Dance history Essay

ballet is a form of move performed for theatre audiences. Like an another(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) dance forms, ballet may tell a story, expect a mood, or simply reflect the music. that a ballet dancers technique (way of performing) and special skills differ greatly from those of other dancers. concert dance dancers perform many movements that are unnatural for the body. But when these movements are tumefy executed, they look natural. The beginnings of ballet can be traced to Italy during the 1400s at the magazine of the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, people veritable a great interest in contrivance and learning.At the same time, trade and commerce expanded rapidly, and the dukes who ruled Florence and other Italian city-states grew in wealth. The dukes did much to promote the artistic productions. The Italian city-states became rival art centres as well as competing commercial centers. The Italian dukes competed with one another in giving costly, fancy ent ertainments that included dance performances. The dancers were not professionals. They were noblemen and noblewomen of a dukes motor lodge who danced to please their ruler and to stir the admiration and begrudge of his rivals.Catherine de Medici, a member of the ruling family of Florence, became the queen of France in 1547. Catherine introduced into the French court the same kind of entertainments that she had known in Italy. They were staged by Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx, a gifted musician. Beaujoyeulx had come from Italy to be Catherines chief musician. Ballet historians necessitate one of Beaujoyeulxs entertainments, the Ballet Comique de la Reine, to be the first ballet. It was a magnificent spectacle of about 51/2 hours performed in 1581 in mention of a royal wedding.The ballet told the ancient Greek myth of Circe, who had the sorcerous power to turn men into beasts. The ballet included specially pen instrumental music, singing, and spoken verse as well as dancingall based on the story of Circe. Dance technique was exceedingly limited, and so Beaujoyeulx depended on spectacular costumes and scenery to impress the audience. To make certain(predicate) that the audience unders in like mannerd the story, he provided printed copies of the verses used in the ballet. The ballet was a great success, and was much imitated in other European courts.French leadership. The Ballet Comique de la Reine established Paris as the capital of the ballet world. queen regnant Louis XIV, who ruled France during the late 1600s and early 1700s, strengthened that leadership. Louis greatly enjoyed dancing. He took part in all the ballets given at his court, which his nobles performed, but halt after he became fat and middle-aged. In 1661, Louis founded the Royal Academy of jump to train professional dancers to perform for him and his court. Professional ballet began with the kings dancing academy.With serious training, the French professionals developed skills that had been impossible for the amateurs. Similar companies developed in other European countries. One of the greatest was the Russian empurpled Ballet of St. Petersburg, whose school was founded in 1738. The French professional dancers became so sure-handed that they began to perform publicly in theatres. But in 1760, the French choreographer blue jean Georges Noverre criticized the professional dancers in his book Lettres sur la danse, et sur les ballets (Letters on Dancing and Ballets).Noverre complained that the dancers cared too much about showing their technical skills and too little about the true purpose of ballet. This purpose, he said, was to represent characters and express their feelings. Noverre urged that ballet dancers stop using masks, bulky costumes, and large wigs to illustrate or explain plot and character. He claimed that the dancers could express these things using only their bodies and faces.So long as the dancers did not look strained or awkward doing difficult steps, they could show such emotions as anger, joy, fear, and love. Noverre developed the ballet daction, a form of dramatic ballet that told the story completely finished movement. Most of Noverres ballets told stories taken from ancient Greek myths or dramas. But during the early 1800s, people no longer cared about old gods and heroes. The romanticist period began as people became interested in stories of escape from the square world to dreamlike worlds or foreign lands.