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Ballet

Choreography | Ballet (music) | Opera ballet

The Waltz of the Snowflakes from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

Ballet is the name given to a specific dance form and technique. Works of dance choreographed using this technique are called ballets, and may include: dance, mime, acting and music (orchestral and sung). Ballets can be performed alone or as part of an opera. Ballet is best known for its virtuoso techniques such as pointe work, grand pas de deux and high leg extensions. Many ballet techniques bear a striking similarity to fencing positions and footwork, perhaps due to their development during the same periods of history, but more likely, because both arts had similar requirements in terms of balance and movement.

Domenico da Piacenza (1390..1470) is credited with the first use of the term ballo (in De Arte Saltandi et Choreas Ducendi) instead of danza (dance) for his baletti or balli which later came to be known as Ballets. The first Ballet per se is considered to be Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx's Ballet Comique de la Royne (1581) and was a ballet comique (ballet drama). 1581 also saw the publication of Fabritio Caroso's Il Ballarino, a technical manual on ballet dancing that helped to establish Italy as a major centre of ballet development.

History of ballet

Engraving of a Ballet before Henri III and his Court, in the Gallery of the Louvre. (folio, Paris, Mamert Patisson, 1582.)

Ballet has its roots in Renaissance court spectacle in Italy, but was particularly shaped by the French ballet de cour, which consisted of social dances performed by the nobility in tandem with music, speech, verse, song, pageant, decor and costume. Ballet began to develop as a separate art form in France during the reign of Louis XIV, who was passionate about dance and determined to reverse a decline in dance standards that began in the 17th century. The king established the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661, the same year in which the first comédie-ballet, composed by Jean-Baptist Lully was performed. This early form consisted of a play in which the scenes were separated by dances. Lully soon branched out into opéra-ballet, and a school to train professional dancers was attached to the Académie Royale de Musique, where instruction was based on noble deportment and manners.

The 18th Century was a period of vast advancement in the technical standards of ballet and the period when ballet became a serious dramatic art form on par with the Opera. Central to this advance was the seminal work of Jean-Georges Noverre, Lettres sur la danse et les ballets (1760), which focused on developing the ballet d'action, in which the movements of the dancers are designed to express character and assist in the narrative. Reforms were also being made in ballet composition by composers such as Christoph Gluck. Finally, ballet was divided into three formal techniques sérieux, demi-caractère and comique. Ballet also came to be featured in operas as interludes called divertissements.

The 19th Century was a period of great social change, which was reflected in ballet by a shift away from the aristocratic sensibilities that had dominated earlier periods through Romantic ballet. Ballerinas such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler pioneered new techniques such as pointework that rocketed the ballerina into prominence as the ideal stage figure, professional librettists began crafting the stories in ballets, and teachers like Carlo Blasis codified ballet technique in the basic form that is still used today. Ballet began to decline after 1850 in most parts of the western world, but remained vital in Denmark and, most notably, Russia thanks to masters such as August Bournonville, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa. Russian companies, particularly after World War II engaged in multiple tours all over the world that revitalized ballet in the west and made it a form of entertainment embraced by the general public. It is one of the most well preserved dances in the world.

Ballet education

Canada

• The National Ballet School of Canada A boarding school, one of the world's finest places to train dancers for The National Ballet of Canada and other world-class dance companies.
• Royal Winnipeg Ballet School Official school of Canada's acclaimed Royal Winnipeg Ballet
• Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal Classical ballet company based in the francophone province of Québec.
• Alberta Ballet School Official school of the Alberta Ballet Company.

Denmark

• [1] Royal Danish Ballet School, Copenhagen
• [2] Royal Danish Ballet School, Holstebro
• [3] Royal Danish Ballet School, Odense

Germany

• Akademie des Tanzes at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts in the city of Mannheim, Germany.
• Ballettschule R. Lekovic, Berlin.
• Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin und Schule für Artistik Fachrichtung Bühnentanz, Berlin.
• Ballettschule des Hamburg Ballett, Hamburg. Director John Neumeier (see de:John Neumeier).
• The Forsythe Company, Frankfurt and Dresden.

Hong Kong

• Jean M. Wong School of Ballet in Hong Kong.

Russia

• Bolshoi Ballet Academy Located in Moscow.
• Vaganova Ballet Academy Located in St. Petersburg.
• Perm State Ballet School Located in Perm.

Switzerland

• Dance Art Studio Ballettschule Luzern / Lucerne Ballet School Professional ballet school in Switzerland for aspiring dancers and teachers

United Kingdom

• Royal Ballet School [4]
• English National Ballet School [5]
• Royal Academy of Dance [6]
• Laban Dance Centre [7]
• British Ballet Organisation [8]

USA

• North Carolina School of the Arts Located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• School of American Ballet Official ballet school of the New York City Ballet, founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School Official Ballet School of American Ballet Theatre, located in New York City.
• Houston Ballet Academy Official school of Houston Ballet, located in Houston, Texas.
• The Washington School of Ballet Located in the nation's capital, Washington, District of Columbia or Washington, DC.
• The San Francisco Ballet School
• The Pacific Northwest Ballet School Located in Seattle, Washington.
• The School of Oregon Ballet Theatre Located in Portland, Oregon
• The Central Pennsylvannia Youth Ballet Located in Carlisle,
• The Rock School for Dance Education Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia
• Boston Ballet and Boston Ballet School Located in Boston, Massachusetts
• Chicago Festival Ballet Located in Naperville, IL and Joliet, IL in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois
• Miami City Ballet Company and School located in Miami, Florida.
• Midland Festival Ballet Located in Midland, Texas,
• Ballet Hawaii Located in Honolulu, Hawaii
• Class Act Dance Studio, Located in Clyde, Ohio. See [9]
• Jan's Dance Academy, Located in Orange Park, Florida

Australia

• Australian Ballet School [10]. 95 % of the Australian Ballet Company are graduates from this school.

• Perth City Ballet 100% of Perth City Ballet Members are graduates from this school.

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Norway

• Statens Balletthøgskole (Norwegian National College of Ballet and Dance) [11]

See also

• Dance

External links

• Ballet Technique and Resource Guide
• Ballet for Figure Skaters

Video clips

• Ballet Steps

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This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.