2.6: The Classical Ballet

When thinking about classical ballet in relation to romantic ballet try picturing an egg. Classical ballet is the egg white and romantic ballet is the egg yolk– with the romantic ballet era existing within classical ballet. There are some overlapping characteristics, but there are enough distinctions (just like the egg yolk possessing a different color and cooking properties) to acknowledge the eras as separate. With the Industrial Revolution as backdrop to classical ballet we see the audience’s want of distraction. Similar to the Medieval era peasants using dance as a coping mechanism for their daily hardships, so too the farmhands and factory workers of the Industrial Revolution are in search of escape. In response to public need for diversion, classical ballets rely heavily on fairy tales–weaving dramatic stories with elements of history, realism, fantasy, and spectacle. To facilitate the telling of fairy tales, ballets become evening-long events featuring ballet, pantomime, character dance, and grand pas de deux. Composers are now commissioned to create music specifically for the ballet, usually comprised of 3-4 Acts. Music isn’t the only thing tailor made for each ballet; all components of the production (choreography, costumes, sets, and music) working in concert to support the story ballet. On stage, classical ballets present male dancers with soaring leaps, gravity defying jumps with beats, and multiple turns. Ballerinas are seen balancing sur la pointe, executing multiples turns, as well as rapid and intricate footwork. To accommodate technical demands, the classical tutu rises to above the knee. According to Caroline Hamilton’s 2020 Pointe Magazine article, “this new, shorter costume allowed more of the legs to be visible, drawing attention to new styles of footwork, petit allégro and turns.”

Figure 2.23 Example of Classical tutu

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rosita_Mauri_(NYPL_b16796538-5236171).jpg&oldid=534646716)

Grand pas de Deux break down:

Ballet company hierarchy resembles social hierarchy:

Major player

*Remember, there is overlap of dancers and dance masters/choreographers with the Romantic era ballets.

Marius Petipa (1818-1910)

Journeyman dancer to dance master/choreographer turned steward of classical ballet; Marius Petipa begins his career as a relatively undistinguished dancer from a prominent French dancing family. Studying under his father Jean Antoine Petipa and Auguste Vestris (a member of another dynastic ballet family dating back to the 1700s) Marius slowly climbs the ranks in Russia. “He brought with him the superior technique of French and Italian schools and married it to the grandeur of and nobility of Tsarist Russia… It was through Petipa’s efforts that the Russian Imperial ballet became pre-eminent in the world in the latter part of the 19th century” (D. Craine and J. Mackrell, 2004, p. 368). With his solo works (ex: La Bayadère (1877) and The Sleeping Beauty (1889)) and collaborations with Lev Ivanov (The Nutcracker (1892) and Swan Lake (1895)) not only defining the classical era but ballet as a whole. “Under Petipa’s stewardship, the entire axis of classical ballet had shifted. For two centuries, the art form had been quintessentially French. No more: from this point forth, classical ballet would be Russian” (Homans, 2010, p. 288).

Deep Dive: Creative Success Later in Life

Marius Petipa is nearly 60 years old when he cracks open his choreographic voice with La Bayadère in 1877. Can you think of any artists who found their artistic voice later in life?

Notable Classical Ballets

Figure 2.24 Swan Lake

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Swanlakepreograjenskaya.jpg&oldid=725872907)

Figure 2.25 The Sleeping Beauty

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sleeping_beauty_cast.jpg&oldid=447251377)

Figure 2.26 The Nutcracker

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Olga_Preobrajnskaya_Legat_-Nutcracker_1.JPG&oldid=731999723)

Figure 2.27 Romeo + Juliet

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:RIAN_archive_520706_Scene_from_Sergei_Prokofiev%27s_ballet_Romeo_and_Juliet.jpg&oldid=644568571)

Figure 2.28 Cinderella

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cinderella_-Fairy_Godmother_-Maria_Anderson_-1893.jpg&oldid=707663944)

Note

A number of these classical fairy tale ballets had earlier iterations, for example: Luzzi’s 1785 production of Romeo + Juliet, Cinderella by Duport in 1822, and Swan Lake is originally choreographed by Julius Reisinger in 1877. The dates listed above are for versions (choreography and/or music) that are still in performance today.

Music and Dance

The relationship between music and dance resembles that of two sides of a family tree coming together every generation for a family reunion. The classical era of ballet is no exception, with music intrinsically tied to dance.

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) contributes three mighty works to classical ballet canon: Swan Lake (1877), The Sleeping Beauty (1889), and The Nutcracker (1892).
• Igor Stravinsky (1882- 1971) composes twelve distinct works for ballet over a span of forty years.
  • The Firebird (1910)
  • Petrushka (1911)
  • The Rite of Spring (1913)
  • Les Noces (1914-1923)
  • Pulcinella (1920)
  • Apollo (1927)
  • The Fairy’s Kiss (1928)
  • Jeu de Cartes (1936)
  • Circus Polka (1942)
  • Scènes de ballet (1944)
  • Orpheus (1947)
  • Agon (1953-1957)
• Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) championed by ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev (see entry below) composes Chout: The Tale of the Buffoon (1921), Le pas d’acier (1927), The Prodigal Son (1929), and On the Dnieper (1932) for Diaghilev’s ballet company Ballets Russes. Returning to Moscow in 1936, Prokofiev composes his great masterpieces Romeo and Juliet (1938), Cinderella (1945), and The Stone Flower (1954).

Takeaway:

Popularized by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his influential 1897 book Suicide, anomie is a condition within society or individual experiencing an "instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values or from a lack of purpose or ideals" (Britannica, 2020). Art usually provides respite from hardships of daily life. In this instance, fairy tales are incorporated into ballets to distract from the oppressive Industrial Revolution and the societal disconnectedness.