Mary Ellen Snodgrass - The Encyclopedia of World Ballet

The Encyclopedia of World Ballet

The Encyclopedia of World Ballet

Mary Ellen Snodgrass

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

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Copyright 2015 by Rowman & Littlefield

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Snodgrass, Mary Ellen.

The encyclopedia of world ballet / Mary Ellen Snodgrass.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-4525-9 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-4526-6 (ebook) 1. BalletEncyclopedias. I. Title.

GV1585.S66 2015

792.8dc23

2014049730

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

For dance master Louis Nunnery and

ballet buddy Kathleen Lilly.

We miss you.

Contents

Preface

The Encyclopedia of World Ballet surveys dance art from social occasions at the court of Louis XIV to current venues in myriad countries, from Cyprus to Singapore. To enlighten the dancer, choreographer, student, teacher, and arts historian, 170 major entries reveal the nature and purpose of ballet. Data include leaders in dance design and style, influential ballet companies, and trends in the development of staging, costuming, and set design by such creators as George Balanchine, Ert, and Inigo Jones. Entries summarize public response to repertoires and to the symbolism of worship dance, Anacreontic and story ballet, and the universal favorites Swan Lake , Copplia , The Nutcracker , and The Sleeping Beauty . Research reveals the social and political ramifications of arts controversies over gay ballet, Fascist and Islamic censorship, and arts propaganda under the Communist regimes of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China.

Headwords include topics such as dance essentials (eurythmics, character role, technique, terminology), pedagogues (Enrico Cecchetti, Agrippina Vaganova, Martha Graham, Jules Perrot), and styles (mime , ballet daction , en pointe , pas de deux , divertissement ). Biographies cover choreographers (Michel Fokine, Gerald Arpino, Marius Petipa), dancers (Rudolf Nureyev, Maria Tallchief, Christian Johansson), and innovators (Nacho Duato, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Amalia Hernndez Navarro). There are also overviews of significant Asian (Vietnam, Korea, Siberia, Guangzhou, Iranian, Shanghai, Tokyo) and Pacific companies (Australian, Royal New Zealand, Philippines), African ensembles (Joberg, Cape Town, Cairo), European performers (Greek, Polish, Swedish, Kiev, Netherlands, Finnish, Swedish), and North American troupes (Winnipeg, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Houston, New York City). The complete A to Z encompasses contrasts and similarities of training, programming, and tours. Blended artistries of such performers as Maurice Bjart, Carmen De Lavallade, and August Bournonville disclose efforts to broaden dance with ethnic elements, an asset of jazz ballet, Universal Ballet, folkloric ballet, Apsara dance, and hybrid ballet.

Historical details (Ert, Pierre Beauchamp, Dance Magazine , Alexander Gorsky) orient the reader amid trends (Renaissance dance, polonaise, pas de deux , neoclassical ballet, romantic dance). Specifics of the early twentieth century (Vaslav Nijinsky, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Sergei Diaghilev, Isadora Duncan) account for emerging modernism and efforts at racial integration by Birgit Cullberg, Lester Horton, Judith Jamison, Alicia Alonso, and Alvin Ailey. Classic dances ( The Lady of the Camellias , Eugene Onegin , Don Quixote ) share space with less common works ( Fall River Legend , Spartacus , Totentanz ) and specific venues (Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala Theatre Ballet, Moulin Rouge).

Peripheral subjects ( opra-ballet , ballet in art and film, choreography, ballet attire and shoes, barre warm-up) fill in particulars essential to an understanding of people and movementsfor example, Mikhail Baryshnikovs contributions to dance cinema, Margot Fonteyns interest in spreading the arts to underserved populations, archivists collections of specific works with Benesh notation, Marie Camargos alterations to professional shoes, and public debuts of promising members of juvenile companies. For visual illustration, the text features photos from a variety of ensembles, including Ballet Kelowna, Compaia Nacional de Danza in Madrid, Estonian National Opera, Royal New Zealand Ballet, School of Dance in Ottawa, Dancecyprus, and Sofia Ballet.

Completing the ballet reference source, a timeline orders events from Cambodias Angkor Wat in 802 CE to the pastoral traditions of Acis and Galatea reprised in summer 2014 by the Mark Morris Dance Company. Signal achievements range from the introduction of comdie-ballet , temps lie , gas lighting, and female membership in all-male casts to the creation of the Basque entrechat-deux , the defection of Serge Lifar from Russia, and Nikolai Sergeyevs rescue of classic Russian choreography. The time span preceding and encompassing World War II illustrates the impact of the Nazi high command on Czech performances, the value of Cinderella as a protest of Stalinism, and the loss of Viennese dancers to the Holocaust. A note on artistic freedom legitimates the work of Nima Kiann in Sweden to reclaim Iranian dance tradition. The resurgence of interest in satiric and humorous ballet fills entries on Matthew Bourne and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.

A comprehensive index of primary and secondary topics covers major essays on Zoltn Nagy, Mats Ek, and the Hong Kong Ballet along with clarifying and contributive elements:

Concepts: neoromanticism, dram-balet , fusion dance, ballet contemporain , puppetry, flamenco, ballet-ferie , eukinetics, social dance, intermedio

People: Coco Chanel, Marie Guimard, Suzanne Farrell, Julia Pak Moon, Judith Jamison, Ali Pourfarrokh, Igor Stravinsky, Nejad Ahmadzadeh, Pearl Primus

Musicians: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Samuel Barber, Philip Glass, Arvo Prt, Cesare Pugni, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gabriel Faur

Choreographers: John Cranko, Agnes de Mille, Glen Tetley, Ninette de Valois, Paul Taylor, Jir Kylin, Lonide Massine, Antony Tudor, Christopher Wheeldon

Companies: Romanian National Ballet, Forsythe Company, Ballet Folklorico Azatlan, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dance Theater of Harlem, Sadlers Wells, Prague Ballet

Ballets: Cry! , Highland Fling , Le Corsaire , Edward Scissorhands , Marie Antoinette , Giselle , Miss Julie , The Moon Raindeer , Dream of the Red Chamber , Zhu Fu , Company B , Rodeo , Paquita , Firebird , Lux in Tenebris , Zorba

Eras: French Revolution, World War I, World War II, Louis XIV, Cairo Opera Ballet, Pol Pot dictatorship, Black Plague, Napoleonic Empire

Issues: propagandist dance, The Red Poppy , protest dance, partnering, religion, The Green Table , The Red Detachment of Women

Dance manuals: Modern Educational Dance , On the Art of Dancing and Directing Choruses

Acknowledgments

Lani Almanza-Marshall, director, Ballet Folklorico Azatlan, West Covina, CA

Lisa Auel, archivist, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA