets on national themes were popular: rustic simplicity, rustic painting,Gypsy ballet,Capture of Ochakov(all - 1 third of the 19th century). Among the productions of Solomonini, the most famous choreographer who worked in Vienna with Noverre, the ballet of the latter Medea and Jason, 1800, Petrovsky Theatre, American ballet or defeated cannibals, 1790, Kuskovo, then the Petrovsky Theatre. From 1800 Solomonini served as the chief choreographer of the Petrovsky Theatre. In 1800 he set A vain precaution in choreography by J. Dauberval under the title Deceived old woman.

In St. Petersburg, the first public Bolshoi Theater (Stone), later the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, opened in 1783. In 1803 its ballet troupe separated from the opera, occupying a privileged position among other theater genres. The ballet enjoyed state subsidies and was subordinate to the directorate of the imperial theaters.

At the turn of the 18-19 centuries. the time has come for the establishment of Russian ballet. Domestic composers A.N. Titov, S.I. Davydov, K.A. Kavos, F.E. Scholz, as well as the first Russian choreographer I.I. Valberkh (1766–1819) appeared. He combined the traditions of Russian folk dance with dramatic pantomime and the virtuosic technique of Italian ballet. Working in line with sentimentalism, Walberg staged the first ballet for national theme- melodrama New Werther Titov, 1799. During the war of 1812, popular patriotic divertissements spread, and Valberg staged a ballet in St. Petersburg Love for the Fatherland Kavos, which was based on Russian folk dance. In 1812, the divertissement genre experienced a rise, thanks to which the dancers A.I. Kolosova (1780–1869), T.I. Glushkovskaya (1800–1857), A.I.

The most important event for the Russian ballet was the arrival in Russia of a prominent pre-romantic choreographer Sh. L. Didlo (he worked in St. Petersburg in 1800-1809, 1816-1829). He staged anacreontic ballets Zephyr and Flora (1808), Cupid and Psyche (1809), Acis and Galatea(1816), as well as ballets on historical, comedic, everyday topics: young thrush (1817),Return from India or wooden leg(1821). Didlo became the founder of the genre of anacreontic ballet, named after the ancient poet Anacreon, the creator of the genre of love lyrics. M. I. Danilova (1793–1810), E. A. Teleshova (1804–1857), A. S. Novitskaya (1790–1822) became famous in Didlo’s ballets. Under his leadership, the Russian ballet school began to form, he staged more than 40 ballets, gradually making the transition from mythological themes to modern literary subjects. In 1823 he set Prisoner of the Caucasus based on a poem by A.S. Pushkin, collaborated with the composer Kavos. A. I. Istomina (1799-1848) shone in his performances, whose dance was sung by Pushkin, describing it as “a flight filled with soul”. Istomina's art foreshadowed the beginning of Russian romantic ballet and embodied the originality of the Russian school, focused on emotional expressiveness.

After the expulsion of the French in 1812, the Russian ballet school was headed by A.P. Glushkovsky (1793–1870), a follower of Walberg and Didelot. His activities constituted an epoch in the history of Russian ballet. During the war of 1812 he staged 18 ballets and a large number of divertissements (melodramas, anacreontic ballets, ballets by Scholz Ruslan and Ludmila based on a poem by Pushkin, 1812, and Three belts, or Russian Sandrillon, 1826 based on the ballad by V.A. Zhukovsky). He successfully combined the possibilities of pantomime and dance, became the first theorist and historian of Russian ballet, brought up a galaxy of students: D.S. Lopukhina (1806–1855), I.K. Lobanova (1797–1840) and others. the activities of the choreographer and teacher F. Gyullen-Sor (Richard) (1805–1860), a French ballerina who arrived in Moscow in 1823 ( Zephyr and Flora, 1815,Sandrillon F. Sora, 1825, Celebration of the Muses, 1825). She had a great influence on the formation of the individualities of E.A. Sankovskaya (1816–1878), T.S. Karpakova (1812–1842).

First third of the 19th century - the time when the national ballet school was formed. At the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, on a well-equipped stage, magnificent extravaganzas by A. Blanc and A. Tityus dominated. The performance of ballet scenes in Glinka's operas prepared the Russian ballet for the symphonic development of images. Great value M. Taglioni had tours in 1834-1842 and F. Elsler in 1848-1851. The 1830s–1840s are the time of romanticism in Russian ballet. In St. Petersburg, E.A. Andreyanova (1819–1857) became the best romantic dancer, in Moscow - E. Sankovskaya, who is considered the first among the great Russian ballerinas. She took drama lessons from M.S. Shchepkin, her best roles: Sylphide, Esmeralda, Ondine (Virgin of the Danube), Elena Wardek (Katharina, the robber's daughter). Contemporaries called her the soul of the Moscow ballet. Petersburg Ballet in 1848–1859 was headed by the leader of romanticism J. Perrot. Romanticism lasted longer in Russia than in the West; Russian ballet enjoyed the patronage of the court for many years and remained a court art. When realism came to other forms of art in the 1860s, Russian ballet retained its already conservative romantic orientation. Petipa began in the style of romanticism (the act of shadows in La Bayadère A. Minkus, 1877, ballets King Candaulus C. Puni, 1868, Don Quixote Minkus, 1869, Pharaoh's daughter Ts.Puni, magic mirror A. Koreshchenko), in which he continued the process of symphonizing the dance. The greatest choreographer of that period was A. Saint-Leon (1821–1870). In 1859-1869 he served in St. Petersburg ( Coppelia L. Delibes, The Little Humpbacked Horse C. Puni). These were the years of dominance of divertissement and staging effects, but at the same time C. Blazis worked in St. Petersburg, improving the technique and vocabulary of Russian ballet. Under him, the dance was finally divided into classical and characteristic. Of the ballerinas who danced in those years, M.N. Muravyova (1838–1879), dancer V.F. Geltser (1840–1908) stand out.

In 1882, the monopoly of the imperial theaters was abolished, as a result, virtuoso Italian ballerinas came to the Russian ballet - Virginia Zucchi (1847-1930), Pierina Legnani (1863-1923), Carlotta Brianza (1867-1930), Antonietta Del Era. They played a big role in establishing the academic ballet and performed the main roles in the ballets staged by Petipa. Arriving in 1847 from France and becoming the chief choreographer of the Mariinsky Theater in 1862, Petipa created classical dance ensembles, approved its canonical forms (adagio, pas de deux, dance suites, grand pas, final coda), developed the principle of symmetry in the construction of a corps de ballet, contrast comparison of mass and solo dance. Petipa continued the process of symphonizing dance and came to collaborate with symphonic composers Tchaikovsky and Glazunov (previously, the choreographers worked with full-time court composers invited from abroad - Czech L. Minkus and Italian Ts. Puni , who still thought in terms of divertissement ballet). The fruitful cooperation resulted in masterpieces of choreographic art, which still form the basis of the repertoire of any ballet theater: sleeping Beauty (1890),Nutcracker(1892),Swan Lake(1895) Tchaikovsky, Raymond(1898), Seasons And Mistress Maid Glazunov, 1900. All these are the pinnacles of ballet symphonism. First production swan lake Czech choreographer V. Reisinger in 1877 was unsuccessful. In the process of preparing these multi-act ballets, a type of large (academic) ballet developed. L. Ivanov, the second choreographer of the Mariinsky Stage, went even further, already beyond the limits of academicism, composing poetic scenes of swans (second and fourth acts swan lake, 1895) and the Snowflake Dance in Nutcracker, 1892). Having developed the corps de ballet dance, Ivanov turned the fairy tale ballet into a philosophical parable. His choreography continued the traditions of the "white" romantic ballet of the early 19th century. and foreshadowed the style of the ballet of the 20th century, its impressionistic and metaphorical imagery. Under Petipa and Ivanov, the performing talent of E.O. Vazem (1848–1937), the brothers N.G. and S.G. Legat (1869–1937), (1875–1905), M. Kshesinskaya, O.I. The Spanish choreographer J.Mendez (1843–1905), who raised the level of the troupe and brought up the individualities of L.A. Roslavleva (1874–1904), the Italian A.A. Dzhuri (1872–1963), E.V. Geltser and her permanent partner V.D. Tikhomirov (1876–1956).

By the beginning of the 20th century the Russian school of dance was established, absorbing elements of the French school of Didlo, the Italian school of Blazis, Cecchetti and the Danish school of H. Ioganson. As a result, the Russian ballet school became the best in the world, and the success of the Russian Seasons and Diaghilev's Russian Ballet troupe was proof of this.

At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. in Russian art, the era of modernity reigned, a director's theater appeared. The type of spectacular multi-act performance with pantomime scenes and canonical forms of classical dance is outdated. In order to comply with the aesthetic concept of the Silver Age, the ballet needed reforms, the beginning of which was laid by the choreographer of the Bolshoi Theater A.A. Gorsky, who worked in the theater in 1902–1924. In contrast to the outdated academicism, he put forward a choreographic drama in which the stage action was expressed by dance ( Daughter of Gudula A.Yu.Simon, 1902, Salambo A.F. Arendsa, 1910). In the spirit of choreodrama, Gorsky repeatedly revised Swan Lake, Giselle. Under Gorsky, the personalities of V.A. Karalli (at the same time - stars of silent cinema, 1886-1972), S.V. Fedorova (1879-1963), A.M. Balashova (1887-1979), O.V. Fedorova (1882) –1942), M.M. Mordkin (1880–1944).

The experiments of M.M. Fokin were even more important. He fought against obsolete academicism by introducing elements of free and folklore vocabulary into classical dance. He composed a new type of performance - a one-act ballet with through action, stylistic unity of music, choreography and scenography and focused on fixing the moment with choreographic methods. The monumental performance was replaced by a one-act miniature ballet. Fokine created ballets for the Mariinsky Stage Evnika, Egyptian nights scene Polovtsian dances in the opera by A. Borodin Prince Igor, ballet Pavilion of Armida N.N. Cherepnina (1907); Chopininana (sylphs) F. Chopin (1908), later for the "Russian Seasons" - Carnival(1910) and butterflies, (1912) to music by R. Schumann, symphonic poem by M.N. Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade(1910), Vision of a rose K. M. Weber (1911), Daphnis and Chloe M. Ravel (1912). Fokin attached great importance to scenography. The artists of the association "World of Art" (L.S. Bakst, A.N. Benois, N.K. Roerich, K.A. Korovin, A.Ya. Golovin), who designed the productions of Fokine, became their full co-authors. The success of his ballets was facilitated by the work of dancers: A. Pavlova, T. Karsavina, Nijinsky, Mordkin, A. R. Bolm (1884–1951). The concert number became a symbol of the choreography of impressionism Swan C. Saint-Saens (1907), composed by Fokine for Pavlova. Despite its huge success, ballet impressionism turned out to be a historically limited style: trying to convey the subtlest shades of mood in movement, it lost its content. Fokine's collaboration with Pavlova and Karsavina turned out to be short-lived. In 1909, Pavlova created her own troupe, Karsavina, the “Queen Colombine,” returned to classical ballet.

Ballet seasons of Diaghilev.

Since 1909, the talented businessman S.P. Diaghilev has been organizing the annual tour of the Russian ballet in Paris, called the Russian Seasons. For the Russian Seasons, Fokine moved his productions at the Mariinsky Theater to Paris ( Chopininana called in the Parisian version Sylphs,Egyptian Nights - Cleopatra) and staged Stravinsky's ballets Firebird(1910) and Parsley(1911), which were a resounding success. After Fokine's departure from Diaghilev, Nijinsky staged two more Stravinsky's ballets, ( Afternoon of a Faun, 1912; Sacred spring). As a choreographer, Nijinsky first turned to expressionist forms ( Sacred spring) and plotless ( Games C. Debussy; 1913) ballet. Possessing a phenomenal jump, he returned priority to the male dance ( Vision of a rose K.Weber). In 1911–1929, Diaghilev founded his own troupe, Diaghilev's Russian Ballet, which toured Europe and the United States. Diaghilev's choreographers were L. Myasin (staged the cubist ballet Parade(1917) with decorations by P. Picasso and music by E. Satie on a libretto by J. Cocteau, cocked hat(1919) M. de Falla, plotless ballet Oh yeah to music by N. Nabokov (1928), Women in a good mood D. Scarlatti, Russian tales A. Lyadov); Bronislava Nijinska (staged Stravinsky's ballets Tale about the Fox (1922); wedding(1923); Pulcinella(1920); Mercury E . Satie (1924) Lani F . Poulenc, (1924), steel lope S. Prokofiev, (1927). In 1924, Balanchine joined the troupe, who again turned to Stravinsky's music, composing ballets Fireworks, Song of the nightingale And Apollo Musagete, 1928, and Ball IN . Rieti, 1925, Cat A. Sauge, 1927, Prokofiev's expressionist ballet Prodigal son, 1929. Stravinsky's music for the ballets was a resounding success. sacred spring, painting pictures of pagan Rus' with its daring harmonies and rhythms. Nijinsky guessed the musical theme Springs, translating it into en dedans (“closed” position of the legs: socks and knees are brought together). dodecaphony Stravinsky opened new stage in world music. In 1916 he continued the Petrushka theme in A bike about a Fox, a Rooster, a Cat and a Sheep. From the early 1920s, Stravinsky returned to neoclassicism ( Pulcinella, 1919 to the music of G. Pergolesi), from 1950 dodecaphony again prevailed in his music ( Agon, 1957). Diaghilev expanded the range of musical works performed as ballet music, including Stravinsky, Prokofiev, music of the French avant-garde (composers of the so-called "Six": Satie, Fauré, Sauguet, Auric, Orff, Poulenc).

Despite the emigration of many outstanding artists, the difficulties of the revolution and the Civil War, the ballet troupes of Moscow and St. Petersburg retained their repertoire and continued to work (E.V. Geltser, V.V. Kriger (1893–1978), E.P. Gerdt (1891–1975 ), E.M. Lukom (1891-1968).Ballet schools also functioned.In the 1920s, the famous system of teaching classical dance Vaganova (1879-1951) began to take shape, which reworked various methods that influenced the Russian school, in the book Basics classical dance revered as a ballet bible. Vaganova's method, based on the study of the natural reactions of the body, requires harmony and coordination of movements, her students were distinguished by the amplitude of movements, a soaring jump and a strong back, which made it possible for them to control the body even in flight, long-term elevation, expressive flexible arms. Although Vaganova herself studied with Ioganson, a representative of the Danish school of choreography, she did not include the Bournonville school in her system. Nevertheless, the Soviet school, along with the Danish one, is considered the best in the training of male dancers, which is characterized by a powerful soaring jump, dynamic rotations, athleticism, and the ability to perform upper lifts. In 1920, the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theaters received the status of academic theaters and were renamed GATOB and Bolshoi Theater.

The 1920s is the time of the Russian avant-garde, experiments and searches in all areas of art. A new generation of choreographers has declared itself. Gorsky continued to work at the Bolshoi Theater ( Swan Lake, 1920;Stenka Razin, 1918;Giselle, 1922;Forever living flowers B. Asafiev, 1922). K.Ya. Goleizovsky, who created the Moscow Chamber Ballet, began his experiments ( Faun C. Debussy, 1922). In 1925 he staged a ballet at the Bolshoi Theater Joseph the Beautiful S. N. Vasilenko in the avant-garde costumes of B. R. Erdman.

In Petrograd, the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater was headed by F.V. Lopukhov. He staged a dance symphony The greatness of the universe to the music of Beethoven (1922), an allegorical revolutionary ballet red swirl V.M. Deshevy (1924), ballets by Stravinsky Pulcinella (1926), A story about a Fox, a Rooster, a Cat and a Sheep (1927), Nutcracker Tchaikovsky in the constructivist scenery of V.V. Dmitriev (1929). Lopukhov was an outstanding experimenter and boldly introduced new vocabulary: elements of acrobatics and sports, folk rituals and games. He introduced the upper support of the ballerina on one arm into the male dance. This element has become one of hallmarks Soviet style in ballet.

In democratic Moscow, under the influence of modern Duncan dance, numerous studios of free plastic and rhythmic-plastic dance of L.I. Lukin, V.V. Maya, I.S. Chernetskaya, N.S. Gremina and N.N. Rakhmanov, L.N. IN « Mastfore" by N. Foregger experimented with "machine dances", the studios "Geptakhor", "Young Ballet" by G. M. Balanchivadze (Balanchine) worked in Petrograd. A choreological laboratory was created at the State Academy of Artistic Sciences (GAKhN), which dealt with the theoretical problems of free dance.

A.N. Ermolaev, V.M. Chabukiani, A.F. Messerer became famous in male dance . In women's dance, M.T. Semenova, O.V. Lepeshinskaya, T.M. Vecheslova (1910–1991), N.M. Dudinskaya were in the lead. G.S. Ulanova, K.M. .Sergeev, M.M. Gabovich (1905–1965).

Since 1932, the style of socialist realism has become the only one possible in all forms of art. A multi-act plot performance returned to the ballet ( Red poppy R.M. Glier directed by V.D. Tikhomirov and L.A. Lashchilin, 1927). The Bolshoi Theater became the first ballet theater in the country, the personification of the Soviet ballet style (heroic, cantilever, emotional dance). The Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater (since 1935 named after S.M. Kirov) preserved the academic traditions of classical ballet. The demand for realism in ballet, the tendency towards literary centrism, led in the 1930s to the revival of choreodrama or drama ballet, where psychologized or danced pantomime dominated dance. The Soviet choreodrama of the 1930s–1940s is a plot performance with a predominance of characteristic dance, distinguished by staged splendor. Everything that goes beyond realism is declared formalism ( Light stream Lopukhov-Shostakovich, 1935). Choreographers V. I. Vainonen, R. V. Zakharov, L. M. Lavrovsky worked in the genre of drama ballet. The most famous ballets Bakhchisarai fountain, 1934; Lost Illusions, 1935; Bronze Horseman, 1949 directed by Zakharov (the apotheosis of the style was the flood scene when the stage of the Bolshoi turned into a lake); Prisoner of the Caucasus, 1938; Romeo and Juliet, 1940; Cinderella, 1949 S. Prokofiev directed by Lavrovsky; Flames of Paris, 1932 Vainonen; Laurencia, 1939 Chabukiani. Dramballet choreographers abandoned large classical ensembles. Composers-symphonists worked in the field of choreodrama: B. Asafiev, R. Glier, A. Crane, A. Khachaturian. In connection with the increasing role of pantomime, in the 1930s a new school of performance took shape, which is characterized by acting talent, psychological depth, which reached its apogee in Ulanova's work.

In the 1930s–1940s, new ballet theaters arose: the troupe of the Musical Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Maly Opera Theater (MALEGOT) in Leningrad. New choreographers appeared N.S. Kholfin (1903–1979), V.P. Burmeister (1904–1971), Moscow, B.A. Fenster (1916–1960), Leningrad. An outstanding choreographer was Burmeister, who worked in 1941-1960, 1963-1970 in the Moscow musical theater of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko ( Tatiana A . Kreina, 1947; Beach of happiness A. Spadavecchia, 1948; original edition swan lake, 1953; Esmeralda Puni, 1950; Straussian, 1941; Snow Maiden Tchaikovsky, 1963). Fenster's element was comedic ballet and ballet for children ( The imaginary groom and youth M.I. Chulaki; 1949 Dr. Aibolit, I. Morozova, 1948, MALEGOTH). A new galaxy of dancers appeared V.T.Bovt (1927–1995), M.M. –1998) and others.

Since the 1920s, musical theaters have also been operating in Sverdlovsk, Perm, Saratov, Gorky, Kuibyshev, as well as in the capitals of the Union republics. Since the mid-1950s, ballet schools have emerged at the Perm and Sverdlovsk theaters.

By the early 1950s, there was a need for ballet reforms. In 1956, the first foreign tour of the Bolshoi Ballet Company in London took place, which was a huge success, but at the same time revealed that Soviet choreography lagged behind Western choreography.

The Leningrad choreographers were the first to embark on the path of reforms: Yu.N. Grigorovich ( Stone Flower S.S. Prokofiev, 1957; The legend of love A. Melikov, 1961 in GATOB them. Kirov), I.D. Belsky (b. 1925) staged ballets Shore of Hope A.P. Petrova, 1959; Leningrad Symphony D.D. Shostakovich, 1961; The Little Humpbacked Horse R.K. Shchedrin, 1963), L.V. Yakobson in 1969 created the ensemble "Choreographic Miniatures". They returned danceability to ballet, enriched the vocabulary of dance with acrobatic elements, revived mass dance, previously forgotten genres of one-act, symphonic ballet, and expanded the themes of ballets.

F. Lopukhov and K. Goleizovsky returned to creativity. O.M. Vinogradov (b. 1937) worked in the new aesthetics ( Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, 1964–1965; Assel V.A.Vlasova, 1967, Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre; Goryanka music by M.M. Kazhlaev, 1968; Yaroslavna music by B.I.Tishchenko, 1974, MALEGOT), N.D.Kasatkina (b. 1934) and V.Yu.Vasilev (b. 1934), who created the Moscow Classical Ballet Ensemble in 1977, since 1992 - the State Theater classical ballet" ( Gayane Khachaturian, 1977; world creation Petrova, 1978; Romeo and Juliet Prokofieva, 1998, etc.); G.D. Aleksidze (b. 1941), developing the genre of dance symphonies ( orestea, 1968; Scythian suite Prokofiev, 1969; Theme with variations Brahms; Concerto in F major Vivaldi; in 1966-1968 for the Leningrad Chamber Ballet Theater in 1966-1967 he created ballet programs Aphorisms to the music Shostakovich; Metamorphoses Britten, then revived the ballet Rameau Gallant India; Pulcinella Stravinsky and Prodigal son Prokofiev, both - 1978); B.Ya. Eifman (b. 1946), experimented at the Kirov and Maly Opera Theaters ( Firebird Stravinsky, 1975, Idiot to the music Symphony 6 by Tchaikovsky, 1980; Master and Margarita Petrova, 1987; in 1977 he created the Petersburg Ballet Theatre. Leningrad choreographer D.A. Bryantsev (b. 1947), who began his career at the Kirov Theater, in 1985 headed the ballet troupe of the Musical Theater. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko ( An optimistic tragedy M. Bronner, 1985; Corsair Adana, 1989; Othello A. Machavariani, 1991). In 1966, in Moscow, I.A. Moiseev organized the "Young Ballet" (since 1971 - "Classical Ballet"), the first choreographic concert ensemble in the USSR.

The leader of the new wave was Grigorovich, the master of dance metaphor in the subject ballet. With his arrival at the Bolshoi Theater in 1964, the theater experienced a take-off, the peak of which was his productions: Nutcracker, 1966 and Spartacus Khachaturian, 1968. For the Bolshoi Theater he composed the original version swan lake(1968), multiple editions sleeping beauty, (1963, 1973), in 1975 staged a ballet Ivan groznyj, V 1979 – Romeo and Juliet both on music . Prokofiev, Angara A.Eshpay, in 1982 - Golden age Shostakovich. In the ballets of Grigorovich, the duets of N.I. Bessmertnov - L.M. Lavrovsky (b. 1941), E.S. Maksimova - V.V. Vasilyev became famous, the talent of M.E. Sorokina (b. 1942), N.V. Timofeeva (b. 1935). However, by the beginning of the 1980s, new performances by Grigorovich appeared less and less, while ballets by other directors (Plisetskaya, Kasatkina and Vasilev, Vasilyev, Vinogradov, A. Alonso ) made their way to the stage with difficulty. In fact, the Bolshoi Theater was in crisis due to the monopoly of one choreographer, while all the ballet theaters in the country were equal to the Bolshoi. Innovative techniques, having become immutable canons, have become a cliché. If foreign choreography did not penetrate into the Bolshoi Theater, then the Kirov Theater, with the arrival of O. Vinogradov (1977), became more open to world trends. Under him, ballets by Balanchine, Robbins and Tudor, Macmillan, Neumeier, Bournonville appeared in the repertoire, an Evening of ancient choreography by P. Lacotte from previously unknown fragments of ballets by Perro, Taglioni, Saint-Leon, Petipa was held.

In 1960–1970, a new wave of talented dancers appeared: Yu.V.Vladimirov (b. 1942), M.V. born 1961), I.A. Kolpakova (b. 1933), N.A. Dolgushin (b. 1938), A.E. Osipenko (b. 1932), F.S. Ruzimatov (b. 1963) , A.I. Sizova (b. 1939), Yu.V. Soloviev (1940–1977). M. Plisetskaya continued to work. For her, A. Alonso created Carmen Suite, R. Petit - The death of the rose Mahler, Béjart Isadora And Bolero. As a choreographer, she staged R. Shchedrin's ballets: Anna Karenina, 1972; Gull, 1980;Lady with a dog, 1984. V. Vasiliev performed as a choreographer: Anyuta, V. Gavrilina, 1986; Romeo and Juliet, 1990; Macbeth K. Molchanova, 1980; Giselle, Swan Lake, 1999.

A new generation of composers appeared: R.K. Shchedrin, Petrov, M.M. Kazhlaev, N.N.N.N. Karetnikov, K.S. Khachaturian, A.B. .Bronner, Eshpai. Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Ural region (Perm, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk) occupy a leading place in the geography of ballet. A strong ballet school has developed in Perm. A graduate of the Perm Choreographic School, N.V. Pavlova (b. 1956) in 1973, who received the Grand Prix of the Moscow Ballet Competition, became one of the leading lyrical ballerinas of the Bolshoi Theater, in the post-Soviet period, original modern dance troupes appeared in Perm and Chelyabinsk.

Decay Soviet Union and subsequent economic crisis brought enormous hardship to ballet troupes, which until then had been generously subsidized by the state. Many dancers and teachers left the country to settle in the USA, England, Germany and other Western countries.

With the end of the era of Grigorovich in 1995, the Bolshoi Theater experienced a crisis associated with ill-conceived personnel and economic policy theater. Russian ballet has skipped several generations of the evolution of European choreography and is currently experiencing a shortage of dance ideas. At the same time, the level of the performing school has been preserved. There were bright personalities like N.G.Ananiashvili, M.A.Aleksandrova, A.A.Antonicheva, D.V.Belogolovtsev, A.Yu.Bogatyrev, A.N.Vetrova, N.A.Gracheva, D.K. .Gudanov, S.Yu.Zakharova, Yu.V.Klevtsov, Ilze and Maris Liepa, N.M.Tsiskaridze (Bolshoi Theatre); D.V. Vishnevaya, U.V. Lopatkina, I.A. Nioradze (Mariinsky Theatre); M.S.Drozdova, N.V.Ledovskaya, T.A.Chernobrovkina, V.Kirillov, A.Domashev, G.Smilevsky, V.Dik (musical theater named after Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko).

After 1991, Russian ballet began to master the experience of Western ballet in the field of modern, jazz, and free plastique. The Bolshoi Theater is actively staging ballets by Western choreographers ( sylph edited by E-M. von Rosen, Denmark, 1994; Symphony in C major,Agon,Mozartiana Balanchine, 1998–1999; Queen of Spades to the music of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, Passacaglia Webern, 1998; Cathedral of Notre Dame Petit, 2003; Pharaoh's daughter Lakotta, 2000; A futile precaution F. Ashton, 2002; A dream in a summer night Neumeier, 2004). Even earlier, the Mariinsky Theater turned to Balanchine's ballets. For staging a ballet Prodigal son S. Prokofiev Theater received the Golden Mask award in 2003. In the same year, for the first time, the theater showed three famous Forsyth ballets: steptext to the music of Bach A dizzying rapture of precision to the music of Schubert and Where golden cherries hang to music by T. Willems and L. Stuk. Popular reconstructions of old productions: sleeping Beauty Tchaikovsky, bayadère Minkus, 1991 in the Bolshoi Theater, Swan Lake at the Mariinsky Coppelia L. Delibes in Novosibirsk, A. M. Liepa's experience in restoring Fokine's ballets, 1999 ( Parsley, scene Polovtsian dances,Scheherazade). On the other hand, Russian and Soviet classics are not only restored, but are subjected to modernized interpretations ( Don Quixote edited by Fadeechev, 1999, Light stream And Bolt Shostakovich in the edition of A. Ratmansky, respectively, 2003 and 2005, Romeo and Juliet R. Poliktaru, 2004, all - Bolshoi Theater, Nutcracker K.A.Simonova, 2002, (director and ballet designer M.M.Shemyakin), Cinderella Ratmansky, 2003, both - Mariinsky Theatre, Romeo and Juliet, 1997 And Nutcracker, 2000, at the Perm Theater "E. Panfilov's Ballet".

The practice of work of dancers and choreographers abroad was legalized. Many dancers have made international careers (I. Mukhamedov, A. Asylmuratova, Ananiashvili, D. Vishneva, Malakhov, V. Derevianko, A. V. Fedotov, Yu. M. Posokhov, I. A. Zelensky, Ratmansky). V. Malakhov, a graduate of the Moscow Academy of Choreography, laureate of ballet competitions, was named the best dancer in the world in 1997, works simultaneously in several foreign ballet companies, since 2002 he has been director of the Berlin Staatstheater Unter den Linden, and realizes himself as a choreographer. D. Bryantsev continues to work ( The Taming of the Shrew M. Bronner, 1996; one-act ballets Bravo,Figaro 1985; Scythians And cowboys D. Gershvin, 1988; The lonely voice of a man Vivaldi, N. Paganini and O. Kitaro, 1990; ghost ball F. Chopin, 1995; Bible legends, Shulamith V. Besedina and Salome P. Gabriel, 1997–1998, lady with camellias Verdi, 2001), since 1994 Bryantsev simultaneously works as the chief choreographer of the St. Petersburg troupe Chamber Ballet; The Petersburg Ballet Theater of B.Ya.Eifman acquired the status of a state academic ( Russian Hamlet Beethoven-Mahler, 1999; Requiem Mozart 1998; Karamazov, 1995 to music by Rachmaninov, Wagner, Mussorgsky and gypsy songs, Chaikovsky, 1995 ("Golden Mask"), Teresa Raken Bach-Schnittke, Don Quixote by Minkus,Red Giselle to the music Tchaikovsky, My Jerusalem, 1998, musical Who is who, 2004.

One of the leading choreographers in Russia was Ratmansky (b. 1968), whom Ananiashvili "discovered" when he was a dancer at the Royal Danish Ballet. He composed ballets for her: Charms of Mannerism to the music of R. Strauss and Dreams about Japan received the Golden Mask. Currently, while continuing to live in Denmark, he works as the artistic director of the Bolshoi Theater Ballet ( Light stream Shostakovich, 2002). Staged at the Mariinsky Theater Cinderella, in the Fadeyechev Dance Theater - L. Bernstein's ballet Lea("Golden Mask" -2003). Ananiashvili herself headed her own entreprise, in 2004 she became the artistic director of the Georgian National Ballet and director of the Tbilisi Choreographic School. V. Chabukiani. Moldavian choreographer Radu Poliktaru, who graduated from the Minsk Choreographic School and received the first prize at the competition of ballet dancers named after. Serge Lifar in Kyiv, 2003, staged a postmodern version at the Bolshoi Theater Romeo and Juliet Prokofiev (2004).

Independent private troupes and schools of various directions appeared: the “Dance Theater” under the direction of Fadeyechev (another name is “The Ballet Theater of A. Ratmansky”), the “Imperial Ballet” of G. Taranda, a number of postmodern dance theaters (E.A. Panfilova, G.M. Abramova, A.Yu. Pepelyaev). The first private ballet theater was the E.Panfilov Experiment Theater in Perm (1987), in 2000 it received the status of a state and modern name: E.Panfilov's Perm Theatre. Panfilov (1956–2002) created an original style, combining classical, modern, jazz, and folklore. He staged 49 ballets and 70 miniatures ( Run to the music A.G. Schnittke, 1988; Mistral to the music of K. Orff, 1993; Man in black, woman in green, to the music Tchaikovsky, 1994; Dead island to the music Rachmaninov, 1991; Fantasies in black and fiery color to the music I.V. Mashukov, Enigma and M. Ravel groups, 1991; Vision of a rose Weber, 1994; Cage for parrots to ballet music Carmen Bizet-Shchedrin, Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev, 1996; Vision of a rose Weber, Cage for parrots to the music of Bizet's opera Carmen, Habakkuk ... Mystery Dance music by V. Martynov, 1998; Various trams, 2001, Blockade to the music of the blockade symphony by D. Shostakovich, 2003). The Panfilov Theater was a completely original performance, he composed not only the choreography, but also the decoration, costumes, and lighting. In addition to the main troupe, a number of auxiliary ones have been created at the theater, consisting not only of professional dancers (“Ballet of the Tolstoy”, since 1994, “Fight Club”, since 2000, “Belle corps de ballet”, since 2004). For a performance about the war women, year 1945, performed by the Tolstoy Ballet, the theater was awarded the Golden Mask award in the Best Innovation nomination -2000. Panfilov, who died early, a daring experimenter, was called the second Diaghilev and the choreographer of the 21st century. Since 2002, the artistic director of the theater is S.A. Raynik, one of the leading dancers of the troupe.

From other theaters of modern dance (Contemporary Dance) - twice winner of the Golden Mask award "Theatre of Modern Dance" under the direction of V. and O. Pona, (Chelyabinsk, since 1992; Movie mania or is there life on Mars, 2001; Does the Queen of England know, 2004), laureate of the international dance competition in Paris, group "Provincial Dances" under the direction of T. Baganova, (Yekaterinburg, since 1990, wedding Stravinsky, 1999), Moscow Theater "Class of Experimental Plastics" by G. Abramov, choreographer of the theater A. A. Vasiliev, since 1990, "A. Kukin's Dance Theater" , since 1991, the group "Nota bene" by V. Arkhipov, choreographer of the theater "Satyricon", since 1999. One of the most intellectual dance theaters in Russia - the Moscow group "PO.V.S. Dances" (ballet on the floor body leaves to electronic music, 2003).

CLASSICAL DANCE TECHNIQUE

In classical dance, five positions of the legs are adopted, performed in such a way that the legs are, as it were, turned outward (hence the term "eversion"). This is not about turning only the feet with toes in different directions, the whole leg should be turned starting from the hip joint. Since this is possible only with sufficient flexibility, the dancer must practice daily and for a long time in order to learn to effortlessly assume the required position.

Why do you need retraction.

Firstly, the eversion allows you to easily and gracefully perform all lateral movements. The dancer can then move from side to side, remaining facing the viewer. Secondly, when the necessary eversion is developed, the legs move more easily, it is possible to lift the leg into the air much higher without disturbing the balance of the body. When the leg is extended in an eversion position, the hips remain at the same, horizontal level. If the dancer does not have eversion, then he has to raise one hip to give the leg the opportunity to move up, and in this case the balance is disturbed. Thus, eversion gives maximum freedom of movement with maximum balance. Thirdly, due to the eversion, the lines of the body and the general appearance of the dancer become more attractive.

Positions of classical dance.

First position: Feet touching with heels and turned toes outward, forming a straight line on the floor.

Second position similar to the first, but the heels of the eversion legs are separated from one another by the length of the foot (i.e., approximately 33 cm).

third position: the feet are adjacent to one another in such a way that the heel of one foot is in contact with the middle of the other foot (i.e. one foot half covers the other). This position is now rarely used.

fourth position: Turning feet stand parallel to each other at a distance of about one foot (33 cm). The heel of one foot should be directly in front of the toe of the other; so the weight is evenly distributed.

Fifth position similar to the fourth with the difference that the feet fit snugly one to the other.

All pas of classical dance are derived from these positions. Initially, the positions are performed with both feet on the floor and with straight knees. Then there are various options: you can bend one or both knees (pliés), tear off one or both heels (when standing on your toes), lift one leg into the air (knee can be straight or bent), tear off the ground, taking one of the positions in the air.

Conclusion.

By the end of the 20th century the problems facing the art of ballet became more and more clear. In the 1980s, when Balanchine, Ashton and Tudor died (in the 1980s), and Robbins retired from active work, a creative vacuum arose. Most of the young choreographers working at the end of the 20th century were not very interested in developing the resources of classical dance. They preferred a mixture of different dance systems, with classical dance appearing depleted, and modern dance lacking originality in revealing bodily capabilities. In an effort to convey what constitutes the essence of modern life, choreographers use the finger technique as if to accentuate thoughts, but ignore the traditional hand movements (port de bras). The art of support has been reduced to a kind of interaction between partners, when a woman is dragged across the floor, thrown, circled, but almost never supported or danced with her.

Most troupes build their repertoire to include the classics of the 19th century. ( sylph, Giselle, Swan Lake, sleeping Beauty), the most famous ballet masters of the 20th century. (Fokine, Balanchine, Robbins, Tudor and Ashton), popular productions by Macmillan, Cranko, Tetley and Kilian and the work of a new generation of choreographers such as Forsyth, Duato, Koudelki. At the same time, the dancers receive better training, as there are more knowledgeable teachers. The relatively new field of dance medicine has given dancers access to techniques to prevent injury.

There is a problem of introducing dancers to music. Widespread popular music does not know the diversity of styles, in many countries teaching musical literacy is at a low level, when staging dances, phonograms are constantly used - all this hinders the development of musicality among dancers.

Ballet competitions have become a new phenomenon in recent decades, the first of which was held in Varna (Bulgaria) in 1964. They attract not only with prizes, but also with the opportunity to show themselves to judges representing the most prestigious organizations. Gradually there were more competitions, at least ten in different countries; some offer scholarships instead of money. In connection with the need for choreographers, competitions for choreographers also arose.

The most famous ballet competitions: Moscow International, Benois de la Dance, Grand Pas, European Festival of Contemporary Dance EDF, (Moscow); Maya, Vaganova prix, Mariinsky, Stars of the White Nights, Exercise Modern (Petersburg), Serge Lifar Ballet Masters Competition in Kyiv. International ballet competitions are also held in Varna (Bulgaria), Paris (France), Lausanne (Switzerland), Osaka (Japan), Rieti (Italy), Jackson (USA). Numerous contemporary dance competitions cause great public outcry (Biennale of Contemporary Dance, Lyon, Pina Bausch Festival of Contemporary Dance (Wuppertal).

Elena Yaroshevich

Literature:

Krasovskaya V. , part 1. Choreographers. L., 1970
Krasovskaya V. Russian ballet theater of the early twentieth century, part 2. Dancers. L., 1972
Karp P. About ballet. M., 1974
Gaevsky V. Divertissement. The fate of classical ballet. M., 1981
Krasovskaya V. Western European ballet theater from its origins to the middle of the 18th century. L., 1983
Krasovskaya V. Western European Ballet Theatre. Noverre era. L., 1983
Krasovskaya V. Western European Ballet Theatre. pre-romanticism. L., 1983
Krasovskaya V. Western European Ballet Theatre. Romanticism. L., 1996
Solway D. Rudolf Nureyev on stage and in life. M., 2000



Middle Ages.

No matter how surprising it may sound, but the prototype of modern ballet was the image of death. The fact is that the Middle Ages were characterized by an acute sense of fear of the end of earthly life. Images of death, like the devil, are constantly found in medieval symbolism. The image of dancing death arose already in ancient times; it also appears in the dances of many primitive societies. But it was in the Middle Ages that the image of death turns into a symbol of tremendous power. The "Dance of Death" (danse macabre) was especially widespread in Europe in the 14th century, during periods of the plague. In a social sense, this dance, akin to death, equalized representatives of different classes.

Ballet itself, as a form of stage art, arose during the Renaissance. But it is unlikely that the dance masters who entertained the sovereigns with luxurious performances could have imagined that they were sowing the seeds of an art that millions of people around the world would enjoy in the coming centuries.

The original forms of modern ballet emerged in late 15th-century Italy, where powerful princes hired professionals to stage lavish spectacles to impress their distinguished guests. In addition to elements of drama, these performances included majestic dances, processions performed by court ladies and gentlemen.

The skill of the early Italian dance teachers impressed the French nobles who accompanied the army of Charles VIII when, in 1494, he entered Italy, presenting his claim to the throne of the kingdom of Naples. Having become the wife of the French king, the Italian Catherine de Medici brought to France the fashion for outlandish court ballets. As a result, Italian dancing masters began to be invited to the French court.

They not only taught ballet, but were also the founders of fashion in the field of etiquette and manners and had a huge impact on the atmosphere at court. The Italian Baldasarino di Belgiojoso (in France he was called Balthazar de Beaujoye) staged court performances, the most famous of which was called the Queen's Comedy Ballet and is usually considered the first ballet performance in the history of musical theater.

Masquerades, ballet performances and carnival processions were held in noble houses and, as they became more complex, turned into costly festivities. Most of all in the Renaissance were fond of masquerades. People who wished to remain incognito traveled in masks; representatives of the warring noble families also hid their faces under masks.

Development of ballet under Louis XIV.

On June 7, 1654, the new monarch of France, Louis XIV, was crowned. Under him, ballets were given often and furnished with unprecedented splendor. Around the same time, the division of dancers into amateurs and professionals appeared. In 1661, Louis established the Royal Academy of Dance "in order to perfect this art", and 10 years later, the Royal Academy of Music. So the foundation of the future Paris Opera was laid.

It was at the Paris Opera in 1681 that professional dancers first appeared. After 32 years, a ballet school was opened at the theater to ensure a constant influx of young dancers into the opera-ballets that have become especially popular. For many, ballet has become a profession. At the same time, the foundations of ballet technique were laid and the first celebrities appeared. Among them are the ballerinas Marie-Anne de Camargo and Marie Sall, as well as the dancer Louis Dupré.

Louis XIV himself, from the age of 12, danced in the so-called "ballets of the Palais Royal theatre". These events were quite in the spirit of the time, for they were held during the carnival. Baroque carnival is not just a holiday, it is an upside down world. The king could turn into a jester for several hours (just as the jester could well afford to appear as a king). In these ballets, the young Louis had a chance to play the roles of the Rising Sun (1653) and Apollo Sun God (1654).

There is another cultural event of the Baroque era the so-called "Carousel". This is a festive carnival cavalcade, something between a sports festival and a masquerade. In those days, "Carousel" was simply called "equestrian ballet". On the "Carousel" Louis XIV appeared before the people in the role of the Roman emperor with a huge shield in the shape of the Sun. This symbolized that the Sun protects the king and with him all of France. Hence the nickname of Louis Sun King.

By the end of the 16th century, the court ballet reached its peak: it was completely financed by the French monarchy, which used it to exalt its own greatness. Ballets became part of the magnificent, huge festive extravaganzas that lasted for several days in a row and included all kinds of entertainment.

In those days, the dancing career began with early years and ended much later than now. Even in a small part, ballet did not require such a return of strength as it does today, and in order to hide their aging faces from the public, the dancers performed in masks. For a long time, the technique and style of dance remained unchanged until the ideas of the French dancer and choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre began to be introduced into practice. He dressed the actors in light costumes that did not restrict movement, forbade them to wear masks and demanded from them not only dancing, but also dramatic skills.

In 1789, much of what Noverre preached was embodied in Jean Dauberval's ballet The Vain Precaution. No speeches, no fairy tales about the adventures of gods and goddesses, no masks, singing and corsets. The viewer saw a simple story about a village girl who fell in love with a handsome young peasant, whom her mother wanted to pass off as a rich but stupid son of a local landowner. The dance gained freedom and naturalness of movement.

The era of Romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century.

IN early XIX century, all types of art, including ballet, were under the powerful influence of romanticism as an artistic movement. There was a renewed interest in folklore and fantasy. A vivid manifestation of romanticism in ballet was the performances of La Sylphide and Giselle. Around the same time, ballerinas began to dance on their fingertips stood on pointe shoes. Not having ballet shoes with a hard toe, like today's dancers, they stayed on pointe shoes for only a fraction of a second.

One of the first to dance en pointe was the Italian ballerina Maria Taglioni, whose father staged La Sylphide for her in 1832 on the stage of the Paris Opera. In 1836, Auguste Bournonville staged his "La Sylphide" in Copenhagen based on recollections from a performance with Taglioni's participation. He created for the dancers a special, light and airy style, which to this day distinguishes the masters of the Danish Royal Ballet.

The heroine of another romantic ballet, a young peasant woman, loses her mind and dies when she learns that her lover, the nobleman Albert, will not be able to marry her. After death, she turns into a ghost and saves Albert from death. Giselle premiered in 1841 at the Paris Opera with Carlotta Grisi in the title role.

Now the perfect ballerina in her shoes seemed to barely touch the surface of the stage, and her disembodied spirit seemed to not know what the earth was. During this time, the rising stars of the female dance completely eclipsed the presence of the poor male dancers, who in many cases were dubbed simply moving statues, existing only for the ballerinas to lean on. This situation at the beginning of the twentieth century was slightly corrected by the rise of Nijinsky's star from the Russian Ballet. By this time, ballet costumes, choreography, scenery, props, traditional for us, had already developed, in a word, everything became almost the same as it is now. After all, it was the Russian ballet that started the ballet revolution.

Romantic ballet was par excellence the art of women's dance. Over time, the peak of the popularity of romantic ballet had already passed, and Paris, as a center of classical dance, began to gradually fade away.

Ballet history. Part 1: Origin

The first choreographic performance in Russia was "The Ballet of Orpheus", shown in the "comedy choir" of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in his fiefdom - the village of Preobrazhensky near Moscow (February 13, 1675?). From the 1st half of the 18th century. ballet was inculcated by choreographers and dance teachers from Italy and France. Possessing its rich dance folklore, Russia turned out to be a very fertile ground for the development of the ballet theater. Comprehending the science taught by foreigners, the Russians, in turn, introduced their own intonations into the foreign dance. In the 1730s in St. Petersburg, ballet scenes in court opera performances were staged by J.-B. Lande and A. Rinaldi (Fossano). The St. Petersburg Ballet School (now the A. Ya. Vaganova St. Petersburg Academy of Dance) opened in 1738, founded and directed by Lande. In 1773 in sinks. The Orphanage opened a ballet department - the forerunner and foundation of the Moscow Choreographic School. One of his first teachers and choreographers was L. Paradise. By the end of the 18th century serf troupes were developed in the estates of the Sheremetevs near Moscow (Kuskovo, Ostankino), etc. By that time, St. Petersburg and Moscow had court and public theaters. Major foreign composers, choreographers and many others worked in them. Russian performers A. S. Sergeeva, V. M. Mikhailova, T. S. Bublikov, G. I. Raikov, N. P. Berilova. Since the 1760s. Russian ballet developed in the general mainstream of the theater of classicism. The ideal of the aesthetics of classicism was "ennobled nature", and the norm of a work of art was strict proportion, expressed in the form of three unities - place, time and action. Within these normative requirements, the center of action became a person, his fate, his actions and experiences, dedicated to one goal, marked by a single all-consuming passion. The genre of heroic-tragedy ballet corresponded to the basic principles of classicism. The spokesman for the aesthetics of ballet classicism in the West was J. J. Nover, who considered a ballet performance as an independent artistic whole, with a strong plot intrigue, a logically and consistently developed action, with heroes who were the bearers of strong passions. In the 2nd half of the 18th century. in St. Petersburg, ballets were staged by the Austrian F. Hilferding, the Italians G. Canziani, G. Angiolini, who sometimes used Russian subjects (for example, Semira based on the tragedy by A. P. Sumarokov staged by Angiolini and with his music, 1772) . These performances, with their sharp conflicts and extended action, were new on the Russian stage. Among others, the Italian J. Solomoni worked in Moscow, who promoted Nover's ballets, staged "Vain Precaution" in the choreography of J. Dauberval (it was called "The Deceived Old Woman", 1800).

The heyday of Russian ballet 18-19 centuries.

At the turn of the 18-19 centuries. Russian ballet entered its heyday. Domestic composers appeared - A. N. Titov, S. I. Davydov and Russified foreign composers - K. A. Kavos, F. E. Scholz. The Russian dancer and choreographer I. I. Valberkh outlined the path to the synthesis of the Russian performing style with the dramatic pantomime and virtuoso dance technique of the Italian ballet, as well as with the structural forms of the French school. The principles of sentimentalism were established in his art. Melodramatic ballet became the leading genre Patriotic War 1812 caused the flourishing of divertissement ballets: they were staged in St. Petersburg by Valberg, in Moscow by I. M. Ablets, I. K. Lobanov, A. P. Glushkovsky. The soloists were: in St. Petersburg E. I. Kolosova, in Moscow - T. I. Glushkovskaya, A. I. Voronina-Ivanova. In the 1800s-20s. in St. Petersburg, the activities of the choreographer Sh. Didlo unfolded. A successor to the traditions of Nover and Dauberval, Didlot staged ballets on mythological subjects (Zephyr and Flora, 1808; Cupid and Psyche, 1809; Acis and Galatea, 1816) and heroic-historical themes (The Hungarian Hut, or Famous Exiles » F. Venyua, 1817 “Raul de Cracks, or Return from the Crusades” by Cavos and T. V. Zhuchkovsky, 1819). In collaboration with Kavos, he put forward the principle of programming, based on the unity of the musical and choreographic dramaturgy of a ballet performance. In his pre-romantic ballets, ensembles of solo and corps de ballet dances interacted in a complex way. Didelot's heroic and tragic ballets revealed the action by means of psychological pantomime and abounded in contrasting dramatic situations. His comedic ballets (The Young Milkmaid, or Nisetta and Luca by F. Antonolini, 1817; The Return from India, or the Wooden Leg by Venois, 1821) possessed a variety of expressive means. In 1823, Didlo staged a ballet based on A. S. Pushkin's poem "The Prisoner of the Caucasus, or the Shadow of the Bride." E. I. Kolosova, M. I. Danilova, A. I. Istomin, E. A. Teleshova, A. S. Novitskaya, Auguste (A. Poirot), N. O. Goltz became famous in his performances.
In Moscow, since 1806, the ballet troupe of the private theater of M. Maddox came under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters. Until 1812, minor choreographers were repeatedly replaced here. After the expulsion of the French from Moscow, the ballet school and troupe were headed by Didlo's student choreographer A.P. Glushkovsky. A follower of Valbergh and Didlo, Glushkovsky, in his version, transferred the St. Petersburg repertoire to the Moscow stage, primarily Didlo’s ballets, staged anacreontic ballets and melodrama ballets, used the plots of A. S. Pushkin (“Ruslan and Lyudmila, or the Overthrow of Chernomor, the Evil Wizard” Scholz, 1821) and V. A. Zhukovsky (“Three Belts, or Russian Sandrilona” by Scholz, 1826). Glushkovsky prepared sinks. ballet troupe, in which Voronina-Ivanova, T. I. Glushkovskaya, V. S. and D. S. Lopukhins danced, to the creation of a romantic repertoire.
In the 1st third of the 19th century. Russian ballet art reached creative maturity and developed as a national school. A. S. Pushkin most precisely defined the peculiarity of the performing art of Russian dancers when he described the dance of his contemporary A. I. Istomina as “a flight filled with soul”. Ballet took a privileged position among other types of theatre. The authorities paid close attention to it, provided state subsidies. In 1825, the Bolshoi Theater was opened in Moscow, and the ballet troupe received a technically equipped stage and at the same time a leading dancer, teacher, choreographer of the pre-romantic direction F. V. Gyullen-Sor. By the beginning of the 1830s. both the Moscow and St. Petersburg ballet companies performed in well-equipped theatres. Russian ballet was organically accepted by the born in the West. European romanticism. By the mid 30s. performances were remarkable for their magnificence and harmony, high school of skill and coherence of the ensemble.

Themes of romanticism and realism

The conflict of dreams and reality - the main one in romantic art - updated the themes and style of artistic creativity. Two varieties of romantic art emerged in the ballet theater. The first asserted the incompatibility of dreams and reality on a generalized lyrical plane, where fantastic images predominated - sylphs, wilis, naiads. The other gravitated toward tense life situations and sometimes contained motives for criticizing reality (in the center of various, often exotic events, there was a dreamer hero entering the fight against evil). Among the figures of the first branch are the choreographer F. Taglioni and the dancer M. Taglioni; the second is choreographer J. Perrot and dancer F. Elsler. Both directions were united by a new, aesthetically promising relationship between dance and pantomime. The dance came to the fore, became the culmination of the dramatic action. Romantic art was also clearly manifested in performance, especially by E. I. Andreyanova, E. A. Sankovskaya, T. Gerino. The repertoire of the Russian theater includes all the most famous romantic ballets Zap. Europe: "Sylphide", "Giselle", "Esmeralda", "Corsair", "Naiad and the Fisherman", "Katarina, the Robber's Daughter". In the 1860s, the romantic spectacle began to disintegrate in Russia. In the years when Russian literature and art acquired a realistic orientation, ballet remained a court theater with an abundance of extravaganza effects and divertissement numbers. At the same time, A. Saint-Leon enriched the vocabulary of both classical and characteristic dance, expanding the possibilities of extended dance ensembles, preparing the accomplishments of M. I. Petipa. At the same time, C. Blazis improved the technique of dancers at the Moscow ballet school. The poetic height of ballet art was preserved by M. N. Muravyova, P. P. Lebedeva, N. K. Bogdanova, V. F. Geltser.
Historically, it was the Russian ballet that had to revive ballet art in a new quality. Choreographer M. I. Petipa began creative activity in the canons of the outdated aesthetics of romanticism. But he continued the process of enriching the dance, begun in this era. In his ballets to the music of the staff composers of the imperial theaters Ts. Pugni (Tsar Kandavl, 1868) and L. Minkus (La Bayadère, 1877), the substantive basis and culmination of the action were masterfully designed ensembles of classical dance, where the themes of corps de ballet were developed and contrasted and solo dance, dance motifs-characteristics clashed. Thanks to Petipa, the aesthetics of the “big”, or academic, ballet was formed - a monumental spectacle, built according to the norms of scenario and musical dramaturgy, and the external action was revealed in pantomime mise-en-scenes, and the internal one - in the canonical structures of classical dance. The search for Petipa was completed in his collaboration with P. I. Tchaikovsky (Sleeping Beauty, 1890; Swan Lake, 1895) and A. K. Glazunov (Raymonda, 1898; The Seasons, 1900), whose the scores became the pinnacles of 19th-century ballet symphonism. The work of choreographer L. I. Ivanov, assistant to Petipa (The Nutcracker, 1892; scenes of swans in Swan Lake, 1895), already foreshadowed a new imagery of dance at the beginning of the 20th century. E. O. Vazem, E. P. Sokolova, V. A. Nikitina, P. A. Gerdt, N. G. Legat, M. F. Kshesinskaya, A. I. Sobeshchenekaya, A. V. Shiryaev, O. I. Preobrazhenskaya, K. Brianza, P. Legnani, V. Zucchi.

By the beginning of the 20th century Russian ballet has taken a leading place in the world ballet theater. The ballet master-reformer M. M. Fokin updated the content and form of the ballet performance, creating a new type of performance - a one-act ballet, subject to a through action, where the content was revealed in the indissoluble unity of music, choreography, scenography (“Chopiniana”, “Petrushka”, “ Scheherazade"). A. A. Gorsky (“The Daughter of Gudula” based on the novel “Notre Dame Cathedral” by V. Hugo, 1902; “Salambo” based on the novel by G. Flaubert, 1910) also spoke for the integrity of the ballet action, the historical authenticity of the style, and the naturalness of plasticity. The main co-authors of both choreographers were not composers, but artists (they were sometimes the authors of the script). Fokine's performances were designed by L. S. Bakst, A. N. Benois, A. Ya. Golovin, N. K. Roerich; Gorsky - K. A. Korovin. The ballet masters-reformers were influenced by the art of the American dancer A. Duncan, a propagandist of "free" dance. However, along with the obsolete, the valuable was rejected - the generalization of musical and choreographic images. But new things were also acquired - ballet was included in the context of the artistic movements of its time. Since 1909, S. P. Diaghilev organized tours of the Russian ballet in Paris, known as the Russian Seasons. They opened the world to composer I. F. Stravinsky and choreographer Fokine (The Firebird, 1910; Petrushka, 1911), dancer and choreographer V. F. Nijinsky (Afternoon of a Faun, 1912; The Rite of Spring, 1913) and others, attracted famous musicians and artists to the ballet theater.

Russian seasons of Diaghilev abroad

With the beginning of the Russian Seasons Abroad, organized by Diaghilev, Russian ballet existed both in Russia and in Europe. After October 1917, when many artists emigrated, Russian ballet developed especially intensively abroad. During the 1920-40s. Russian artists (A. P. Pavlova with his troupe), choreographers (Fokine. L. F. Myasin, B. F. Nizhinskaya, J. Balanchine, B. G. Romanov, S. M. Lifar) headed the groups (Balle rus de Monte Carlo", "Original Balle rus", "Russian Romantic Theater" and many others), created schools and troupes in many countries of Europe and America, having a huge impact on world ballet. Long years while preserving the Russian repertoire, the traditions of the Russian school of dance, these groups simultaneously experienced the influence of the art of those regions where they worked, and gradually assimilated them.
In Russia after 1917 ballet remained a major center of national art. Despite the emigration of a number of outstanding figures of the ballet theater, the school of Russian ballet survived and put forward new performers. The pathos of the movement towards a new life, revolutionary themes, and most importantly, the scope for creative experiment inspired the ballet masters, allowed them to dare. At the same time, the traditions of the predecessors, the academicism of the performing culture were preserved. The head of the Bolshoi Theater troupe, Gorsky, reworked the ballets of the classical heritage, creating his own stage editions (Swan Lake, 1920; Giselle, 1922). Leading in the 1920s Petrograd troupe FV Lopukhov, a connoisseur of the classical heritage, talentedly restored the old repertoire. Lopukhov staged the first dance symphony, The Greatness of the Universe (1922), allegorically depicted the revolution (The Red Whirlwind, 1924), turned to the tradition of folk genres (Pulcinella, 1926; Tale about the Fox ..., 1927).
Intensive creative work, the search for new forms went both outside the academic theaters and within their walls. During these years, various areas of dance art were developed. The studios of Duncan, L. I. Lukin, V. V. Maya, I. S. Chernetskaya, L. N. Alekseeva, N. S. Poznyakov, the workshop of N. M. Foregger, "Heptakhor", "Young Ballet" G M. Balanchivadze, studio "Dramballet". Of particular importance was the activity of K. Ya. Goleizovsky, who innovatively developed the genre of pop-choreographic miniature and staged ballets both at the Moscow Chamber Ballet studio and at the Bolshoi Theater (Joseph the Beautiful, 1925, Experimental Theater - a branch of the Bolshoi Theater). By the mid-20s. the period of experiments in all Russian art, in particular choreographic art, ended with the closure of a number of studios, campaigns in the press for a return to the traditions of Russian culture of the 19th century.

Socialist realism and its ending

This was the beginning of the formation of the official method of socialist realism in the choreographic theater, where performances came to the fore, in which the form of the "grand ballet" of the 19th century. combined with new content ("Red Poppy", 1927). The official requirements of realism, the general accessibility of art led to the predominance of performances created in the genre of the so-called drama ballet on the stage. Ballets of this type are multi-act, usually based on the plot of a famous literary work, were built according to the laws of a dramatic performance, the content of which was presented with the help of pantomime and fine dance. The most famous masters of this genre were R. V. Zakharov (“The Fountain of Bakhchisaray”, 1934; “Lost Illusions”, 1935) and L. M. Lavrovsky (“Prisoner of the Caucasus”, 1938; “Romeo and Juliet”, 1940). V. I. Vainonen (“The Flames of Paris”, 1932), V. M. Cha-bukiani (“Laurencia”, 1939) strove for greater danceability within the drama ballet. In the 1930s a new school of performance was formed, which was characterized, on the one hand, by lyricism and psychological depth (in the work of G. S. Ulanova, K. M. Sergeev, M. M. Gabovich), on the other hand, the heroic manner of dance, expression and dynamics (in the work of M. T. Semenova and many male dancers, in particular Chabukiani, A. N. Ermolaev). Among the leading artists of the late 20s - early 30s. also T. M. Vecheslova, N. M. Dudinskaya, O. V. Lepeshinskaya.
In the 1930s ballet theater in Russia developed intensively. New opera and ballet theaters with ballet troupes were opened in Leningrad (Maly Opera Theatre), Moscow (Moscow Artistic Ballet - later the Theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko) and many other cities of Russia. However, despite the successes, the monopoly of one direction in the ballet theater led to an artificially cultivated uniformity. Many types of performances, in particular, one-act productions, including plotless and symphonic ballets, have left the theatrical use. Dance forms and dance language became impoverished, since the performances used exclusively classical dance and only in some cases - folk-characteristic. As a result of the fact that all searches outside the drama ballet were declared formalistic, Lopukhov, after devastating criticism of D. D. Shostakovich's ballet "The Bright Stream", Goleizovsky, L. V. Yakobson and some others lost the opportunity to stage ballets in leading ballet troupes or pushed back onto the stage. All representatives of non-academic movements, free, plastic, rhythmic-plastic dance stopped staging work. But in the late 1940s - early 1950s. came the crisis of the officially supported drama ballet. Choreographers committed to this direction made futile attempts to preserve it, enhancing the spectacle of performances with the help of stage effects (for example, the flood scenes in Zakharov's The Bronze Horseman, 1949). Nevertheless, the performing arts and its traditions were preserved. During these years, M. M. Plisetskaya, R. S. Struchkova, V. T. Bovt, N. B. Fadeechev appeared on the scene. The turning point came in the late 1950s, when a new generation of choreographers emerged. The first to embark on the path of innovation were the Leningrad choreographers Yu. N. Grigorovich (“The Stone Flower”, 1957; “The Legend of Love”, 1961; later “Spartak”, 1968) and I. D. Belsky (“Coast of Hope”, 1959; “ Leningrad Symphony", 1961), who built the performance on the basis of musical and dance drama, revealing its content in the dance. Choreographers N. D. Kasatkina and V. Yu. Vasilev, O. M. Vinogradov are close to this generation. In the same years, Lopukhov and Goleizovsky returned to creativity and created a number of new productions; previously forgotten genres were revived - one-act ballet, ballet-poster, satirical ballet, ballet symphony, choreographic miniature, the subject of a ballet performance was expanded, vocabulary was enriched. In this renewal process, a significant role belonged to L. V. Jacobson. The choreographer tirelessly searched for new means of artistic expression, used the figurativeness of other arts in ballet. A new generation of performers entered the ballet scenes of Russia, in the first years of their work becoming an ally of the choreographers of the new wave: M. N. Baryshnikov, N. I. Bessmertnova, V. V. Vasiliev, I. A. Kolpakova, M. L. Lavrovsky, M.-R. E. Liepa, N. R. Makarova, E. S. Maksimova, R. Kh. Nureev, A. E. Osipenko, A. I. Sizova, Yu. Solovyov, N. I. Sorokina, N. V. Timofeeva. After an intensive rise in ballet art in the 1960s - early 1970s. there was a slowdown in its development, when little new, significant was created on the main stages, many productions were epigone. Nevertheless, experimental work did not stop even during these years, when M. M. Plisetskaya, V. V. Vasiliev, N. N. Boyarchikov, G. D. Aleksidze, D. A. Bryantsev created performances.
In the late 80s - early 90s. the number of tours abroad has significantly increased both for ballet troupes of the largest opera and ballet theaters and for small groups specially created for commercial purposes. Since the 1970s Russian artists, feeling their lack of demand in the outdated and poor repertoire of theaters, began to work more and more often abroad. Nureyev was the first to be forced to stay abroad, followed by Makarova, Baryshnikov; later, when this practice was legalized, Grigorovich, Vinogradov, as well as Plisetskaya, Vasiliev, and others began to work abroad, sometimes staging performances and even heading ballet troupes in the USA and Europe. Russian dancers of the younger generation work in many foreign groups.

Ballet in Italy

At the end of the Middle Ages, there was an interest in the classical past, which led to the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, society began to focus on considering individuals instead of society as a whole. As a result, during this period, dancers began to be seen as ideal People.

The most outstanding improvements in choreography during the Renaissance were made in the city-states of present-day Italy. Ballet arose at courts as a development of solemn performances that were staged during holidays for aristocrats. Court musicians and dancers collaborated to create entertainment for the nobility.

The ballet of the Renaissance was much poorer than the modern one. Tutu and pointe shoes were not yet in use. The choreography was adapted from the steps of court dances. Actors dressed in costumes according to the then court fashion. In the early ballets, the audience also took part in the dancing at the end.

Engraving of the first scene in Ballet Comique de la Reine.

In the 15th century, there were only a few people who could be considered as choreographers. Now it is known only about those of them who wrote about dances, the works of the rest were lost. Domenico da Piacenza (or Domenico da Ferrara) was one such choreographer. Together with his students Antonio Cornazzano and Guglielmo Ebreo, he taught dances to the nobles. Domenico da Piacenza wrote one work De arte saltandi et choreus ducendi (About the art of dancing and dancing), which was made together with his students. Domenico da Piacenza is probably the most famous choreographer of the era, as he described much of what he did.

In his book, Domenico used the word ballo instead of a word Danza, although they both mean dance in Italian. Therefore, his dances became known as baletti or balli(pl.), balletto(singular). Perhaps the choice of word made by Domenico led to the use of the word "ballet" in its current sense. In 1489 in Tortone, Italy, during a celebration held by the Bergonzio di Botta, a dance called entree, started each part of the feast. Some consider it as the first ballet.

In the 16th century there were grandiose performances called spectaculi, in northern Italy. They included not only dances but also equestrian performances and battles. Hence the word spectacle used in French when talking about ballet.

Perhaps one of the first traditional ballets was Ballet Comique de la Reine() staged by Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, which was a ballet drama. It was watched by ten thousand spectators and it lasted from 22:00 to 3:00. Then the ballet included not only dances. He was named ballet-comique (comique means "drama" and not "comedy") because it included elements of talk and drama, which was also the reason why it lasted so long.

Edition in the same year Il Ballarino The authorship of Fabritio Caroso, a technical manual on court dances, both social and for performances, helped Italy become the center of the technical development of ballet.

Ballet improved and became more danceable and less spoken over the next 50 years. He began to introduce himself not only in the yards but also to the audience for a fee.

At this time, the nobles, including Louis XIV, performed roles of varying importance in the ballet. This raised the prestige of the background roles and the roles of negative characters.

By the middle of the 18th century, many monarchical courts in Europe were trying to be like Versailles. Opera houses opened in different places. Dancers and teachers easily found work.

During this time, women played a supporting role as dancers, as they wore crinolines, corsets, wigs, and high heels. In such costumes, worn by ballerinas of that era, it was difficult for them to dance, and since they wore leather masks, it was difficult for them to act. Noverre contributed to the change in the traditional costume of ballerinas and in 1763 he staged Jason and Medea without masks. The facial expressions of the dancers were visible, and the enormous expressiveness of the performance sometimes greatly impressed the audience.

In the second half of the 18th century, the Paris Opera was dominated by male dancers, such as the Italian-French virtuoso Gaëtan Vestris, a student of Louis Dupré, and his son Auguste Vestris, famous for his jumps. But women also improved ballet technique, such as the German-born Anne Heinel, the first female dancer to perform the double pirouette.

In the 1880s, Petipa staged two ballets in Russia that were very successful in Paris. The first one was Giselle, second - Coppelia staged by Saint-Léon (the original production was in 1870).

Mikhail Fokin started his career in St. Petersburg and then moved to Paris and worked with Diaghilev at the Ballets Russes.

Enrico Cecchetti was one of Petrushka's performers, playing mime since he was already not in very good physical condition. Enrico Cecchetti became famous for the roles of the incendiary fairy carbosse and the blue bird sleeping beauty productions by Petipa in 1890. After that he became known as the creator of Cecchetti's way of teaching ballet.

In 1913 Nijinsky created a new ballet Le Sacre du Printemps(Russian name Sacred spring, although the literal translation from French is "Dedication of Spring"). It was the most controversial work of the Ballets Russes. This ballet was staged with the also called Stravinsky's music. Modern ballet music and the theme of human sacrifice greatly impress the audience. Many in the US associate Spring Spell with the dinosaur episode Fantasia Walt Disney.

The last important production of the Ballets Russes in Paris was in 1921 and 1922, when Diaghilev re-staged the version sleeping beauty Petipa 1890. Her show during four months did not return the invested funds, and it was actually a failure. However, Sleeping Beauty returned the interest of the audience to the ballet for a whole evening.

In 1933, after the death of Diaghilev, René Blum and others founded the Ballet Russe in Monte Carlo and continued to carry on the tradition of ballet. Blum was later killed in Auschwitz by the Nazis.

After the Russian Revolution, ballet in Russia was preserved by Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first people's commissar of education. After Lunacharsky, the commissars allowed the ballet if it was bright and sublime.

Russian ballet continued its development in the Soviet era. After the revolution, a small number of talented people remained in the country, but this was enough to create a new generation. After stagnation in the 1920s, a new generation of dancers and choreographers appeared on the scene in the mid-1930s.

In the 1930s in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), Agrippina Vaganova was the artistic director of what had previously been called the Imperial Russian Ballet, and began to leave traces of her activities. In 1935, the ballet company was renamed the Kirov Ballet (now the Ballet Company of the Mariinsky Theatre). As artistic director, Vaganova followed government rules and changed the end swan lake from the tragic to the sublime.

Vaganova demanded technical perfection and precision in dance, she was a student of Petipa and Cecchetti and before that she directed the Imperial Ballet School, renamed the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute, which trained dancers for the Mariinsky Ballet Company. In 1957, six years after Vaganova's death, the government renamed the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute into the Academy of Russian Ballet. A. Ya. Vaganova. By the time the Mariinsky Ballet Company began traveling to Western Europe, Vaganova had already died. Vaganova's method of teaching ballet is known from her book "Fundamentals of Classical Dance", which has been translated into various languages.

The ballet was popular with the public. Both the Moscow Ballet Company of the Bolshoi Theater and the St. Petersburg Ballet Company of the Mariinsky Theater were active. Ideological pressure led to the creation of socialist realist ballets, most of which did not impress the public and were later excluded from the repertoire of both companies.

Some works of this era, however, were notable. Among them - Romeo and Juliet Sergei Prokofiev and Leonid Lavrovsky. Ballet Flames of Paris, although it has everything character traits art of socialist realism, was the first where there was an active use of the corps de ballet in the play. The ballet version was also successful. Bakhchisarai fountain based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin with music by Boris Asafiev and choreography by Rostislav Zakharov.

famous ballet Cinderella with music by Prokofiev is also a product of the Soviet ballet. During the Soviet era, these productions were largely unknown outside the Soviet Union and later the Eastern Bloc. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they became more famous.



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