Concert Hour Ballet

19 20 SEASON Concert Hour Ballet CANADA’S ROYAL WINNIPEG BALLET SCHOOL 380 GRAHAM AVENUE WINNIPEG, MB, CANADA | R3C 4K2 T 204.957.3467 E [email protected] W RWB.ORG/SCHOOL @RWBSCHOOL #RWBSAUDITIONS RWB.ORG/CONCERTHOUR PHOTO ROYAL WINNIPEG BALLET SCHOOL PROFESSIONAL DIVISION STUDENTS, BY KRISTEN SAWATZKY CONCERT HOUR STUDY GUIDE | 1 Be Transported For 60 minutes in your school Michelle Blais : PHOTO Concert Hour Ballet, a one-hour narrated dance performance, Concert Hour Ballet is an opportunity provides the perfect introduction to a variety of dance forms for everyone in your school community and an engaging springboard for further study and exploration. to sit back, relax, and be amazed. Performances may include jazz, modern, and other dance forms in addition to classical ballet. Concert Hour Ballet offers Bringing the pure athleticism, grace, and artistry of ballet a rare opportunity to see dancers up close. right into your school, the senior dancers in the RWB School Ballet Academic Program will entertain students and staff Let this be the experience that calls your students to go alike. Concert Hour Ballet is an opportunity for the RWB out and see more dance performances or even try dance School’s dancers to share their passion, hard work and for themselves! dedication as young artists. DID YOU KNOW … ? Whether touring the world’s stages, visiting schools, offering challenging dance classes for all experience levels, or performing The word ‘ballet’ refers to a specific dance technique that has Ballet in the Park each summer, the RWB consistently delivers evolved over the last 350 years. Ballet involves a combination of world-class dance to people in Manitoba and far beyond. movement, music, and design, where emotions and stories are translated through precise body movement and facial expressions. We have the perfect first (or second, or millionth) ballet experience ready for you. At the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, our mandate is: Find out more about us at rwb.org. “To enrich the human experience by teaching, creating and performing outstanding dance.” CONCERT HOUR STUDY GUIDE | 2 About ) The Royal Winnipeg Ballet Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School was created nearly 75 years ago by Gweneth Lloyd and Betty Farrally, who emigrated to Canada from England in 1938. They started by offering dance classes in the community and in that first year they only had six students. Word spread quickly though and by the second year their enrolment grew and they were able to found the “Winnipeg Ballet Club,” which held its first performance featuring the School’s students. By 1943, The Her majesty Princess Elizabeth’s visit to Winnipeg Winnipeg Ballet was formed with all of its dancers coming from the School and only another six years after that, the Company became a non-profit cultural organization as a professional dance company. In 1951 the Company was invited to perform for then Princess Elizabeth when she visited Winnipeg, who later went on to bestow the Ballet’s “Royal” designation in 1953 after her coronation. Between the RWB School’s two divisions (Recreational and Professional) of study, there is a place for virtually every type Gweneth Lloyd, Betty Farrally, of dance student: from adults to pre-schoolers, those new to T-B includes a command performance which introduces her to The Winnipeg Ballet (1951 dance and those aspiring to become professional dancers. David Moroni & Christine Hennessy PHOTO: Martha Swope DID YOU KNOW … ? The RWB School’s The Professional Division integrated levels of training, including daily Recreational Division classes in ballet, character, pointe, pas de The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School offers classes in jazz, deux, repertoire and modern. The program’s Professional Division provides complete modern, hip hop, tap, high standards and reputation attract training for young dancers pursuing a musical theatre, and students from across Canada, the U.S. professional career in dance. Founding creative movement as and internationally. well as classical ballet. Director David Moroni, C.M., O.M., D.Litt, If you were to enrol in our (h.c.) , maintained that “dancers are not born, World-Class Professionals they are trained…and they have the right Recreational Division, Since the Professional Division was created, to be trained properly!” which dance style would more than 200 of its graduates have gone you try first? Within the Professional Division, which on to dance professionally with the Royal Do you live in Altona, operates in the RWB facilities in downtown Winnipeg Ballet Company. Many others have Eriksdale, Gimli, Winnipeg, there are three distinct programs: been hired by dance companies in Canada, the St. Malo? The RWB School Ballet Academic, Aspirant, and Teacher U.S. and Europe. is very proud to offer Training. The RWB School is one of only two Satellite Program classes nationally recognized professional training The Recreational Division centres in classical dance in Canada. in these communities. Continuing its traditions of the past 74 years, Would you like to be Concert Hour Ballet dancers are part of the RWB School Recreational Division offers a professional dancer the RWB School’s Ballet Academic Program, a carefully developed programs for teens, some day? Everyone is comprehensive and intense training program adults, and children as young as three years welcome to audition for providing young students with their dance old. Weekly classes run throughout the year the Professional Division! and academic training simultaneously. and special programs such as Adult Summer Auditioners – you are not Selected dancers are invited to join the Dance and Dance Intensive are offered each required to have taken a Ballet Academic Program as young as age ten July and August. Students of the Recreational single dance class before! (they must be entering academic grade 6, at Division participate in examinations, local Auditions are held every minimum), after successfully passing a two- dance festivals and year-end recitals. Programs year in Winnipeg and stage audition process. Students progress in the Recreational Division are open to anyone accross North America. through seven carefully interested in joining a dance class. Visit us online for class descriptions, audition information, and more. rwb.org/school. About Ballet The First Ballet The First lavish and weighty costumes of dancers who train and headpieces. They also professionally) was based at In 16th century France and Professional Dancers wore dancing shoes with tiny the Paris Opera and opened Italy, royalty competed to At first, ballets were heels, which made it rather in 1713. have the most splendid court. performed at the Royal difficult to dance with pointed Monarchs would search for Court, but in 1669 King toes. The Pointe Shoe and employ the best poets, Louis opened the first opera By 1830, ballet as a theatrical musicians and artists. At house in Paris. Ballet was Revealing Feet art form truly came into this time, dancing became first viewed publicly in the and Ankles its own. Influenced by the increasingly theatrical. This theatre as part of the opera. th Romantic Movement, which form of entertainment, also The first opera featuring Early in the 18 century was sweeping the world of called the ballet de court ballet, entitled , in Paris, the ballerina, Pomone art, music, literature and (court ballet), featured included dances created Marie Camargo, shocked philosophy, ballet took on a elaborate scenery and lavish by Beauchamp. Women audiences by shortening her whole new look. The ballerina costumes, plus a series of participated in ballets at skirts to just above the ankle. ruled supreme. Female processions, poetic speeches, court, but were not seen in the She did this to be freer in her dancers now wore calf-length, music and dancing. The first theatre until 1681. Soon, as movements and allow the white, bell-shaped tulle known ballet, Le Ballet comique the number of performances audience to see her intricate skirts. To enhance the image de la Reine, was performed at increased, courtiers who footwork and complex jumps, of the ballerina as light and court in 1581 by the Queen of danced for a hobby gave way which often rivaled those of ethereal, the pointe shoe was France (and her ladies) at her to professional dancers who the men. Ballet companies introduced, enabling women sister’s wedding. trained longer and harder. were now being set up all over to dance on the tips of their The physical movement of the France to train dancers for toes. The Sun King first professional dancers was the opera. The first official In the 17th century, the severely hindered by their ballet company (a collection popularity and development of ballet could be attributed to King Louis XIV of France. He took dancing very seriously and trained daily with his dance master, Pierre Beauchamp. One of the King’s famous roles was the Rising Sun which led him to become known as the “Sun King.” King es Louis also set up the Academie Royale de Danse (Royal Academy of Dance) in 1661, where, for the first time, steps were structurally codified and recorded by Beauchamp. These are the same steps that have been handed down through centuries, and which now form the basis of today’s classical ballet style. RWB Professional Division students, photo courtesy of Archiv DID YOU KNOW … ? SEE FOR YOURSELF! Dancing ballet puts a lot of wear on Do a search for images of ballet dancers a dancer’s shoes. Some dancers need throughout the ages. Can you notice the to get new shoes every week! differences in costumes over time? What do most dancers wear today? Marie Camargo, with her ankles exposed CONCERT HOUR STUDY GUIDE | 4 The Life of a Dancer The career of a dancer is relatively short and it is not unusual to spend more years training than dancing professionally.

Load more