The History of Ballet - Research Paper Example

The History of Ballet Ballet is a beautiful form of dance that found its origin in Italian Renaissance during the 15th century and since then spread to fame in countries like Russia and France where it found its own genre and meaning. Ballet is considered to be a very delicate, fragile yet passionate form of dance with a large number of technical aspects that one can learn only through years of rigorous training and discipline. Ballet dancers require years of patience and training before they can even call themselves good at what they do because it is a matter of emotion that the dance form deals with, and not merely physical steps and choreography. Ballet may refer to either the choreography or the music that is used in a ballet production and one of the very renowned ballet pieces that the world has been witness to is the ‘Nutcracker’ choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. The piece was given harmony and music through the wonderful sense of rhythm of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Ballet has a number of variations like neoclassical and contemporary ballet which have later been talked about through the course of this paper. This paper helps to provide an insight into the history of ballet, treading on the notions of the book written by Jennifer Homans, ‘Apollo’s Angles: A History of Ballet’, and aims to touch upon the meaning that ballet has provided to the world from the olden days in Europe to modern contemporary society in America. Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet exudes sheer beauty as it wafts through the four centuries since the 16th talking about ballet in its various forms; ballet requires grace and imagination but no explanation or content according to the author, Jennifer Homans. She talks about ballet in France in the 16th century when politics was at its peak and revolutions, Romanticism, modernism and the Cold War were moulding the country with an intellectual wave form. Ballet took its roots here, and was deeply influenced by these ideas. She writes, “When the French king Henri II wedded the Florentine Catherine de Medici in 1533, French and Italian culture came into close and formal alliance, and it is here that the history of ballet begins.” (Homans, Jennifer) Ballet literally means ‘to dance’ in Latin, and involves a number of art forms like miming, and acting within it, as a popular means of attracting people today. Dancers adorn tutus and are often trained with accompaniments from classical music. Some very renowned ballet productions include Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky, Pas de Deux and Don Quixote by the Cuban National Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Peter Pan and Coppelia; going by the names of these productions, it is evident that ballet is considered to be a fairy tale performance, ebbing emotion into people’ heart with music and dance. (Green, A) Many poets at the time believed that ballet was something that could save them from the chaos reining in the world outside; they believed that ballet brought about a sense of peace and harmony because it was so wonderfully enveloped with magnificence and elegance that it could be understood both as a rational and scientific dance form as well as a divine power given by God to gifted dancers. “The idea, that dance could tell a story better than words, that it could express some essential human truth with a moral force that words simply could not convey: this was an idea that came directly out of the French Enlightenment. And it was this idea that changed ballet from a decorative ornament to the independent narrative art form that we think of today as the story ballet.” (Homans, Jennifer) Ballet is an art that has been looked down upon in many countries around the world, and it is now time to change that perception because even though it may be sans words, it carries a meaning that may be more difficult to understand than any tangible piece of art. It consists of many powerful junctures of stories stemming from human truths and is an art form that not many people are able to digest because of the sheer complexity. An amalgamation of the traditional techniques of ballet along with vocabulary formulate classical ballet and based on the same there are three types, as stemming from their place of origin, namely French classical ballet, Russian classical ballet and Italian classical ballet. There are several different training methods in classical ballet, and world over, students are taught these techniques by creators of different techniques, after whom the techniques may be named, for example, the Cecchetti method named after the creator Enrico Cecchetti. Neoclassical ballet is considered to be a bit more complex than classical ballet because of the spacing and choreography as well as the tempo which is a bit faster than traditional ballet style. The main characteristic of neoclassical ballet is that dancers need to focus a lot on the structure of the dance. The first neoclassical ballet is said to be George Balanchine’s Apollo and later, Balanchine shared his thoughts and ideas with Martha Graham and together they were able to bring a great deal of modern ideas into the dance form through their company, the New York City Ballet. Thus, the dance form looked at experimentation and did not shy away from doing something contemporary and different. This brings us to the third style of ballet or the contemporary ballet dance form, which has found its influences in both classical ballet as well as modern dance forms. In contemporary ballet, a dancer needs to keep in mind the basic techniques however he need not stay within the lines as there is much more scope of movement than classical ballet techniques. This form of ballet is performed without any footwear more often than never and involves steps from many different forms of dance. Balanchine, as written above, is considered to be the man behind the growth and development of this form of ballet as well, after taking times through the neoclassical forms. Today, more and more people look towards contemporary ballet forms after learning classical techniques in order to give their own spin to the dance; many choreographer have been able to incorporate contemporary steps into the ballet piece, making it easier for the younger generations to identify with. In conclusion, ballet is considered to be a way of life and now a part of life; it is referred to as an aesthetic that people swear by. It is one of the most beautiful languages ever spoken, without the use of words that helps people understand the beauty and grace present in the universe. Many ballet dancers have devoted their entire lives to training and practice and swear by the dance as a means of existence. Ballet has survived through the ages, growing better and better as the days pass and yet the art of ballet is much undermined today in the world because of the decreasing number of people that know about it. Homans, in her book, writes about how ballet needs a revival in countries around the world where people are not even aware that it exists because it involves a beautiful lifestyle and culture that not a soul should miss out on knowing. For one to learn ballet he must be very well versed with the traditional forms and the idea that it is merely a way of life of the noble is flawed because it instead is a noble art form meant for those who think highly of themselves and hold utmost respect in their hearts. (Jacobs, Laura) Works Cited Homans, Jennifer. Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet. New York: Random House, 2010. Print. Jacobs, Laura. "The Most Beautiful Language." Wall Street Journal Online. N.p., 30 Oct. 2010. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. . Green, A. "Top 7 Most Popular Ballets of AllTime." About.com Classical Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. . Read More