Romantic ballet - its beauty
Ballet speaks of purity and the god-inspiring nature of man and its
art combine the grace of the French, the beauty of the British and the
strength of the Russians and Italians and their rich expressive form
continue to excite and sweep us off our feet each time as we sit as an
audience to watch them live. The rich and the traditional dancing
continue into three centuries from where it was started off.
The make-believe world of swan-princesses, fairies and sylphs and to
the forceful Shakespeare characters, there is no doubt that ballets
produced during the Romantic period epitomise a great leap forward or
for that matter, taking a back-leap to from it started, for the world to
continue its glorious spectre.
For twenty year period from 1830 to 1850 Romanticism in ballet
survived in the scenario of which the man was immortal and women
returned to life from the mountains or lakes to court as lovers. (It is
a fable I don't believe). To turn this imagination into reality dancers
of that era such as Marie Taglioni. Fanny Cerrito, Fanny Eisler,
Carlotta Grissi and Lucile Grahn brought back the spirit of Giselle
which was the culminating point in ballet along with yet another, La
Sylphide into the hearts of all ballet lovers.
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How the Romantic ballet developed into
such grace and virtuosity today, as displayed by these two
dancers from the Royal Ballet |
The natural and unstrained manner of free movement was advocated by
Noverre which may have materialized had not Romanticism denied it. How
and why, no one knew except for the influential French critic and poet.
Theophile Gautier completely rejected this practice of Noverre's laws on
natural expressions and was instrumental in raising the importance of
the ballerina at the expense of the male dancers. (Over a century later,
came the phenomenon of dance, Rudolf Nureyev who changed the course of
this attitude by pushing out the ballerina and placing the male dancer
centre-stage). He became the Messiah of the male dancer.
Going back to Romantic ballet, a new move was instituted by shifting
the dramatic potential in ballet to the simple peasant and country folk.
So successful was the general plan of this ballet that it survives in
the repertories of Soviet and Western companies although choreography
and music is different.
Probably one of the greatest changes of this time was the
exploitation of toe-dancing which we call 'pointe dancing' today.
However, pointe dancing was not introduced during Romanticism but much
earlier to facilitate the ballerina to imitate flights taken by fairies.
Ondines, sylphs etc. and look delicate and dazzling. It gave a new line
to taking-off positions for flight and the illusion of floating in the
air.
Pointe dancing was such a turning point in the ballerina's
curriculum, it reached immortal heights... from simple toe-dancing to
what it is today. Dazzling feats of turns, pirouttes became a part of
her repertoire and made ballet spectacular.
It was La Camarago who a century before introduced the heel-less
ballet shoe, it was left to Taglioni to demonstrate how this could
facilitate standing on tip toe and how pointe work could result.
It was the choreographer who was more fascinated by its prospects
over the dancer herself who at the beginning struggled to get her feet
into pointe shoes. Dazzling feats of turns and pirouttes became a part
of the ballerina and to date a fine example was 'pas de bouree couru'
which Pavlova immortalized much later in Thedying Swan. It could convey
above all, an impression of weightlessness which in itself was a great
asset to Taglioni and added merit point to her tremendous feats of
elevation. With these qualities in mind, her father, Fillipo Taglioni
created the title role in Les Sylphide. It was first danced at the Paris
Opera in 1832.
Giselle had all the requisites of Romantic Ballet viz a hero, a local
girl, a villain and ethereal spirits. To this day the title role remains
a major test for a classical ballerina. In my opinion, Margot Fonteyn
was the ideal Giselle opposite Rudolf Nureyev and as usual, Nureyev
outsmarted her in dancing. Taking into account that Giselle is the
finest surviving example of the romantic period, it is all the more
surprising that it was produced in a very short time. The librettiests
wrote the book in three days while Adolph Adam a mere ten days to score
the haunting, lyrical music and that is still retained in Giselle.
Leading dancers performed with much delight and dedication ever since
the first night, June 28, 1841. The best interpreters being Anna Pavlova
(1903). Tamara Karsavina (1910), Olga Spessivtseva (1924), Galina
Ulanova (1932), Alicia Markova (1934), Margot Fonteyn (1937) (in this
version, Rudolf Nureyev was not even born), Yvette Chaurvire (1944),
Svetlana Beriosova (1956), Lucette Aldous (1960), katerina Maximova
(1960), Natalia Makarova (1961), Natalia Bessmertnova (1965), Margeret
Barbieri (1971) and Eva Evdokimova (1971).
However, there was one thing disheartening taking place and that was
the music set-up for ballet that was very stereotyped and boring. Music
was not considered a major part of a ballet and choroegraphers were not
mindful over the scores as their attention was focussed on the 'new'
ballerina. Ballet music had plunged into such depths that a
choreographer would say 'Dear Mr X, will you please let me have seven
bars of 'allegro' and nine bars of brisk 'pizzicato' for my new ballet
at your usual fee per bar. It was buying chocolates. That was the plight
of ballet music.
Today it is so different. One looks for the music director or the
composer of the ballet before buying a ticket. Even when I am in London
and often at Covent Garden to see a performance, I look for the ballet
score and its composer and even the music director.
Music is so important and a major part in the success of the ballet.
There were the Masters of the past who only wrote music for ballet,
making them and the ballets extraordinary and at time, spectacular.
During the early years of the Romantic Ballet's decline in France, a
ray of hope was seen in the horizon when the thirty year old composer,
Leo Deblis collaborated with the Hungarian composer, Leon Minkus to
write the score for La Source at the Opera Ballet in 1866.
Deblis was a thrilling potential and his Coppelia and Sylvia endorsed
this promise and made him one of the few iconic scorers of ballet music
and contributed to the Romantic Movement.
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