The strength of ballet:

The birth of classical ballet

Gwen Herat

The strength of ballet is in its appeal that has been codified, developed and refined down the years without any adulteration in the process. The generation of dancers and choreographers set the standard for others to follow within the framework of its syllabus in classical ballet.

The dancers of the Renaissance Italy inspired and motivated the Court of Louise XIV of France who later codified dance. That was the first major step towards the establishment of the school of classical ballet.

Svetlana Lankin and Nikolai Tsaiskarvidez

This paved the opportunity for a dancer to perform in Nigeria, fly to Australia and teach a student and practice in New Zealand and join a ballet company in the USA. She can repeat this process ten years later and still retain the same technique as the syllabus demands. She will never differ as much as a step or a leap. This is possible because ballet has no dialogue and hold no difference to music wherever it is performed. Six or ten nationals can dance together without uttering a word without a single mistake in their steps.

Reflecting on the very substance of this art, we are amazed at the technical grace which existed between Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev of the Royal Ballet. That they performed flawlessly the very syllabus from which the steps were taken to evolve famous ballets we see around the world.

People know very little how tirelessly and at time, erroneously the steps were developed into a syllabus the students go through today to become a ballerina and her partner who later dance in many classics, fairy stories and plays from Shakespeare.

Ballet would be in absolute shambles of many difference techniques gone haywire if not for the fact that a vocabulary of techniques, styles and steps were established for the performance of classical ballet and strictly adhered to.

Styles

Just as much there are different national styles of teachings from France, England, Russia etc, they will follow the same process though from the time the French were used to demonstrate various positions, steps and movements of ballet, the instructions one will hear will be the same. However, ballet language is in French and students get used to them as they progress in their dancing.

When opera was considered respectable, ballet in the background was stirring to be noticed but it was not considered good enough for girls from high class. Not long after that, ballet with its sensual and physical attraction ultimately became the most sought after and respected performing art in the world.

Today ballet is held in high esteem as people go to see it for the sake of its art and performing prowess rather than of sex-appeal or physical entertainment.

The emotional and physical contact between partners, very often stirred up artistic love and if I am to mention a good example is that of Fonteyn-Nureyev partnership. While they were at the Royal Ballet, it was assumed they would fall in love over and over again bringing depth to their characters, especially in Romeo and Juliet.

Mental stimulation, athleticism, visual and emotional intensity, bodily contact and anatomical charisma are some of the essences portrayed by leading dancers at the peak of their careers.

Though the societies of those eras considered ballet a crude form, the ancients of this art, held it sacred and its invention to Gods and immortals. To some, dancing was an expression of religious fervour and among the Greeks, a symbol of worship. It was during the Middle Ages that the so called ballet made its way to the church.

The choirboys performed a style of dance before the altar on a number of religious occasions in Seville. So, eventually there began the experiment of new lines of expression with an effort for a spectacular and refined presentation.

Complicated

Ballet had a very difficult and complicated birth but by the time the Romantic Period arrived, it was ready for revisal. The make believe world of swans, fairies, sylph and goblins emerged into dancing characters which later were seen in classics like the Swan Lake ballet.

One by one, the steps and movements recorded into the syllabus. Around 1789, Dauberval mounted two feature called La Fille and Gardee in Bordeux and set the general plant for ballet which survives in the repertoires of many famous dancing companies around the world, especially in the Soviet.

This was after Louis XIV founded the L’Academic Nationale de la Danse in France in 1661. Thanks to his royal patronage. Ballet began to assume a new age in respectability.

Smitten by the Romantic period’s progress of this fine art and what followed thereafter, many distinguished dancers, composers and choreographers found a niche in the annals of dance. The greatest of them all was the Swiss-French choreographer, Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810).

He ranked the greatest before the she emergence of Rudolf von Label, Michael Fokine, (centuries apart and followed by Marius Petipa, Roland Petit, Kenneth MacMillan, Vaslav Nijinsk Fredrick Ashton, Martha Graham and Rudolf Nureyev (more generations apart).

Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn

Gradually, more techniques in both male and female dancers assumed prominence which they enjoy today. However, the female principal dancer being the attraction, always held centre-stage.

However good her partner was, he was delegated second place until the early 1960s. When all this was happening, Rudolf Nureyev defected from Russia in 1961 and conquered the West as he generated a new approach to Ballet.

He stirred public interest with his explosive stage personality and athletism that the audience of the day had eyes only for him. By this act, he put the male dancer centre stage and created a spectacular partnership that both enjoyed together.

As much as literature, art, music and drama sought an escape from the shackles of tradition, ballet too freed itself from constrain to be what it is today. It inspired and impressed intellects as well as composers with a new fervour. They basked in its magical feel.

The great ballet composer, Peter Tohaikvosky scored the music for Swan Lake after a personal experience he had that touched his heart with excitement. He used to visit his sister’s house which was on the bank of lake and watched her children play.

When they retired to bed, he also saw a number of swans descend.. upon the water by moonlight and frolic until the arrival of beautiful swan around whom the lot used to dance till late.

Next, they would fly away into the night only to return again day after day. In his mind, Tohaikosky made music with the sound of swirling water the crash of wings and the smooth sail when the swans glided.

By the time he had the full score locked in his mind, he saw something missing to turn this into a ballet. So, he placed Prince Siegfried beside the lake and turned the swan into a princess. Thus the Swan Lake was born in all its pathos and lost love.