An Assessment on the Current Provision of Classical Ballet in London - Essay Example

An Assessment on the Current Provision of Classical Ballet in London Dance has long been pinned in the core success of every artistic form in the new living era. It has become the prime mover of all productions known now in every parts of the world. As it grows and develops, with its winning collaborative system, different meritorious art forms are now emerging. In the light of the success of this art forms are the capitals that recognize its strengths and power. And the city of London, which has long been acknowledged as a major international dance capital, can be counted on (Dance Policy, 2006). History has proven worth of keeping how this metropolitan has become the home to many art forms and the center of excellence of dance performances. And one of these great art forms renowned in this capital is the inimitable ballet dance. “Ballet, as we know it, had well and truly evolved by this time, with all the familiar conventions of costume, choreographic form, plot, pomp, and circumstance firmly fixed in place” (A History of the Art, n.d.). But how did these standards accentuate the current conditions of this dance form, given the terms entitled to it? The provisions of classical ballet and the dance as an art in general, have showed great edifying details. It goes well with bracing Arts Council England’s standpoint on its provisions towards developing a national art strategy at the same time, and identifying such weaknesses and strengths. To underscore these provisions, it is informative in its way to establish a good assessment on how this art form in London is treated. While many dance artists continuously invigorate their crafts and draw influences from around the world, the dance styles and performances also incessantly evolve to new shapes. Vital factors that sets this city a “world standard” are its outstanding infrastructure for education consequently creating participative and professional training; the craft of creativity and multiplicity of its artists that continuously give world-class performances of classical ballet; its innovation in the art of dance; and the unrelenting support for its artistic development from obliging sectors. Ballet has been part at a certain point of the art history of England, Italy and Russia, where it originated as a concert dance form in the 16th and 17th century French courts. Kings and queens made this court dancing into existence most specifically in the Renaissance of the 1500s in France. Its original form started as a performance made to entertain audiences amid the panorama of an opera. Today, we would distinguish the first emergence of this ballet form as the ballet du cour. Such court ballet came into its own as a movement art for the French monarchy’s eulogizing its own immensity (A History of the Art, n.d.). From the simple court dances, emerged the classical form of ballet. This established dance form, as it is, in the Western concept of dance, refers its standards from the classical time on the second half of the nineteenth-century known as the Classical Period. Together with the fast emerging Western dance form in the world, paved the fame of dancers and their shows now known as the Classical Ballet performances (Bedinghaus, n.d.). As it develops from short dances, collectively securing its consistency of movements and defining of other stylistic conventions, it rose up with reputation and regard from its audiences, and has earned a place in theater art (A History of the Art, n.d). By the 1700’s, the ballet du cour‘s complex structure and vital element was preserved as the ballet dance ventured from the Paris court to the Paris Opera. All through the century Europe has witnessed how the courtly display of poignant images for a bigger vista has flourished into a “performance art” now known as the ballet d’action. Consequently marking in the neoclassical model, the new form of an art that “aspire to imitate nature”, establishing new dimensions from the ingenuity of the court dance. Its exceptional craft caused a huge advantage of creative and distinctive “costuming and choreography” on the new form. This has opened then to a flexible venue for the dancers to express their full body skills freely. A more naturalistic costuming also allowed more unconventional styles to grow. And in the early era of Romanticism, a period of great social change, the “pointe-work” was realized when ballet themes focused more on the emotions, the fantasy and the sacred world. These were reflected in ballet by a shift away from the aristocratic susceptibilities that had subjugated earlier periods through romantic ballet. It was within this same period also when ballerina paved over the male dancers whose statuses were reduced to a “moving statue” tasked only to lift ballerina in performances. And hadn’t the rise of Nijinsky with the ballet Russe in the early twentieth century came about, this status would not have been put right (A Potted Pre-history of Classical Ballet, n.d.). What we call Classical ballets today are generally those that came from the latter half of the 19th century, when the progress of pointe shoes showed the way to a remarkable rise in the recognition of the art form. It has been known that this art of dance is the most formal of all ballet styles, since it holds fast to traditional ballet technique. Thus, it is the foundation of all ballet dances that put great emphasis on the technique and execution of movement, such as pointe work, turn-out of the legs, and high extensions; its poised, sinuous, defined movements; and its fancy traits (Dance Management Overview. PDF). More importantly, classical ballet is particularly well thought-out on a “narrative pretext”. With this style, audiences’ level of understanding on the multifaceted blend of movement and music of the performance must increase to comprehend the storyline it conveys. This is much regarded for some reasons that there may be traditionally familiar stories that are portrayed in the dance, but obscure plots require most of both the dancers and the audience deep discernment, if depicted. This classical dance is now widely taught in schools and studios around the world. While this has become engaging to many of dance enthusiasts, it is now invigorated by being presented alongside the contemporary work. From this scope, dance activities diverse and have fragmented especially for the young ones. As it was surveyed (Dance Management Overview. PDF), youth dance activity exists in a number of contexts, including youth dance groups and companies, after school dance clubs, projects within dance agencies, activities provided by local authorities, Creative Partnerships, sports initiatives, professional dance companies and the work of individual dance artists. Apparently, advantages flower from this diversity of dance activities including the opportunities it provides for young people to partake in dance and uphold education; and the urge of social inclusion and pathways of these young ones for the theater profession. However, this provision results to isolation among different professionals working in the field and restricts them causing unclear progression, as it limits the chances for enduring professional development for youth dance. Auspiciously, The Youth Dance England was launched in 2004 to take a national role in the development of youth dance, supported by Arts Council England and the Department for Education and Skills Music and Dance scheme. They designed supporting frameworks to continue the process of embedding diversity in dance consequently taking a high regard on supporting the development of diverse and disabled artists through vocational training; and noting the aesthetic validity and relevance of culturally diverse forms. But then again, more of these provisions are speed bumps to a faster development of the dance art. Such as the case cited in (Dance Management Overview, PDF) that a significant proportion dance activity takes place without financial support. The factors that hold most of their hopes are a good track record of subsidized work by emerging dance companies and the passion and individual efforts of the artists that can direct funding in the future. And this can again be traced by the fact that most dance activity is in highly reliance on public subsidy and that they get a low commercial sponsorship which made it difficult for them to propose the high profile and shared prospects that commercial sponsors necessitate (Dance Management Overview. PDF). This blows a sad story of how personal earnings of artists from dance continue to turn down while maintaining as a highly trained profession. In fact Arts & Business (2003) Business investment in the arts 2001/2 revealed that in 2001/2, dance received just over £2 million of business investment, representing just 2% of overall business investment in the arts, considerably lower than the other performing arts. These conditions are regarded and the “Arts Council acknowledges that dance needs more investment”. The reality that no additional investment gives the art form of dance to develop is so bleak to hear. This downside of the condition challenges the Art Council and other funding distributors to sustain dance artists to raise their potential to productively apply for funding. And the skill sets required to grow more effective dance workforce, is called for evaluation. Thus, training provision should be studied and adapted to produce employers and educators as well as performers and dance makers while generating more producers and entrepreneurs. In the light of supporting mature artists to continue to develop and share their talents; and inspiring new talents to emerge, are significant ways to mend such weakness of the condition on the workforce. Ballet dance in the beginning were showcased with the majority of the audience settled on tiers on three sides of the dance floor in large chambers and was typically performed to classical music (Bedinghaus, n.d.). And now, as the ballet dance becomes a highly technical form of dance, many artists and directors venture on different platforms. It can be drawn out that theatre in London flourished after the English Reformation. From then on, in the pace of years, the city has been particularly renowned for its theatre companies and quarters for performances. Rambert Dance Company, previously known as the Ballet Club, is a leading classical ballet company that exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingdom. And today, as a contemporary dance company, together with many other famous companies known on its excellence of training ballet dancers, they continue to be part the world's most renowned dance companies (Anonymous, 2010). And a number of venues quartered these companies that stage ballet, such as, Royal Opera House and the London Coliseum (the home of English National Ballet). The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden is home to the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet companies; it is the UK’s leading Opera and Ballet Company that plays host to a wide range of visiting companies and artists. The Royal Opera House received £26,961,420 in 2008/2009, £27,689,378 in 2009/2010 and £28,436,991 in 2010/2011 from the Arts Council England. English National Ballet is England’s leading touring classical ballet company. They received £6,537,949 in 2008/2009, £6,714,474 in 2009/2010 and £6,895,765 in 2010/2011(Dance Management Overview. PDF). The other main opera company is the English National Opera. The major venues for contemporary dance productions include the Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Barbican Centre (Anonymous, 2010). However, the condition of dance companies to perform in a range of venues in dance tours is limited to those with facilities and technical resources suitable for dance. This is because dance companies most dance’s distribution relies upon touring, for deficiency of a building base. With this regard, dance companies take challenges of going into tours for some valuable reasons: it would be expensive and time consuming for them to put up a program due to the time constraints in the venue and the amount of people involved; a conflict can also arise between the dance art form by the programmers of multi- art form venues not matching the background in dance; and the risk of programming a dance is also faced with a challenge. As a result, all subsidized dance companies tour to different theatrical venues. (Dance Management Overview. PDF). Seeing these conditions of the dance induce good points. Because touring can both open a wider access for audiences countrywide who cannot witness high quality performances on theater venues; and can strengthen relationships among choreographers, artists, companies and theater as dance are fostered in new environments. On the other hand, the shortcoming of this occurs when changes of immigration and legislation and visa systems crop up. Thus, new approaches and strategic planning is best done by touring companies and venues ahead of every tour shows to produce high-class work and peaceful environment within which dance can thrive. And the assistance of providing regular and informal provision; the same as the formal and informal education sectors that contribute to the overall success of a dance production, are some of the strengths that the provisions on dance have confirmed. Dance as an art form, has proved its uniqueness in expressing its beauty through the elegant body movements. It has been equated with quality, innovation, and its nature of being collaborative compared to any other art forms. One of its distinguishing factors is the transfer of ideas through non-verbal language. It is constantly changing and managing to come up with new approaches in presenting its art to the public, like blending diverse forms, performing in public sites, and other collaborations. The collaborative system means constructive force on the designs of the provision as it assist the dance field in ensuring that it is not less than any other art form (Dance Management Overview. PDF). Compared to other forms of art, contemporary ballet is the closest one to classical ballet. As classical or traditional ballet is the groundwork of all ballet dance forms with the development of pointe shoes which paved way for the increase in its popularity. Its graceful and flowing movements coupled with the precision of the steps and its ethereal qualities makes it different from other form of theatrical art. One other relatively unique factor of ballet, as a dance, is the finances it can procure. While local authority subsidy is low for dance compared to other art forms, the Art Council England’s subsidy, on the other hand, is high. In studies conducted in 2001 and 2002, it was found that per attendance of dance, its subsidy is £13.20 comparable to an average of £7.84 across the arts. Together with these plights of dance throughout London and UK, was the fair assistance of some national development agencies who relentlessly aid the art of dance in general. From diverse areas of focus, these organizations took note on the issues affecting their constituencies and continue to provide regionally supported resources for generating, advancing and participating in dance. These National Dance Agencies include the Dance UK, Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD), Foundation for Community Dance, Council for Dance Education and Training, National Dance Teachers Association and South Asian Dance Alliance. Moreover, other local level operating agencies provide opportunities for artists and for the public to partake in dance activity while attending significantly on some of the local issues on their own. Though a number of national development agencies support the art of dance, its physical infrastructure still needs a great help for a better training ground. This counts on the provision of affordable studio space and facilities appropriate for training. Despite the fact that the Arts Council England’s National Lottery Capital Program rewards a range of new building for dance, still not enough of these can accommodate the dance needed quarters throughout the UK. Thus the physical infrastructure for dance needs to be improved. Properly heated, adequately sized spaces, lit and ventilated, are needed for Dance to make out a creative training. And for further development of this physical infrastructure of dance, accessibility is looked-for; affordable and suitable spaces for dance activity is preferred; opportunities for artists and the community to access high quality dance experiences is most wanted; and upgrading the profile of dance along with local group of people is desired.(Dance Management Overview. PDF) Furthermore, dancing as a form of art can sometimes have its downsides. In contrast to the elegance and beauty of its presentations, one challenge is being overcome by the performance, funding. Funds are very important to any organization or individual, and that is one of the challenge performance artists have to face. Dance, by its own virtue, relies on its audience for support. Without their support, dance as an art will slowly fade away. Funds can be very hard to secure, but unknowingly, dance in the form of theatre arts, has continued to strive and grow to perfection due to the support of those who love arts. And the classical ballet, being the oldest known form of Western theatrical dance, has attracted the largest audiences, richest patrons and prime amount of fund from the government. One of the organizations that support this art and other forms of art, especially in London, is the Arts Council England. Arts Council England is the chief financier of dance as an artistic practice. Their constant support on the art has made it advance further since 1989. They fund almost £44 million a year for around 90 dance societies. By which almost 30 of these organizations have received their support within the last decade. They also devote £8 million a year in "development grants" for a wide array of organizations and performers. Grants amounting to £33.5 million were given to almost 500 organizations and individuals while most of the funds are given to dance companies. These include: The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet; modern companies like Rambert Dance Company, Walker Dance Park Music and other companies (Source: Arts Council England). However, the New Arts Council England criteria for funding discouraged some dance artists due to the changes it brought. Instead of making the support and progress of an artist as the main priority, it is now only a part of a long list of criteria’s that must be met. Recent developments between departments in the funding landscape became more complex than what it used to. Collaborations between the Department of Culture, Department of Education and Skills, Media and Sports and the Arts Council England have promoted the dance sector. These developments gave new chances for the performers, conversely, made it harder for small dance groups to find ways to acquire its support. (Dance policy, 2006). They strive hard to make the dance scene more attractive to the audience and yet, there are still parts of the country where deficit of facilities are evident. Despite the increase in the dance Industry there are only around 400 year-round jobs and more than 1,200 dancers juggle for short-term performance contracts along with other occupations. Also, due to its physical requirements, most performers stop in their late thirties. Thus, increase in the funds given for dance would not only give it a chance to develop further activity but would allow as well such organizations, companies and artists, to be more efficient in what they do; it would also make them aim higher and take more artistic risks. (Dance Management Overview. PDF) However, “resource dependency” inside the dance part, takes with it the risk of higher chances of “policy shifts” causing the levels and rules upon which they rely be amended at the same time. This can be counted as one of the weaknesses of this funding term in the dance circle. “An increasing awareness of the extrinsic value of dance has led to greater appreciation of its value” (Burns & Harrison, 2008). As new works and forms are developed by many ballet artists, utilizing its potential for new techniques, the traditional form still seems to generate audience interest. "It seems that the general public love the tradition and to this day staging a classic is the most guaranteed way for a ballet company to generate a full audience” (Philp, 1997). Specifically, audience finds classical ballet dance’s exemplary style of presenting a storyline in context, more engaging. Though there are those viewers who favor techniques over theatrics, ballet performances with no sets, better; and there are some who likes choreographed ballet dances to modern music; and hit upon energetic, expressive and dynamic dances, still, it is favorable by the majority when they are done by classical artists (Anonymous, 2010). With the dance’s exceptional techniques and skills, a large number of spectators will undoubtedly pack the whole arena. (Anonymous, 2010). This is fairly an important factor for the traditional dance to foster and grow even warmer in the people’s interest; but it shouldn’t be also neglected that it is important at the same time that the intrinsic value of dance, its inherent worth to have stood the standards of the contemporary forms, must be acknowledged. Nonetheless, this art of dance is not exclusive for those elite ones. It is an engaging activity by those from lower socio-economic groups (Dance Management Overview. PDF). The same is true that this type of dance gives a lot of opportunities for social interaction, group dynamics, cooperation, and could do with of mutual respect among audiences and performers. (Laura, 2009) The assessment summarizes the context for dance, the Art of Council’s role on the provisions of Classical ballet in London and the art of dance in general; surveyed the dance workforce, local authorities and venues, and the challenges being faced by these groups. As seen in the evaluation, the demand for a more advanced field is increasing and there are some significant challenges that need to be dealt with, “Dance field is strong and provision is growing” (Burns & Harrison, 2008). But as what (Philp, 1997) says, “Classical dance is still about possibilities, about firing our imaginations with a sense of what might be, of our potential”. Then, despite these demands, a great challenge of supporting the development of this art form, in all means, surfaces the threat. References:  Anonymous, n.d., A Potted Pre-history of Classical Ballet, [Accessed: May 7, 2010], Available from: http://www.groovygames.com/hinge/writing/articles/Beginner\'s%20Guide%201.htm.  Anonymous, n.d., A History of the Art, [Accessed: May 12, 2010], Available from: http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/exploring/ballet/history.html. Anonymous, 2007, The Dance Review, [Accessed: May 08, 2010], Available from: Dcms, Department for children, schools and families: www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications.  Anonymous, 2010, Culture of London, [Accessed: May 10, 2010], Available from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_London#Classical_music.2FOpera. Anonymous, 2010, History of dance, [Accessed: May 12, 2010], Available from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_dance. Anonymous, 2010, What is the difference between classical ballet neoclassical and contemporary ballet?, Hobbies and Collectibles, [Accessed: May 8, 2010], Available from:  http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_classical_ballet_neoclassical_and_contemporary_ballet. Arts council england 2006, Dance policy, Edition of book, Aldridge Print Group, England. Bedinghaus, T, n.d., Ballet Dance, [Accessed: May 12, 2010], Available from: http://dance.about.com/od/balletterms/g/Ballet_Dance.htm. Burns, S. Harrison, S., 2004-2008, Dance Mapping: A Response from the Director, Dance Strategy, [Accessed: May 8, 2010], Available from: www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/Dance_mapping.doc. Laura, 2009, Why ballet? Some Benefits of Classical Ballet Training, [Accessed: Mar 8, 2010], Available from: http://www.avoballet.org/why-ballet/. Odette, n.d., Classical Ballet Dances: The Classical Period of Ballet, [Accessed: May 12, 2010], Available from: http://www.balletdancersguide.com/ballet-dances.html. Philp, R, 1997, "Classical - future of classical ballet - Editorial", Dance Magazine, Jan 1, p. 13. Roy, C. Strong, R. Guest, I, (1981), Designing for the dancer, Elron Press Ltd., London.   Read More

By the 1700’s, the ballet du cour‘s complex structure and vital element was preserved as the ballet dance ventured from the Paris court to the Paris Opera. All through the century Europe has witnessed how the courtly display of poignant images for a bigger vista has flourished into a “performance art” now known as the ballet d’action. Consequently marking in the neoclassical model, the new form of an art that “aspire to imitate nature”, establishing new dimensions from the ingenuity of the court dance.

Its exceptional craft caused a huge advantage of creative and distinctive “costuming and choreography” on the new form. This has opened then to a flexible venue for the dancers to express their full body skills freely. A more naturalistic costuming also allowed more unconventional styles to grow. And in the early era of Romanticism, a period of great social change, the “pointe-work” was realized when ballet themes focused more on the emotions, the fantasy and the sacred world. These were reflected in ballet by a shift away from the aristocratic susceptibilities that had subjugated earlier periods through romantic ballet.

It was within this same period also when ballerina paved over the male dancers whose statuses were reduced to a “moving statue” tasked only to lift ballerina in performances. And hadn’t the rise of Nijinsky with the ballet Russe in the early twentieth century came about, this status would not have been put right (A Potted Pre-history of Classical Ballet, n.d.). What we call Classical ballets today are generally those that came from the latter half of the 19th century, when the progress of pointe shoes showed the way to a remarkable rise in the recognition of the art form.

It has been known that this art of dance is the most formal of all ballet styles, since it holds fast to traditional ballet technique. Thus, it is the foundation of all ballet dances that put great emphasis on the technique and execution of movement, such as pointe work, turn-out of the legs, and high extensions; its poised, sinuous, defined movements; and its fancy traits (Dance Management Overview. PDF). More importantly, classical ballet is particularly well thought-out on a “narrative pretext”.

With this style, audiences’ level of understanding on the multifaceted blend of movement and music of the performance must increase to comprehend the storyline it conveys. This is much regarded for some reasons that there may be traditionally familiar stories that are portrayed in the dance, but obscure plots require most of both the dancers and the audience deep discernment, if depicted. This classical dance is now widely taught in schools and studios around the world. While this has become engaging to many of dance enthusiasts, it is now invigorated by being presented alongside the contemporary work.

From this scope, dance activities diverse and have fragmented especially for the young ones. As it was surveyed (Dance Management Overview. PDF), youth dance activity exists in a number of contexts, including youth dance groups and companies, after school dance clubs, projects within dance agencies, activities provided by local authorities, Creative Partnerships, sports initiatives, professional dance companies and the work of individual dance artists. Apparently, advantages flower from this diversity of dance activities including the opportunities it provides for young people to partake in dance and uphold education; and the urge of social inclusion and pathways of these young ones for the theater profession.

However, this provision results to isolation among different professionals working in the field and restricts them causing unclear progression, as it limits the chances for enduring professional development for youth dance. Auspiciously, The Youth Dance England was launched in 2004 to take a national role in the development of youth dance, supported by Arts Council England and the Department for Education and Skills Music and Dance scheme.

Read More