Report of Petipa & Fokine - Essay Example

Petipa- The Sleeping Beauty Petipa is a 19th century French-Russian ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. He is considered one of the most influential ballet conductors of all times. His style was simple and effective and often the dancing sequences and the music to be played with gestures of traditional pantomime. He is known for his lifelong illustrious career in the premier ballet theatre in St. Petersburg Russia where he remained for more than 50 years. The play sleeping beauty was proposed by Vsevolojsky , the director of the imperial theatre and the scenario that Petipa prepared for him is from 1889.

It is a simple reenactment of the old fairy tale in the ballet. The plan was to delineate the dramatic sequence that was shown in the acts with his trademark custom pantomime with specifying not only the characters that come with the play but also the dances and their timing and rhythm. Due to this passive approach, it may be called somewhat of a symphony rather than a usual drama that is expected from such a story. In the scene 1, there are numerous example of his approach like the movement of Catalabutte rhyming with the orchestra, entrance of King, Queen, the three fairies and Carabosse, which is accompanied by relevant songs and variations and a variety of instruments being used.

In scene 3, Prince Desire is hunting and shown the lovely ladies of the court who are also presented with the orchestra. The baronesses and duchesses try to s mesmerize the prince but to no avail. All the above instances point to the fact that he was a traditional artist well versed in the classics and always wanted to give in his all for the preservation of the ballet, its music and the graceful dance. Michel Fokine- The New BalletMichel Fokine was a twentieth century choreographer with education from Petersburg school of imperial Russian ballet.

He was an innovator and wanted to go against the conventions and norms of the ballet at that time. His opportunity to prove his worth came when he joined Diaghilev Ballet Russes for its seasons in Western Europe in 1909. He later went to USA and reenacted many of his former plays and other ballet productions in the country for Ballet de Monte Carlo and the American Ballet Theatre. He couldn’t grasp the necessity of tradition in ballet and his The New Ballet showed just that. Fokine wanted the whole body of the performer to show his character.

Not just some music and traditional dance sequences, He believed that for each character different type of movement befitting his character should be made. This is considered a revolutionary concept given the fact that others believed in Pantomime and blending. He particularly focused on the dancing technique of the Ballet performers emphasizing on their strengths and weaknesses. He believed the traditional way of training them came short of making them fully fit to perform more advanced moves so he introduced new exercises and came up with no ideas.

Fokine was a reformer and believed that such changes in dance make people come closer to their own self and no reduction in their grace is there just because of it. References "Fokine, Petipa and La Bayadere - La Bayadere -- in detail." Ballet Alert!, 2013. Web. 19 Dec 2013. .,