Methods of ballet-master’s work in the historical aspect

UDC 792.8+792.03+7.071.1+7.071.2

Yeva Kovalenko

M. T. Rylskyi Institute for Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology, Kyiv.

ORCID ID 0000-0002-9731-4668

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37627/2311-9489-22-2022-2.17-37

Keywords: ballet, ballet master, classical ballet, ballet history, ballet performance creating process, ballet masters’ work methods, choreography.

Abstract. The article shows the peculiarities of   outstanding ballet masters’ work and the process of genesis and development of this profession in the historical aspect – from the time of the Renaissance, when the personality of dance teacher becomes very important in society and word “ballet” is used for the first time,  until the 30s of XXth. The creative principles and methods of work of such outstanding choreographers of the past as P. Beauchamp, J.-G. Noverre, J. Dauberval, F. Taglioni, J. Perrot, Ch. Didelot, A. Saint-Leon, M. Petipa, M. Fokine, G. Balanchine, the role of the personality of the dancer in creating of choreographic image in the performance, as well as ballet productions by these outstanding choreographers on the Ukrainian stage are analyzed. Features of M. Taglioni’s, A. Pavlova’s, V. Nijinsky’s and others’ performing style are considered, as well as the phenomenon of improvisational creativity of A. Duncan and its influence on the formation of a new ballet aesthetics of the early twentieth century. Particular attention is paid to the works of such outstanding ballet masters as Serge Lifar, Vaclav Nijinsky and his sister Bronislava, whose lives were connected with Ukraine.This article also deals with an important problem of harmonious unity of choreographic and dramatic components of the ballet performance.

Author Biography.

Yeva Kovalenko Ph.D. (Art Studies), National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, M. T. Rylskyi Institute for Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology, Kyiv,

missevacomp@gmail.com

References:

Balanchine, George, & Mason, Francis. (1975). 101 stories of the Great Ballets: the scene-by-scene stories of the most popular ballets, old and new. Washington: Anchor. 560 p.

Duncan, Isadora. (2013). My life. New York: Liveright. 368 p.

Ebreo, Guglielmo of Pesaro.  (1995). De pratica seu arte tripudii: “On the practice or art of dancing”. Clarendon Press. 288 p. (English translation by Barbara Spart & Michael Sullivan). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1478433

Fokine, Michel. (1961). Memoirs of a Ballet Master.New York:‎ Little, Brown & Co.; 1st English edition. 318 p.

Krasovskaya, Vera. (1983). Zapadnoevropeyskiy baletnyiy teatr. Ocherki istorii. Preromantizm [Western European Ballet Theatre. History essays. Preromanticism]. Leningrad: Iskusstvo, Lenengradskoe otdelenie. 432 p. (In Russian)

Levinson, A. (1925). Notes sur le balleta u XVII siècle. Paris: Numéro special de la Revue musicale. LullyetlOpéra Français. 1 janv.

Lifar, Serzh. (2007). Spogadi Іkara [Memoires of Icarus]. Kyiv: Pulsari. 192 p. (In Ukrainian)

Nijinska, Bronislava. (1981). Early Memories. NewYork: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 546 p.

Noverre, Jean George. (1760). Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets. Lyon, Aimé Delaroche, 484 p.

Polishchuk, Tetiana. (2001). Povernennia Nizhynskoho [The return of Nijinski]. Den. March 13. (In Ukrainian).

Stanishevskyi, Yurii. (2002). Natsionalnyi akademichnyi teatr opery ta baletu Ukrainy imeni Tarasa Shevchenka. Istoriia i suchasnist [The National Academic Opera & Ballet Theatre of Ukraine Named after Taras Shevchenko]. Kyiv: Muzychna Ukraina. 736 p. (In Ukrainian)

PDF (Ukrainian).

Published: July 15, 2022.

Vol 22 No 2 (2022).

Section: THEORY AND HISTORY OF CULTURE.