The Bolshoi Ballet in Still Photography
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ave maria university presents One Aim/One Vision: The Bolshoi Ballet in Still Photography March 27-May 9, 2010 m Marc Haegeman We want to express our special thanks to the following people for their contributions: Anatoly Iksanov, Director General of the Bolshoi Theatre, and the principal dancers featured in this exhibit, for their express permission to use the photographic material. Dr. Lylas Rommel, Associate Professor of Literature at AMU, for providing content on the history of ballet and the Bolshoi Theatre. Ave Maria University Friends of the Arts, for their continuing support of our exhibit programs. History of the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet was introduced into Russia from France around After World War II the company gained in reputation 1738 in St. Petersburg. In 1773, Catherine the Great and artistry with the arrival from the Kirov of Galina established the Moscow Ballet School, made up of Ulanova and the choreographer Leonid Lavrovsky. students taken from the Moscow Orphanage. Although Lavrovsky brought his ballet Romeo and Juliet (1940) technique derived from that of European models, the to the Bolshoi and served as chief choreographer style of ballet instruction was soon affected by Russian from 1944-1956 and again from 1960-1964. His major folk dancing, making Moscow ballet a distinctive contributions to the company were stagings of Giselle form. and Raymonda and new productions such as The Red Founded as a private institution in Moscow around Poppy (1949) to music by Gliere and The Stone Flower 1776 by Prince Urusov and the Englishman Michael (1954) to music by Prokofiev. In 1964 he was appointed Maddox, the Bolshoi Theatre gradually became a as director of the Bolshoi Ballet School. company of 155 dancers by 1850. Although the Maryinsky Galina Ulanova is considered one of the greatest of Theatre in St. Petersburg 20th century artists. She was the site of most of the excelled in interpretive creative work produced sensitivity, musicality and in Russia during the 19th psychological exploration century, the Bolshoi did of character. She followed serve as debut theatre for Lavrovsky to the Bolshoi several important ballets: in order to develop new Marius Petipa’s Don Quixote ballet roles. When the (1869) and an early version Bolshoi came to the West of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake for the first time in 1956, choreographed by Julius Ulanova captivated critics Reisinger (1877). In contrast through her interpretations to the classical tradition of the Soviet choreography. developing at the Maryinsky, She was responsible, as the Bolshoi (meaning “big” in Bolshoi Theatre m Marc Haegeman teacher, for the many great Russian) distinguished itself ballerinas who followed by folk dancing, comedy, pantomime and melodrama. her: Nina Timofeyeva, Ekaterina Maximova, Ludmila By 1882 the status of the Bolshoi had diminished and Semenyaka and Nina Semizorova. the size of the company had been cut in half. Next to Ulanova in fame is Maya Plisetskaya, who One effect of the Russian Revolution was the return debuted in 1945. She created leading roles in Igor of the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow. As a Moiseyev’s Spartacus (1958) and Yuri Grigorovich’s The result, the Bolshoi Theatre grew in status as Russia’s Legend of Love (1965). She later became a successful premier ballet company. The Maryinsky, now known as choreographer, producing most famously the ballet the Kirov, continued its tradition of classical purism and Anna Karenina (1972). After the demise of the Soviet maintained its huge repertoire inherited from Marius Union, she became director of several Western Petipa and other great 19th century choreographers. At companies. the Bolshoi, however, Soviet leaders encouraged a new The style of Bolshoi dancing fits its name: big. style of choreography: Soviet Realism. At the same Choreographers developed spectacular, gravity- time, new interest in dramatic and more impressionistic defying lifts in pas de deux; themes tended to the styles of dance derived from Isadora Duncan’s spectacular as well. After the collapse of the Soviet influence; the choreography of the Diaghilev dancers Union, however, the Bolshoi fell upon hard times. Michel Fokine and Vaslav Nijinsky also influenced Now dependent on the marketplace for its income, the direction of dance at the Bolshoi. Alexander the company was unable to survive the crisis. The last Gorsky guided the company during the critical years Soviet director, Grigorovich, who was responsible for of transition from Russian Empire to Soviet state blockbuster ballets like Ivan the Terrible (1975) and (1900-1924). Among other things, Gorsky reorganized The Golden Age (1982) and male dancers like Vladimir the company, commissioned new ballets with Soviet Vasiliev, Maris Liepa, Viacheslav Gordeyev and Irek themes and encouraged an intensely dramatic style. Mukhmamedov, failed. He was ousted, standards Among the ballets created for the Bolshoi were The fell, and creative output waned. Few ballets were Red Poppy, later renamed The Red Flower, by Vasily commissioned. In 1995 Vladimir Vasiliev took over Tikhomirov (1927); Gayane by Vasily Vainonen (1930); command of the company and staged new productions and Fountain of Bakhchisarai (1934) and Taras Bulba of Swan Lake and Giselle as well as ballets by Western (1941) by Rostislav Zakharov. For the first part of World choreographers and commissioned new choreography War II the company was relocated at Kuibyshev, but it for the company. The Bolshoi Theatre is gradually returned in 1943 with a production of Zakharov’s ballet, returning to the reputation it had during most of the Cinderella, with music by Serge Prokofiev. 20th century. Styles of Ballet Dance is the oldest of the arts since movement; is not as necessary as it is in other styles of ballet. grounded in breath and heartbeat, it precedes The danger of such a style is pressure on the Achilles everything else. Ballet as a formal style of movement tendon. The French style is also distinguished by the does not begin until the Renaissance, as part of court perfection of balance, of the finish of steps, of extreme entertainment. Imported to France from Italy, ballet articulation of positions like passé, attitudes, etc. and became an important new form of art under the of the general lightness and quickness of movement. patronage of Louis XIV. From there it travelled to the The Cecchetti style was developed by Enrico courts of other western countries and to Russia. Each Cecchetti when he taught at the school of the Russian of these countries would Imperial Theatre between influence the development of 1892 and 1902. His method of steps, and their performance teaching was incorporated as ballet increased its into the style used by the vocabulary and meaning. Royal Academy of Dancing There are three main styles in England. It differs from the of ballet: French, Cecchetti, French in a much less rigorous and Russian. Each of these emphasis on turnout. Thus, styles has its own history, the point of gravity is slightly but all three derive from lower and the torso becomes the original development slightly more fixed in relation of steps and of syntax in to the movement of arms and putting the steps together legs. The style fits more body into dances. Ballet steps types than that of the French have many sources, from the or the Russian, so more positions found in fencing, people can learn to dance for example, to imitations of through it. Because of the popular dance movements, to less strenuous turnout, the inventions by ballet teachers style creates problems with and choreographers. Based balance and with extreme on the turnout of the legs precision of steps. In jumps, in fencing, ballet movement the Cecchetti style requires a enables dancers to move strong plie to establish ballon, forward, back and sideways the buoyancy necessary to in graceful and easy ways. maintain lightness. Because of the turnout, the The Russian style derives dancer’s weight is shifted from one of Cecchetti’s forward, causing the point of students, Agrippina Vaganova, gravity to shift from near the Swan Lake m Marc Haegeman who stayed in Russia after waist to the chest, a situation the Revolution. She based her that allows the upper torso to function as a central axis revision of Cecchetti and earlier Russian technique from which the legs and arms are free to move in any on principles of anatomy and physiology and set direction. The suppleness that such a position affords physical standards for students being accepted into does not change among the three major styles. ballet schools. Thus, only students whose bodies In addition, all three styles build on the same basic corresponded to the physiological requirements for structure of movement. The essential principles of the Russian style could study ballet. The style makes classical ballet are the five positions of the feet, the ten use of a different relationship of the hip to the back movements of the foot (from flat to lifted completely in the process of turnout. Like the French style, the off the ground), the turnout, the three positions of the Russian turnout pitches the point of gravity more hand, the five positions of the arms, the theory ofport de forward than in the Cecchetti style, thereby allowing bras (the carriage of the arms), the types of arabesque, for greater precision in the performance of steps, but the seven movements in dancing (to bend, to stretch, because the requirements of anatomy are different, to rise, to slide, to jump, to dart and to turn), and finally the turnout alone is not the main focus of the style. the eight directions of the body. Each style of ballet There are many differences in the performance of the will interpret these elements slightly differently. basic movements of ballet that depend on the natural The French style puts emphasis on extreme turnout, physiology of the dancer.