The great history of Russian ballet

E. Bocharnikova, Evdokia Belova

Description

Although the techniques of classical ballets were invented by French and Italian masters two hundred years ago, the Russian Ballet refined these techniques, thus enhancing its already superb performances. This book uncovers the Great History of Russian Ballet, its art and choreography.

Sujets

• Russian
• Ballet
• Dancers
• Teatro Bolshói
• Bolshoi
• Petipa

Informations

• Publié par: Parkstone International
• Date de parution: 04 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781646999637
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 13 Mo

Extrait

Scholarly compilers : G. Andreevskaya, A. Smirina. Scholarly editors : Dr. N. Gadzhinskaya, B. Khudyakova.
Reviewing editors : Dr. N. Landa, E. Rodina, V. Sinyukov, Dr. G. Yakusheva. Artwork designer: B. Miroshin. Art editor: L. Mushtakova.
Translated into English by V. Arkadyev, I. Bershadsky, and F. Kreynin.
English Translation editor : R. Coalson, United States. Project coordinators : E. Beglyarova, I. Smirnova, and E. Talalaeva.
© 2021 Confidential Concepts, worldwide, USA
© 2021 Parkstone Press International, New York, USA
Image-Bar www.image-bar.com
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ballet scholars and critics whose works have been used in this book:
E. Belova, E. Bocharnikova, G. Brodskaya, N. Chernova, V. Chistyakova, A. Chizhova, S. Davlekamova, G. Dobrovolskaya, N. Dunaeva, E. Dyukina, V. Gaevsky, T. Gorina, B. Illarionov, M. Ilyicheva, G. Inozemtseva, P. Karp, V. Krasovskaya, F. Krymko, T. Kuzovleva, B. Lvov-Anokhin, V. Majniece, O. Martynova, E. Nadezhdina, T. Orlova, V. Pappe, N. Sadovskaya, A. Sokolov-Kaminsky，I. Stupnikov, E. Surits,，V. Zarubin, N. Zozulina.
Photographers:
V. Baranovsky, A. Brazhnikov, E. Fetisova，D. Kulikov,，G. Larionova, A. Nevezhin, V. Perelmuter, L. Sherst ennikova, S. Shevelchinskaya, G. Solovyev, A. Stepanov, E. Umnov.
Illustrations have been supplied by collections of the A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theater Museum, St. Petersburg Theater and Musical Art Museum, Diaghilev Center Moscow Association (by courtesy), Ceramics Museum at Kuskovo 18th century estate, State Russian Museum, State Tretyakov Art Gallery, S. Sorokin’s private collection, and other collections of Russia.
The scientific editor of the book is Doctor of Fine Arts E. Surits, a well-known ballet scholar. Contributors are also prominent modern Russian ballet scholars.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or adapted without the permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world. Unless otherwise specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers, artists, heirs or estates. Despite intensive research, it has not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case, we would appreciate notification.
ISBN: 978-1-64699-963-7
Evdokia Belova, E. Bocharnikova




THE GREAT HISTORY
OF RUSSIAN BALLET
ITS ART AND CHOREOGRAPHY







1. A scene from Raymonda at the Bolshoi.
Contents
The Birth Of The Russian Ballet
Great Figures Of Russian Ballet
The Age Of Marius Petipa
Great Figures Of Russian Ballet
The Reforms Of Fokine And Gorsky
Great Figures Of Russian Ballet
Russian Ballet Abroad
Great Figures Of Russian Ballet
The 1920s
Great Figures Of Russian Ballet
The Drama Ballet
Great Figures Of Russian Ballet
Rebirth
Great Figures Of Russian Ballet
The Immortal Russian Ballet
Great Figures Of Russian Ballet – Index
2. Maya Plisetskaya.
Dear friends, connoisseurs of ballet, I hope both readers and spectators who have always been enthusiastic about the performance of Russian ballet dancers on stages around the world will now be pleased to read the Great History of Russian Ballet. Formed more than two centuries ago by talented newcomers from France and Italy, the Russian ballet has acquired its unique national identity over years and decades. The encounter of two great masters, two giants, the French choreographer Marius Petipa who had spent most of his life in Russia, and the Russian composer Piotr Tchaikovsky was fortunate for the ballet stage. At the turn of the 20th century Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes acquainted spectators in many countries with the artistic activities of Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Leonid Massine, George Balanchine, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Alexandre Benois, Leon Bakst, and other talented masters, including dancers, ballet masters, composers, and stage designers. The world was overwhelmed with this discovery; its echo is still felt in the world of ballet. Russian dancers and ballerinas have always desired to express on the stage romantic beauty and profound spirituality; that is why the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin called their art, “a flight filled with spirit”. The magnificent art of ballet can unite hearts, for its language is understood by everyone.
Maya Plisetskaya


3. Yekaterina Maximova as Masha and Vladimir Vasilyev as The Nutcracker.
THE BIRTH OF THE RUSSIAN BALLET
From its beginnings to the early nineteenth century
Dancing has been popular in Russia from time immemorial. The Slavs had many rituals and entertainment dances, dating back as far as the pre-Christian period. Most of these dances were accompanied by songs, and this link with singing imbued Russian dance with its richness of meaning and emotion; its soft, singing “plastique”; and the smoothness and continuity of motion that later made the Russian school of ballet unique. Russian professional ballet originated in the second half of the eighteenth century, brought to Russia by dance masters from Italy, Austria, and France. Russia, with its own rich folk dancing traditions, proved to be fertile soil for the development of ballet. In addition to learning the techniques taught by foreigners, Russians introduced their own intonations to foreign dances.
On February 13, 1675 (according to most sources) the first Russian dance performance, The Ballet of Orpheus , was staged near Moscow in the village of Preobrazhenskoe, which belonged to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. It is believed that the music for this ballet was written by the German composer Heinrich Schuetz, while the ballet was staged by Nicholas Lim, a Swedish engineer who also trained the performers. Lim danced the role of Orpheus and, among other things, he performed “the dance with two moving pyramids”. A strict ceremonial order was observed in the theatre of that period: the Tsar sat on an armchair placed upon a piece of red cloth in the centre of the hall; the most distinguished boyars sat on benches along the wall behind the Tsar’s seat, and the rest of the spectators sat along the sides of the hall and, sometimes, even on the stage itself. The Tsar’s wife and daughters watched the performance through a grate from a special room in the back of the hall. Subsequently, other ballets were staged, but their titles are unknown today. After Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich died, there were no ballet performances in Russia for many years. However, the reign of Peter the Great brought new fashions in clothing and social behaviour, as well as in methods of education and upbringing. An interest in forms of entertainment that were popular in Europe, such as balls and the ballet, also developed under Peter. The Tsar himself was fond of dancing, and he set the tone by dancing in public with his wife Catherine. These balls, at which dances previously unknown in Russia (such as the minuet, the polonaise, and the anglaise) were performed, paved the way for the development of stage dance and court ballet. Specialists were needed to teach these new dances. In 1734, the French dance master Jean-Baptiste Landé was invited to teach at the Russian court. Having danced to acclaim on the stages of Paris and Dresden and having choreographed ballets in Stockholm, Landé taught the Russian nobility to dance and staged ballets at the imperial court. He highly esteemed the inherent ability of Russians to dance, and, on his initiative, professional ballet training in Russia was begun. The first dance school in Russia opened in St. Petersburg on May 4, 1738: this school later became famous as the Leningrad Ballet School and is now the Vaganova St. Petersburg Academy of the Russian Ballet. Originally, the school was housed in two rooms of the old Winter Palace. The first enrolment comprised six girls and six boys from the families of court employees. Two different European schools formed the sources of ballet education in Russia. “Serious” dance (based on the minuet) was taught by Landé and, later, by his students; comic dance was taught by Antonio Rinaldi (known as Fossano) and his wife, Giulia Rinaldi. The rigid canons of the French school and the grotesque virtuosity of the Italian merged organically in Russian performance practice. Landé’s students were so successful that, in 1742, his first graduates were invited to perform at court celebrations of the coronation of Empress Elizabeth, a daughter of Peter the Great. The most outstanding of Landé’s students were Andrei Nesterov, who became the first Russian ballet teacher, and Aksinia Sergeyeva. A dance class was formed in Moscow in 1773 at the Moscow Orphanage, where young orphans were kept at state expense. Their first teachers were the Italian dancers Filippo Beccari and his wife, and they were later taught by the Austrian teacher and ballet master Leopold Paradisi. Graduates from his classes included a number of excellent dancers, such as Arina Sobakina, Gavrila Raikov, Vasily Balashov, and Ivan Yeropkin. This is the beginning of the Moscow Ballet School. In both the Moscow and the St. Petersburg schools, all students were obliged to study music, singing, dancing, painting, and drama. Only during the course of these studies did school authorities assign students to particular specialities according to their professional promise. Nineteenth-century Russian dance incorporated the best stage traditions and teaching techniques of Western European ballet, having received them first hand. The best ballet masters of the time, including Franz Hilferding, Gasparo Angiolini, Charles Le Picq, and Giuseppe Canziani, came from Europe to work in St. Petersburg. Their conceptual and creative approach was similar to that of Jean-Georges Noverre, the greatest reformer of the ballet theatre. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Russian ballet passed through the same stages of development as European ballet. In the eighteenth century, ballet was considered