Ballet & Modern Dance: A Concise History

by Jack Anderson

Overview

Ballet and Modern Dance meets the needs of both students and inquisitive dance goers through a narrative focused on the development of Western theatrical dance from the Renaissance to the first decades of the 21st century, incorporating the most recent scholarship and projecting trends. The text is illuminated by excerpts from primary sources and embellished by 65 photos. A section of biographical profiles at the end of the book serves as a supplementary reference source. Intended to be entertaining as well as enlightening the book seeks an additional objective which is the value of dance history as a field of study.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871273963
Publisher:	Princeton Book Company
Publication date:	04/01/2018
Edition description:	Third edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jack Anderson is a dance critic for The New York Times, correspondent for the Dancing Times of London, co-editor of Dance Chronicle, author of The Nutcracker Ballet and The One and Only: The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as well as eight books of poetry.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 9

Preface 11

1 The Pleasures of Dance History 15

Related Readings 19

The dance of life

A dance reconstructor comments

The importance of dance notation

A dance historian at work

2 Glimpses of the Past 25

Primeval

Ancient Greece and Rome

Middle Ages

Renaissance

Related Readings 36

An ancient Greek dance

Sappho watches a dance

Plutarch describes Greek dancing

The Roman pantomimes

Stanzas from a vocal estampie

A priest chides

The psalmist praises

3 Dance at the Royal Courts 41

Ballet Comique de la Reine

Renaissance Court Spectacle

England

Louis XIV

Lully

Beauchamps

Related Readings 59

Beaujoyeulx on the Ballet Comique

Capriol takes a dancing lesson

The music master and the dancing master

4 The Professionalization of Ballet 63

The eighteenth century-Paris Opéra

Opéra-ballet

Star dancers

Notation: Feuillet

Ballet d'action: Angiolini and Noverre

"Comic" ballet: Galeotti and Dauberval

"Heroic" ballet: Viganò and Didelot

Related Readings 82

In praise of notation

Prévost's Caractères

Weaver's emotional gestures

Noverre on balletic reform

Stendhal on Viganò

5 The Sunshine and Moonlight of Romantic Ballet 88

The nineteenth century-Taglioni

Bournonville

Blasis

Dancing en pointe

Elssler

Paris Opéra

Perrot

Saint-Léon

Decline

Related Readings 109

Taglioni in La Sylphide

Bournonville on the mission of ballet

Blasis on dance training

Fanny Elssler in the Cachucha

Backstage at the Paris Opéra

6 The Imperial Russian Ballet 115

Background

Petipa: The Sleeping Beauty

Ivanov: Vie Nutcracker and Swan Lake

Early twentieth-century reformers

Related Readings 128

Balletomania in St. Petersburg

The Imperial Ballet School

The magic of the Mariinsky

Petipa's instructions to Tchaikovsky

7 Balletic Astonishments 134

Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

Fokine

Nijinsky

Massine

Nijinska

Balanchine

Diaghilev

Pavlova

Related Readings 147

Fokine's five principles

Le sacre du printemps

Diaghilev and Parade

8 The Rise of American Ballet 152

The early years

Ballet in musical theater

Kirstein, Balanchine, and the American Ballet

Ballet Russe companies

New York City Ballet

American Ballet Theatre

de Mille

Tudor

Robbins

Feld

Other companies

Related Readings 176

Balanchine on abstract ballet

The ideals of Ballet Theatre

Working with Tudor

9 The Phoenix of Modern Dance 181

Early experiments: Duncan, St. Denis, Shawn, and Denishawn

Germany: Wigman and Holm

Humphrey

Weidman

Graham

Tamiris

Horton

Festivals

Sokolow and Limón

Black choreographers

Hawkins

Taylor

Nikolais

Cunningham

Judson Church group and its successors

Related Readings 213

Duncan dancing

Ruth St. Denis on body and soul

The perils of one-flight stands

The making of Wigman's Witch Dance

Doris Humphrey on basic principles

Martha Graham on dancing

Limón's choreographic credo

Cunningham on dance and chance

Rainer's unenhanced physicality

10 Ballet Around the World 224

Great Britain: de Valois, MacMillan, Rambert, Ashton, and other companies

Russia

China

Italy and Denmark

France: Lifar, Petit, and de Cuevas

Belgium: Bèjart

Germany-Cranko and Neumeier

Other countries

Related Readings 239

Ashton and the purity of dancing

Remembering the Mercury Theatre

11 International Contemporary Dance 242

The Netherlands

Great Britain

France

Germany

Japan

Australia

Notation

Related Readings 250??

Pina Bausch interviewed

Meditations of a But oh choreographer

12 Ballet Modern 253

Ongoing Exploration

Acceptance of black companies and dancers

Feminism and the LGBT movement in the dance world

Tap

Hip-hop

The evening length dance

Diversity in dance

Related Reading 262

T.S. Eliot on Exploration

Bibliography 264

Periodicals 280

Short Profiles 281

Index 324