History of Dance

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

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Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

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Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

Learn more about History of Dance 2nd Edition.

Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

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Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

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Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

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Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

Learn more about History of Dance 2nd Edition.

Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

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Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

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Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

Learn more about History of Dance 2nd Edition.

Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

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Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

Learn more about History of Dance 2nd Edition.

Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

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Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

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Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

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Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

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Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

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Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

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Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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Global Interactions in Ballet

Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that ’ballet is woman’? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man’s idea of woman?

"Should we agree with the choreographer George Balanchine (1904 - 1983) that 'ballet is woman'? Or do we qualify this, as the choreographer Pam Tanowitz (born in 1969) has recently done, by saying that ballet is a man's idea of woman?"

Alistair Macaulay, "Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century," New York Times (Jan. 12, 2017)

In the early 21st century, ballet has become a global and contemporary dance genre that mirrors the world through its artists and choreography. Throughout much of the 20th century, ballet dancers and companies performed internationally, laying the groundwork for a century in which Balanchine and other 20th-century ballet choreographers and their works have meshed with 21st-century choreographers and their works to create a global ballet repertoire.

Dancers and Personalities

Through the first decade of the new millennium and beyond, ballet dancers and personalities began to expand the vision of ballet from its previous classical and neoclassic foundations into a contemporary art form of global dimensions. Dancers from across the globe began to appear as guest artists and dancers in companies far from their homelands. These diverse dancers brought their training, their backgrounds, and their regional styles. In new performance environments, dancers' training and styles comingled with other dancers and choreographers to express ballet in unique and expanded ways. Their intent was to honor the classics and 20th-century works but through new points of view. Dancers and choreographers moved fluidly from performing in classical to contemporary artistic works to the Broadway stage and entertainment media through works that mirrored a quickly changing global world.

Major Figures in Ballet

Through their choreographic and performance vision, early 20th-century ballet artists transformed ballet on the stage and in the media. Pioneers whose body of work began in the 20th century became the inspiration and conduit for others to build upon and extend through their creative ideas and repository of works. This generation of dance artists reveres the past while continuing to develop ballets as an ever-changing reflection of contemporary times.

Current ballet choreography is eclectic and depends on the choreographer's vision for the work, the dancers, and how as artists they approach their works guided by their training and their point of view for the dance. International ballet choreographers create works for companies across the world. Ballet choreography of the 21st century includes an array of works from dramatic, full-length story narratives, to shorter ballets. Some ballets contain only allusions or traces of characters or a plot. Specific choreographers invent powerful statements, convey sensitive feelings, or express raw emotions through their dances. Abstract ballet styles continue with their focus on pure movement. This array of ballets stretches from the dramatic, cutting-edge creations to personal and universal to comedic compositions. Music choices either relate directly to the work, coexist with, or counterpoint to the ballet. Often choreographers draw from their native countries' arts, history, and culture and intertwine these ideas with themes from contemporary life and times.

William Forsythe (1949 - )

A New York native, Forsythe trained in both ballet and modern dance. He danced with the Joffrey Ballet, and in 1976 he was appointed resident choreographer for the Stuttgart ballet. In Europe, he created new works for Stuttgart as well as other European and U.S. ballet companies. In 1984, he became the director of Ballet Frankfurt until it closed in 2004. Beginning in 2005 he established and directed the Forsythe Company for 10 years. In 2015, he joined the Paris Opera as Associate Choreographer. During his career, Forsythe's choreographic works, grounded in neoclassic ballet, have received many prestigious awards in European countries and the United States. He received the Bessie Award for this work in 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Forsythe's unique vision and understanding of choreography and his dance works have been instrumental in moving dance into the transmedia era. His dance works have spanned contemporary ballet and modern dance, moving beyond these dance genres in new directions. Forsythe has expanded choreographic forms based on his vision of choreography.

Alexei Ratmansky (1968 - )

Russian-born dancer and choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky studied at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet and became principal dancer at the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. His choreography has been performed by ballet companies in Russia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Beginning in 1998 he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his choreography in Russia and in Denmark, where in 2001 he was awarded knighthood.

From 2004 through 2008, Ratmansky served as artistic director for the Bolshoi Ballet. During this period he created contemporary works, and he restaged ballet classics and 20th-century works with a new vision. In 2005 and 2007 under Ratmansky's direction the Bolshoi received numerous prestigious awards as a ballet company and for his artistic direction and choreography. Beginning in 2006, Ratmansky choreographed five works for New York City Ballet (NYCB). In 2009 Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) as an artist in resident. He has choreographed a prodigious number of works for the company that reveal his personal experiences and his interest in ballet history.

Ratmansky's choreographic style often gives dancers complicated steps with surprising accents, more movement than counts, and the coordination of body parts that move at different timing. He selects Russian composers for his works. Recently he has re-created his version of The Sleeping Beauty and The Golden Cockerel ballets. He reveres the ballet classics. He researches them and shares this research with his dancers to create renditions of ballets past for 21st-century audiences. Three Ratmansky ballets - Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011), Shostakovich Trilogy (2013), and Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014) - represent a wide range of choreographic works that use drama, vignettes, and character sketches to enhance the music and to create memorable dance moments.

In the summer of 2016, ABT staged a Ratmansky festival featuring three works using Shostakovich's music, a world premier based on Leonard Bernstein's Serenade After Plato's Symposium, Seven Sonatas, and Ratmansky's version of Firebird.

Christopher Wheeldon (1973 - )

Ballet soloist and then choreographer, Wheeldon was born in England and trained at the Royal Ballet. In 1990, at age 17, he won the Prix de Lausanne prize. In 1991 he entered the Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. In 1993 he joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and became a soloist. From 2001 to 2008, Wheeldon served as resident choreographer at NYCB. At least one of his works is part of each season. These ballets have been described as music inspired with hints of characters.

In 2007, he cofounded Morphoses/the Wheeldon Company, for which he was artistic director until his departure in 2010. Wheeldon collaborates among dance and other artists and designers to initiate new perspectives and innovation into classical ballet. Wheeldon is an internationally acclaimed choreographer whose works populate ballet companies across the world. He has created a prodigious legacy of ballets that capture contemporary audiences. His works include Swan Lake (2004), Estancia (2010), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012), and Polyphonia (2012). Wheeldon's adaptations continue, and they include the Broadway stage. He both directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography. The following year, for the NYCB, Wheeldon mounted American Rhapsody, an abstract ballet to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In 2016 Wheeldon created The Winter's Tale, a powerful retelling of Shakespeare's play as a ballet.

Claudia Schreier (1986 - )

New York born, Claudia Schreier trained in ballet in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Harvard University in 2008. A freelance choreographer, her work has been commissioned by a number of companies and the festivals. Schreier combines neoclassic ballet technique with other contemporary dance genres. Her work has a strong connection to the music. She has won numerous awards and was a 2008 recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Dance Prize and the second Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. In 2014, Schreier won the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award. In 2015 she won the Dance Magazine Reader's Choice Award for Best Emerging Choreographer. Her works include Chaconne (2011), Traces (2012), Harmonic (2013), Requiem Adagio (2014), Claudia Schreier and Company (2015), and Solitaire (2016).

Diverse Dancers

In the 21st century dancers come from diverse backgrounds, body types, races, and training. These dancers face different challenges in becoming ballet artists in companies across the world. Stereotypes of male and female ballet dancers that were developed in the 20th century are changing in order to meet the expansive standards of contemporary ballet and dance works. Classically trained dancers now perform in a variety of dance genres and forms.

The role of African American, Asian, and Latin American dancers has gained a stronger presence in ballet companies. More diversity exists among soloists and principal dancers in ballet companies in the United States and across the globe. Some female ballet dancers are embracing a healthier, stronger appearance. Both male and female dancers understand the importance of conditioning as part of their training regimen; it keeps their performance edge, enabling them to dance diverse choreographic requirements demanded from contemporary ballet and dance works.

African American, Latino, and Asian dancers have been part of major dance companies since the mid-20th century. The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded with the intent that African American dancers would be the primary focus of the ballet company. Likewise, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater focused on talented African American artists. In the last decades of the 20th century a major migration of Hispanic dancers transformed national and regional American ballet companies. (The term Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other South and Central American countries, regardless of race.) During this same period, Asian and Asian American dancers joined national and regional dance companies. In the early 21st century, Complexions Contemporary Ballet defined its artistic and aesthetic position by its multicultural dancers as the cornerstone of the company. Although some companies have made strides in expanding racial diversity, challenges in gaining social and racial equity in national and regional dance companies continue to exist.

History Highlight

Pointe magazine's June/July 2014 cover featured Ashley Murphy of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ebony Williams of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre - all dancers of color, and each with a unique body type and life experience. In the cover story, "Beyond Role Models," these three dancers discussed the lack of diversity in ballet companies and offered ways media could support future generations of black ballerinas. For more information on this topic, see Brown (2014).

Ballet Companies and Schools

Major ballet companies and schools that formed in the 20th century continued to expand their presence in the United States and internationally. To remain current, ballet companies have invited artists in residence or resident choreographers to join them in pursuit of a repertoire that combines the past with current and future directions of ballet. Currently male choreographers dominate the scene, but female choreographers are gaining presence onstage.

American Ballet Theatre

In 2015, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) celebrated its 75th anniversary. Earlier in 2006, Congress recognized ABT as America's National Ballet. The New York - based company continues to present the classics, 20th-century master works, and 21st-century contemporary ballets by international choreographers. Former ABT dancer Kevin McKenzie has served as the artistic director of the company since 1992.

In 2007, ABT embarked on a new direction by partnering with New York University to create a Master of Arts in Dance Education program focusing on ballet pedagogy and ABT's National Training Curriculum. In 2013, ABT initiated Project Plié to increase diversity within ballet companies nationwide and to create opportunities in ballet for underserved students and teachers.

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet (NYCB) was founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Although Balanchine classics continue to be the foundation for NYCB's repertoire, Artist Director Peter Martins' ballets extend his neoclassic, abstract ballets from the late 20th into the 21st century. New century choreographers such as NYCB's Justin Peck (who is also a soloist), France's notable choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and others provide contemporary works that continue to attract audiences.

Beginning in 2000, the NYCB initiated a Choreographic Institute. Founded by Peter Martins and Irene Diamond (a patron for the arts and ballet), the purpose of the Institute was to promote choreographic interests in dancers to help develop future choreographers. The 2016 season of the NYCB features a host of new choreographers - male and female - ready to show their works.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

A former NYCB principal dancer, Arthur Mitchell founded The Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, which became an internationally acclaimed ballet company. The Dance Theatre of Harlem closed its doors in 2004 because of financial difficulties. In 2005, the ballet reopened with over a million dollars in donations; the following year, the company acquired a Ford Foundation grant.

In 2009, Virginia Johnson became the new artistic director of the company. Formerly a dancer, soloist, and then ballerina in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she has been with the company from its beginnings in 1969. For more than two decades, she performed a broad repertoire of roles from many choreographers who embraced romantic, dramatic, and contemporary dance styles.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to expand its repertoire through the works of contemporary choreographers and masters of the 20th century in both ballet and modern dance. Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is an initiative made possible through a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Grant in 2010. The purpose of Harlem Dance Works 2.0 is to support expanding contemporary choreography through aiding the development of young choreographers who are in the processes of building their bodies of work.

Joffrey Ballet

America's premier ballet company, Joffrey Ballet is housed in the Joffrey Tower in downtown Chicago. The company's repertoire includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces, and contemporary works. Joffrey Ballet has had a range of many firsts as part of its history - from performances to film, to multimedia, to livestream, and posting dance on YouTube. After the death of Gerald Arpino, artistic director and choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet in 2007, Ashley Wheater became the company's artistic director.

Originally from Scotland, Wheater trained at the Royal Ballet School. He danced with English and Australian ballet companies before he joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1989. Retiring in 1998, he continued as ballet master, then assistant artistic director for the company. As the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Wheater continues presenting new choreography from new full-length ballets, American modern works, and international contemporary works performed by a diverse group of dancers.

Joffrey Ballet points out that the company is inclusive, diverse, and committed to supporting arts education, engaging in the community, and providing opportunities through the Joffrey Academy of Dance and programs for accessibility to ballet.

History Highlight

In 2015, these five ballerinas from major ballet companies announced their retirement: Wendy Whelan (from NYCB), Brazilian-born Carla Körbes (from Pacific Northwest Ballet), Argentine-born Paloma Herrera (from ABT), Cuban-trained Xiomara Reyes (from ABT), and Julie Kent (from ABT).

San Francisco Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet's touring and international classical and contemporary repertoire expanded in the last part of the 20th century. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet Company and School celebrated its 75th anniversary. Under artistic direction of Helgi Tomasson since 1985, the diverse company presents over 100 performances a year.

San Francisco Ballet, Richard C. Barker Principal Dancer (2002) Yuan Yuan Tan.
Yuan Yuan Tan for San Francisco Ballet (Photo by Erik Tomasson.)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was founded in 2003 and funded solely by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. This New York - based avant-garde company of international dancers worked with a wide range of mostly U.S. and European choreographers. The company performed for audiences in the United States and on tour across the world. From 2005 until 2013, former Ailey dancer Benoit-Swan Pouffer was the artistic director of the company. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet disbanded in 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is dedicated to original, contemporary choreography. Since the company and its San Francisco Dance Center started in 1982, it has rapidly become an internationally recognized company, with Alonzo King's works in premier ballet and modern dance companies across the world. His contemporary choreography embraces a global view of dance yet is grounded in classical dance with modern dance propulsion. King creates a unique point of view in his choreography that he calls "thought structures" for his contemporary ballets. In 2016, celebrating 10 years, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Dominican University have offered a joint educational and artistic BFA Dance program. King's choreographic works form a prodigious repertoire of contemporary dance that has further expanded to opera, television, and film and includes collaborations with international artists. Alonzo King has received many prestigious awards for dance choreography, artistic vision, and education initiatives. Some of his latest works include the following:

• Triangle of the Squinches (2011): A dialog between the forms that dancers create and their inner meanings.
• Concerto for Two Violins (2014): Bach's music transformed into King's neoclassical ballet. George Balanchine originally used this music in 1941.
• Biophony (2015): King's ballet transformed the natural soundscape of artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, whose work captures the sounds of the earth and its creatures, into dance.
• Sand (2016): Two generations of jazz musicians and LINES Ballet dancers share the stage to bring the past of jazz wealth into the present.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Dance works in the 21st century span from abstract ballets to story ballets. In between, ballets may offer a hint or more of story or characters. In other words, there are ballets for everyone's taste. However, crafting story ballets for today's audience takes some finesse from the choreographer; connecting the story to meet today's audiences and their expectations, which are formed by media performances on television and the Internet, is a challenge.

Ballets presented by today's companies embrace a wide range of works. They include the classics or restaged ballet classics as well as 20th-century masterpieces from ballet and modern dance giants. They also include contemporary ballet or modern dance choreographers whose individual styles depend on their training, the topic, the dancers, the music, and the intent of the work.

William Forsythe

For a list of some of Forsythe's significant works, refer to the later Significant Dance Works and Literature section of the contemporary modern dance portion of this chapter.

Alexei Ratmansky

• Bright Stream (2003; restaged by ABT in 2011): Based on the 1935 librettos for the original ballet, this comedic story ballet set to a Shostakovich score takes place in a Russian agricultural collective with charming characters who create a community and renew relationships.
• Shostakovich Trilogy (2013): Russian composer Shostakovich is the central character in one of three parts of this dance drama that imaginatively expresses the complicated relationships between Soviet society and artists during this period of the 20th century.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (NYCB, 2014): Mussorgsky's music as the foundation becomes the connection to the dancers as they create moving works of art to interpret each of the pictures.

Christopher Wheeldon

• Swan Lake (2004): Set in the 1880s (the same time period for the original Swan Lake), Wheeldon's version takes place at the Paris Opera during the period of Degas' drawings of dancers. Many ballet companies have performed this reinterpretation of a classic.
• Estancia (2010): This is a story ballet about a city boy who wants to wrangle horses and a country girl he meets on the Argentine plains. The music, by Alberto Ginastera, was originally commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein in 1941, but the ballet remained unproduced. Wheeldon brings to life this story for NYCB.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2012): This ballet is a mega episodic extravaganza that is a wildly inventive version of the classic story.
• Polyphonia (2012): In this abstract ballet, dancers create movement designs like pencil drawings as counterpoint to the music's seemingly disordered rhythm.

Claudia Schreier

• Chaconne (2011)
• Traces (2012)
• Harmonic (2013)
• Requiem Adagio (2014)
• Claudia Schreier and Company (2015)
• Solitaire (2016)

The new millennium has had an explosion of dance literature in the areas of dance education, dance sciences, history and biography, theory, and a host of other subjects in which dance was the focal point or an avenue of research. Dance journals cover dance research, dance science, dance education, or dance related to a wide variety of disciplines such as health, psychology, and many other topics and disciplines. They provide an array of worldwide publications through their continuing issues of new viewpoints about dance. With the move to digital literacy came a continuing expansion of dance literature, philosophies, opinions, positions, and critical reviews. Beyond the text, numerous video platforms offered how to perform dance, historical to contemporary, and showcased international dance company performances, choreographers' works, films, television shows, documentaries, interviews, and other types of education and entertainment. From nondancers to professionals, a wide range of people continue to post videos of their dancing or choreography or their views of dance on the Internet for all to view.

Summary

In the 21st century, ballet has undergone many global interactions as a dance genre. Training to perform ballet requires a wide range of technique not only in classical ballet but also in modern dance and other contemporary dance forms. Choreography demands in ballet require the dancer to be versatile in technique and to participate in the choreographic movement dialogue between the choreographer and the dancers and among dancers. Professional rehearsal and performance time lines demand intuitive understanding of the dancer's body, a clear mind, and vision to express complex topics often in multimedia environments.

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Ancient Greece

The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another.

"The dance of the youths and maidens is distinctive. It is a ritual dance performed with great care, by dancers scrupulously dressed in their best garments. It is made up of a crisp, rapid, circular figure, followed by a movement of two lines in opposition to one another."

Homer, The Iliad

Glance at the Past

If you look at a map of the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, you can see that Crete is a stepping-stone between Egypt and Greece. So it was in ancient times, as each civilization borrowed from the others. Crete took slaves from Athens and in return endowed Greece with many cultural influences and legends. During the Bronze Age the Mycenaean civilization evolved on the Greek mainland, adjacent to the island of Crete. The Mycenaeans conquered Crete, making it a Greek province, and continued to borrow innovations from the Cretans. The Mycenaeans performed dances that were recorded by Homer in The Iliad and The Odyssey during the ninth century BCE.

Greece is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A trading nation, its rise to power was influenced by its location - east of the Greek islands, southeast of Crete and Rhodes. The northern Greek border connects to both Europe and Asia.

History and Political Scene

Early Greeks were nomadic farmers, moving on after each harvest. Their communities were ruled first by elders, then by a city-state governmental structure. The city-states were divided geographically by mountains and plains and never united as a nation. Athens was the largest, with 20,000 people. Athens and its rival, Sparta, united when a superior force threatened them; together they conquered lands and enslaved people. Despite their lack of unity, the city-states shared religion, language, customs, literature, and the Olympic Games.

Major periods in Greek history include the Dark Ages (1100 - 750 BCE), when the nomadic Mycenaean society changed to one based on agriculture or the sea; the archaic period (750 - 500 BCE), when city-states emerged; the classical period (500 - 336 BCE), when political and cultural systems were at their height; and the Hellenistic period (336 - 146 BCE), when Alexander the Great became ruler of the Macedonians. Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and spread Hellenistic ideas and Greek culture and language around the Mediterranean. This period ended with the establishment of Roman supremacy.

Society and the Arts

After the Persian Wars in the fifth century BCE, Athens, though almost in ruins, was the richest of the city-states. When it was made the capital of Greece, it experienced a vast wave of immigration, and the arts flourished. This time is called the golden age of Greece, or the age of Pericles, after its visionary leader, who ruled for 30 years at the height of this culturally notable period.

The Greeks considered man a combination of mind and body. Greek art strove for a deliberately unrealistic form of ideal beauty; that is, artificially perfect. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks used artistic conventions because they were unable to depict perspective and foreshortening in figures. In their renderings the face is in profile, while the eyes and shoulders remain in a frontal view; the arms are in angular positions, while the legs and feet are in profile. The artist altered the figures to fit the space and did not indicate a floor line. Often large groups were reduced to two or three figures. Clothes, shoes, and sandals were not realistically copied (Lawler 1964a).

In the golden age of Greece, the visual arts emphasized form, proportion, balance, realism, and idealized bodies. Greek sculpture was three-dimensional, not bas-relief as in earlier Egyptian works. The Greek artists stressed achieving perfection and harmony in all aspects of their work.

Dancers and Personalities

The Greeks believed that man took delight in active movement. A person was considered educated if he could dance, and his moral code was defined by the dances he performed. Men and women in Greek society danced, though what they performed might not be considered dance today. It was an ordered form, integrated with music and poetry as part of rituals, religion, and social life. In his Histories, Herodotus provided examples of how dance reflected character, while Homer's Odyssey makes references to people dancing.

Dionysian Cults

Dionysus (or Bacchus), the god of fertility and wine, held great influence over the Greeks for several centuries. In Dionysian cults, women were known as maenads and men as satyrs. They demonstrated sacred madness - an altered state of having the god within you, called enthousiasmos. These crazed dancers performed wild dances, or oreibasia.

The maenads were named after mythological beings - crazed nymphs who believed in Dionysus. On winter nights, screaming maenads left their homes and danced, running through mountains and woods. They wore panther or fawn skins or cloaks made to resemble wings and carried staffs called thyrsi, topped with a pinecone or ivy or grape leaves. Some played flutes or a hand drum. They believed the god had entered their minds and bodies and controlled their actions. Satyrs, who wore goatskins and horned masks and had cloven hooves and tails, performed orgiastic dances. These wild activities evolved into a more civilized service to honor the god Dionysus, from which emerged the dithyramb, a hymn and circular dance that moved around the altar.

Professional Dancers

In Greek society, professional dancers were hired for funerals and feasts. These dancers were usually slaves, freemen, or foreigners (Sorell 1967). Acrobatic dancers performed nude. Professional entertainers and buffoons performed old animal dances as burlesques. During the fifth century the popularity and demands of theater created a strong distinction between amateur and professional dancers. In the fourth century, professional female dancers wearing helmets and shields and carrying spears performed graceful pyrrhic (warlike) dances. Later the dances were sometimes burlesqued and contained lewd gestures and movements (Lawler 1964a).

Ancient Greek Dance

Dance was widespread in Greece and performed for every occasion. Evidence of the variety of dances is found in many sources. Archaeological and epigraphical representations of dancing, dancers, and objects used by dancers include inscriptions and depictions on vases and jugs, statues, reliefs, jewelry, carved gems, sculpture, paintings on walls and pottery, and mosaic floors, among others (Lawler 1964a). Musical sources include songs that were written for dance and instrumental music that reveals tempo and mood. In literature, sources such as the Greek epics and the writings of historians, poets, Aristotle, and other philosophers include names of dances, such as "scattering the barley," "knocking at the door," and "the itch." Artifacts were the inspiration for early 20th-century choreographers who created dances based on Greek paintings and sculpture.

Greek dance ca. 400 BCE from a tomb painting.

The Greek word orcheisthai, meaning "to dance," is broader than the English translation of the word. To the Greeks, dance was inseparable from music; music, poetry, and dance were all facets of what the Greeks called mousiké, or "the art of the Muses." Terpsichore means "join in the dance" and was the name of one of the nine Muses. Many Greeks believed that dance was divinely inspired (Lawler 1964a). In later ancient Greek times, the verb pyrrhichizein, which originally meant "to dance a pyrrhic dance," began to refer to dance in a general sense (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Designs

Dance was an integral part of religious festivals, entertainment, and theatrical performances. In social situations, everyone participated in dance. The dances were highly structured, using full-body movements that incorporated ritualistic, symbolic, or representative gestures, accompanied by music (vocal and instrumental). Often the dancers sang.

Plato classified movement in two ways: noble and ignoble. Noble described the movement of beautiful bodies, while ignoble meant distorted movement. Phorai and cheironomia are Greek terms that describe the carriage of the body during dance and mimetic gestures, respectively (Lawler 1964a). Movements included walking, running, leaping, skipping, hopping, and nonlocomotor actions such as twisting. Cheironomia encompassed symbolic gestures; for example, the hands stretching heavenward signified worship, and the arms bent over the head expressed grief and suffering.

The term schemata refers to the form and shape of gestures - short movement patterns that had significance, with a focus on how the dancer executed them (Lawler 1964a); it seems to relate to effort combined with shape. These visually memorable movement passages often ended in a pose.

Deixis was pure dance, in which the male dancer portrayed the essence of human character or an animal or natural element such as fire or wind. These dances ranged from the portrayal of mythological characters and animals to farcical skits, in Sparta (Lawler 1964a).

Dance Types and Movements

Ancient Greeks believed that a man's grace in dance equaled his prowess in battle (Lawler 1964a). Through dance, Greek citizens celebrated life-span and calendrical events such as thanksgiving, birth, marriage, supplication, and death. Sometimes they participated in cult and ritual dances. These religious activities later transformed into a theatrical art.

Armed Dances

An essential part of a young Greek man's education, training with weapons and performing war and victory dances was considered important for his health and development as a warrior. In Sparta, women had military training and performed some of the men's military dances to make themselves strong for childbearing. Spartan warriors performed mock battles to show their families what they were like. Greek armed dances can be traced to Crete (Lawler 1964a).

Military Dance Figures and Steps

Military dance figures included circles, diagonals, squares, and groups. The dancers demonstrated defensive and offensive movement sequences, accompanied by the flute. Movements included cutting, thrusting, dodging, stooping, springing, and pantomiming of the skills used in battle.

Weapon and War Dances

A pyrrhic dance, a form of weapon dance in which the dancers executed movements like those used in battle, was part of all Spartan boys' training, beginning at age 5. Youths wearing helmets and carrying shields and spears practiced these movements and postures to prepare themselves for military service. The pyrrhic was part of a larger ritual that prepared warriors for battle. Originally dedicated to Apollo, it began with hymns of praise for the god and included a magic dance to protect against sickness and death (Lawler 1964a).

Pyrrhic dances included these four types:

• podism - Executing a quick series of movement shifts to train for hand-to-hand combat.
• xiphism - Rehearsing movements in mock battle - like dances.
• homos - Leaping, jumping, vaulting over large natural objects such as boulders, and scaling walls.
• tetracomos - Marching in a tight formation with shields interlocked (which allowed large groups of soldiers to advance on the enemy like a human wall).

A victory dance called a geranos, or "crane dance," was danced in a line that twisted or snaked as if through a maze. The participants were joined by a rope or garland.

Dancers in competitions for pyrrhic dances were trained at the expense of a choragus, one who sponsored dancers in the theater. By the Greco-Roman period young boys had been joined by girls in the performance of pyrrhic dances. The dances changed formations from rectangles to wedge formations to oblique lines and wheels (Lawler 1964a).

Animal Dances

Stories in Greek religion and mythology are populated with divine birds, animals sacred to specific gods, fishtailed men (Tritons), woman-headed birds (Sirens), giants, gorgons, and other anthropomorphic beings. Some were worshipped as gods or reincarnations of gods. Beginning with the early Greeks, animal dances were a predominant theme, cited throughout Greek literature and history. Pig, boar, bear, lion, and fish dances honored deities by imitating their movements. Owl, raven, eagle, and hawk dances mimicked the actions of birds walking or in flight. Young men and women performed these dances wearing masks and costumes. More important to Greek rituals were bull and cow dances, which began as solemn rituals and evolved into entertainment. Sometimes they were incorporated into comedies.

Wedding Celebrations and Dances

After an early morning wedding ceremony and the banquet that followed, the bride and groom would lead a procession to their new home. The couple rode in a cart while their guests danced behind them, singing wedding songs. Accompanied by flutes and lyres, young men and women leaped, whirled, and stamped in movements reminiscent of agricultural fertility rituals. Often tumblers who had appeared at the banquet joined the dance.

In contrast to Athens, Sparta held a different perspective on life. Spartan women had more equality with their husbands and more freedom than Athenian women did. In a Spartan wedding dance, men and women danced the Caryatis (a dance of innocence believed to have been performed by Castor and Pollux) in circles and lines before the altar.

Funeral Dances

The priest led a funeral procession of family and friends to the tomb. Hired mourners performed processional dances in which they executed symbolic movement and gestures, such as twisting their hands, beating their chests or thighs, scratching their faces, and tearing their clothing. They spoke to the dead or chanted dirges (laments), accompanied by the flute. Family members could participate in the dance. The more mourners participating, the greater was the show of strength for the deceased.

Religious and Cult Dances

The purpose of priests, who could be male or female, young or old, was to facilitate communication between humans and the gods. Ancient worship included prayer and sacrifice; prophecy through oracles, dreams, and ecstasy was also important. Mycenaean choruses danced in sacred places to worship the gods. The king of Sparta's daughter, Helen (the future Helen of Troy), danced with maidens to honor Artemis.

Dance in Greek Theater

Dance had evolved from a religious ritual into a part of theatrical productions by the fifth century BCE. Most dance history sources are inconclusive; the information comes from accounts written centuries later or from vase paintings. Vase paintings capture poses from either a front or a side view, or both mixed into a single view; the Greeks were unable to create perspective. Although they are considered an important source, these paintings are difficult to interpret and reveal nothing about the quality of the movements.

Dionysian feasts that honored the earth, fertility, and vegetation were first held in temples, then moved outdoors into spaces that evolved into theaters. The dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced by a chorus and accompanied by the double flute, celebrated the spring festival of Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine. Myth says that Thespis, a priest of Dionysus who was a dancer and singer, created drama. Wearing his goat's mask, he added dialogue to the action, thus developing tragedy (from the Greek word tragodia, which is translated as "goat song"). Thespis won the first play competition, held in Athens at the Dionysian festival. Considered the first actor, he became known as the father of Greek theater (Lawler 1964a).

Until the development of the tragic play, the audience and the chorus were one. Later the focus changed from festival to spectacle. The dithyramb remained a dignified choral song and dance. For example, in the city of Dionysia, the dithyrambic chorus had 50 singers and dancers that represented the 10 different tribes of Athens. The choruses participated in contests in which they marched into the orchestra, sang and gestured as they circled the space several times, and then left.

Theater

Athenians were avid theatergoers. At a time when the city-state had a population of 30,000 people, its theater seated 15,000. Dionysian festivals included four days for tragedies and three days for comic plays. Theaters were built throughout Greece, most of them of wood. The most intact one is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens; although little is left of the original theater, it has been rebuilt.

The Greek theater evolved from a threshing field with a single post in the center, which served as the altar to Dionysus. Oxen walking around the post created a circular path around it. In the transformation to theater, the circular part became known as the orchestra, where the chorus performed and the dancing took place.

Over time, the circular theater changed to one with a skene (hut) - a background structure with three openings as exits. The skene later became the support for the various forms of machinery. A mekane (mechanical crane) attached to the skene lifted actors into the air. These flying machines supported actors who portrayed gods. Periakton (three-sided scenery pieces that were painted with different scenes and turned during the play) were used on each side of the stage to form entrances (wings) instead of using the proscenium.

Who's Who on the Program

In the early days of theater, playwright-poets set the dances for their own plays. In the seventh century BCE, Arion of Lesbos taught the chorus steps and gestures and rehearsed them. The chorus trained with care, striving to do well in the drama contest and honor the underlying religious meanings of their actions.

The choragus was a rich man who financed a play and trained the chorus. A volunteer who was designated 11 months before the performance, he held a prestigious position. He also acted as an assistant to the poet-playwright. Early in the rehearsal period, he hired a dance instructor and a leader of the chorus; later, he hired a flute player. Before the play was performed, the choragus and the playwright made a sacrifice to Dionysus so that the play would be successful. Afterward, they were given wreaths to acknowledge their exceptional performances.

The leader of the chorus (called coryphaeus) had several roles that required him to be a skilled dancer and musician. He assisted with rehearsals and arranged the chorus in formation. As the lead dancer, he cued the chorus to enter the stage and begin the dance. Onstage he tapped his feet to keep time. Sometimes he was given a short solo in the dithyramb.

The members of the chorus (called choreutae) were not considered professionals, nor were they as skilled as the coryphaeus. All male dancers, the choreutae were paid with food and costumes. Because women did not perform in the theater, young men played both male and female roles. The choreutae filed into the orchestra in a single line and circled it three or four times, performing, among other steps, multiple turns on half-toe and small or large successive leaps. By the fourth century BCE the chorus entered in a solid rectangular formation of either three rows of five people or five rows of three people. When the playwright Sophocles later expanded the chorus, they entered in rows in a square formation. The best dancers and singers were in the front row, with the leader in the middle. The second-best people were in the rear so that when they changed rows or wheeled around, they would be nearest the audience. By the second century, the chorus sang in tragedies but did not dance in them.

History Highlight

The origin of the word choreography is from the Greek words choros, which means "dance," and graphos, which means "writing."

Theatrical Dances

The emmelia (dance of tragedy) included either all the movement in a play or only that of the chorus. A serious, noble dance, it had religious origins.

In a play, the choreutae entered the theater in various ways, including

• marching in, then performing an ode that alternated between song and dance;
• arriving in silence, then singing a song;
• moving in silence, then engaging in dialogue with the actor onstage;
• walking in one by one; or
• dashing onto the stage.

After the chorus entered, it remained onstage until the end of the play. With grace and dignity the choreutae maintained a steady march or running step. These dances were similar to those from Crete. The chorus executed steps that crossed dramatic genres from tragedy into comedy and satyr plays. Tragic dances were symbolic, such as the kommos, a powerful dirge in which dancers struck their breasts. The chorus exited the theater in a recessional.

In Greek comedies, actors spoke directly to the audience and the chorus consisted of fewer people than in tragedies. Light, quick movements, mime, buffoonery, and mock fights were important elements of the chorus' performance. The chorus danced and played games as part of an extended recessional from the theater. A lively dance called the kordax was performed in Greek comedies. By Roman times the kordax had evolved into a lewd, suggestive dance with hip rolls, explicit gestures, and interludes of comic burlesque.

In the festival program three tragedies were followed by a satyr play, in which a 12-member chorus was led by Silenus, a friend of Dionysus. Silenus wore a satyr (half man, half beast) costume. The chorus entered and danced in groups as interludes between the parts of the play. Sikinis were lewd dances performed only in satyr plays, in which the performers wore outlandish, sexually explicit costumes. The chorus entered into more horseplay, acrobatics, obscene gestures, and burlesque. Aristophanes, who wrote comic and satyr plays, added a separate dance section at the end of his plays that included grotesque dancing.

Performers' Unions

By the fourth century BCE the first union, the Artists of Dionysus, had formed for professional poets, actors, trainers, chorus members, and musicians. This was the first time that artists organized as a guild or trade union. The union specified that their members could travel unharmed through foreign or hostile states to give performances and were exempt from compulsory military service and taxes. The Artists toured classical plays around the Mediterranean area, thereby spreading Greek culture.

Accompaniment

In the theater of Dionysus, a trumpet signaled the beginning of the play competition and a herald announced each tribe as it entered. A flute player walked with the choreutae, leading them single file into the orchestra. The dancers formed a circle around the altar and began to sing. During the dance the coryphaeus (chorus leader) and musician stood in the center of the circle or near the altar of Dionysus. The dancers marched around the altar, moving to the right on the choric ode, to the left on the antistrophe, and standing still on the epode (Lawler 1964b).

Costumes and Adornment

Dancers in the chorus wore costumes that were less elaborate than those of the actors, probably similar to everyday clothing. The choragus rented the chorus' costumes for the performance. Since chorus members frequently played women, they wore masks. Probably the dancers wore soft, low shoes. In the kordax, the dancers wore costumes with enhanced breasts and rears and leather phalluses. In satyr plays, the chorus members wore padded body suits, conspicuous phalluses, and grotesque masks.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

Information about ancient Greek dance is hidden throughout Greek drama and literature. Classical and theater history scholars have had to create composite pictures of what life-span, religious, and theatrical dances were like. Their work has been supported by the surviving literature from the time and archaeological evidence that verified what the ancients had written.

Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr Plays

Three forms of Greek drama evolved. First came tragedy, then comedy and satyr plays. These plays were performed at the Festival of Dionysus. Major Greek playwrights considered dance an important part of their productions. Those whose works have survived include the following:

• Aeschylus (ca. 525 - 456 BCE), who wrote tragedies and taught his choruses their dances;
• Sophocles (ca. 495 - 406 BCE), who wrote tragedies but was also trained as a dancer and musician;
• Euripides (ca. 484 or 480 - 406 BCE), known for comic plays and the numerous dances in his plays;
• Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 388 BCE), who wrote comedies and satyr plays, of which only a few have survived. His plays had imaginative plots and used horseplay and slapstick comedy. His choruses represented humans, animals, allegorical beings, and even islands. They wore elaborate costumes and masks and performed lively dances (Lawler 1964b).

Tragedies were the most important of the plays performed. No more than three actors were in each play so they often played multiple roles. Actors used a series of symbolic gestures (cheironomia) to express emotion and struck poses to the accompaniment of songs. Their movements varied with each song and where it was recited or sung. The structural development of comedy was parallel to tragedy. Satyr plays were structurally similar to tragedies, but they were less dignified; they provided comic relief as parodies to the tragedies. Like the comic plays, they were noisy and lewd. Only two of the Greek satyr plays written by Aristophanes survive.

Significant Literature

Ancient Greek literary sources, such as the writings of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, the historian Plutarch, the geographer Strabo, and rhetoricians Lucian and Libanius, provide important insight into understanding Greek dance through different genres. Many of these writers listed the names of the dances, which were meant to be descriptive. Others recorded their impressions of how a dance was performed. From the fifth-century Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides came a wealth of dramatic literature in which dance was an important component.

Among more recent literary sources is 20th-century classical scholar Lillian B. Lawler, who wrote two important works about the dances of ancient Greek life and theater. Using literary, musical, and visual artifacts and other sources, she discerned the important role that dance played in ancient Greece. Greek dance and arts have inspired or been underlying themes in various periods of history.

In the early part of the 20th century, a resurgent interest in Greek antiquity and its dance inspired performers such as Isadora Duncan. In her book The Revived Greek Dance, Ruby Ginner (1933) provides a guide to techniques for the study and performance of ancient Greek dance.

During the reign of Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BCE), Greece became recognized as the cultural center of the known world. In this Hellenistic period Greek civilization expanded both east and west. The Greeks brought their culture, architecture, mythology, institutions, and art to the Italian peninsula, which provided much of the foundation for the development of Roman dance.

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Emerging American Modern Dance

What is modern about modern dance is its resistance to the past, its response to the present, its constant redefining of the idea of dance. Marcia B. Siegel

"What is modern about modern dance

is its resistance to the past,

its response to the present,

its constant redefining of the idea of dance."

Marcia B. Siegel

In the early 1930s, Denishawn and Duncan dance schools (where the focus was on free dance instead of ballet) dotted the country. This first generation of dance artists ushered in a new era of experiments that would emerge as modern dance. The uncertain political climate led choreographers to comment on events in contemporary society. With the Depression in full force, dancers and choreographers experimented with their new art, searching for theories and themes to express through dance, and hoping to convince audiences and critics that their work was a legitimate dance form.

In an attempt to provide artists with work, the Works Project Administration developed the Federal Theatre Project, which gave a voice and stage to the new American modern dancers. Through their work, dancers, actors, and musicians communicated to American audiences their beliefs about current social and political conditions.

Dancers and Personalities

While dancers and choreographers were formulating new techniques and theories, other personalities championed the recognition of modern dance as an art form. The matriarchs of modern dance were the architects of the form. The personalities who surrounded them directed their energies toward these two main goals: developing modern dance as an art form and encouraging new audiences to experience this unfolding American phenomenon.

Major Figures in Modern Dance

Four leading figures in modern dance, known as the Four Pioneers - Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - were making their own artistic statements through dance. They communicated to their audiences through their choreography and, until World War II, their instruction of a new generation of modern dancers and teachers at Bennington College summer dance festivals. The material for these dances came from folk legends, social protests, and theatrical expressions of culture and ethnicity. These choreographers made artistic statements through American modern dance that were both individual and collective. They are often thought of as the first generation of modern dancers because some of them had studied at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and also because they were the first to be called by a new name - modern dancers.

Martha Graham (ca. 1894 - 1991)

Born in Pennsylvania, Martha Graham devoted her life to performing and creating dances. Her technique, which may have been influenced by her physician father's interest in mind - body relationships, provides a codified language of modern dance.

Graham enrolled in the Denishawn School in 1916 and joined the company three years later. Unhappy there, she left in 1923, heading for New York. There she performed two seasons in the Greenwich Village Follies, followed by one year as a teacher at the Eastman School for Dance and Dramatic Action.

In 1927 Graham opened her own studio. Her early dances were solos, such as Lamentations (1930) and Frontier (1935). Influenced by Denishawn, she was searching for a movement vocabulary as a means of expression; what she devised became the material for her dances and later the foundation of her technique. During the 1930s her dances were angular and stark, expressing the conflicts within man; as Graham later said, they were dances that made visible the inner landscape. Her growing repertory expanded from solos to trios, then ensembles, including the seminal work of her early years, Primitive Mysteries (1931). Fascinated with the Southwest and its culture, she imbued many of her works with the flavor of America, the frontier, and the West. Unfortunately, much of Graham's work during this period of choreographic development has been lost.

From 1934 to 1942 Graham taught at Bennington College, and during those years she formulated her technique. In the 1940s her choreographic interest changed to characters, particularly female heroines, and she began to make larger dances with more theatrical elements. Collaborating with composers and set designers on her works, she brought them to a new level of theatricality. During the 1940s her Americana choreographic themes shifted to psychological and literary themes. In the following decade they changed to Greek myths, and after that to cosmic themes. Graham's dances use dramatic and literary devices such as flashback, episodic sequences, and multiple facets of personalities to communicate through movement and gestures. She included detailed descriptions of her dance works.

Graham's movement theory was based on contraction and release. Her expressive, codified movement vocabulary requires a centered body, and it uses breathing and the opposition of forces. Her technique evolved over time; dancers talk about old and new (late 1950s and early 1960s) Graham technique. The Graham dancers during that time may have influenced these changes, which are exhibited in softening and breathing through the movements.

In 1972 Graham left the stage as a performer and the next year reorganized her company, presenting a season of seven revivals and two new works. She continued to direct her company until her death. Her body of work consisted of 181 dances.

History Highlight

Graham was influenced by the Native Americans in her travels through the Southwest. The basic contraction in her technique has been related to this Native American prayer:

• "Praise to the heavens" (Sitting in second, or straddle, position, the body contracts: the legs flex at the hips, knees, and ankles; the feet flex; the arms, in second position, rotate so that elbows are to the floor and palms are upward; and the face looks up to the sky.)
• "Praise to the earth" (While in the contraction the torso curves forward and down, the arms rotate so that the palms face the floor, and the face looks down to the earth.)
• "I find myself in" (The torso extends from the contraction to a straight back near the floor; the legs straighten and the feet point; palms and face are forward.)
• "The midst of it." (The torso returns to a centered, aligned position.)

Doris Humphrey (1895 - 1958)

Born near Chicago, Humphrey always wanted to dance and taught ballet to earn money. In 1918, she auditioned for the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and was immediately invited into the company. Humphrey absorbed and performed all the dance forms the company explored. St. Denis relied on her creativity and organizational skills. As a protégé of St. Denis, Humphrey collaborated with her on music visualization.

In 1927 Humphrey left Denishawn with Charles Weidman to establish a company and school in New York. In 1931, with Graham and critic John Martin, she began to lecture at the New School of Social Research about this emerging dance form. The school provided a forum for artists to exchange theories and principles. In the late 1930s Humphrey and Weidman were on the Bennington College summer school faculty. Humphrey left the stage as a performer in 1945 for health reasons, but she continued to contribute to the development of modern dance. She became artistic director of José Limón's company, helping him develop as a choreographer and building the company's repertory.

Humphrey's technique and philosophy of modern dance were based on the concepts of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Humphrey was an intellectual; she analyzed gesture and meanings of gesture, the relationship of movement to emotional stimuli. Her style expressed the power of the human spirit (Stodelle 1978).

Humphrey's choreography explored the conflict of man with his environment. Many of her works have strong social content. She believed in looking to nature, human nature, and behavior for subjects to dance about, and that choreographic themes should arouse emotion and movement. Her works, most of them dance dramas, show a mature genius - sympathy for human suffering or sacrifice and an artistic attempt at consolation and betterment of that condition (Percival 1970). In contrast to Graham's works, which reflected a predominantly female point of view, Humphrey's choreography and performance with Weidman balanced male and female forms.

Humphrey established a relationship between each dancer and the choreography. She used the personal uniqueness of her dancers, encouraging their individual styles to come through. "Since my dance is concerned with immediate human values, my basic technique lies in the natural movements of the human body," she wrote (Humphrey 1941, 17).

Humphrey continued to explore movement as both physiological and psychological experiences. Not only does her approach to natural movement accept the dramatic reality of the coexistence of humans and gravity, but it also builds its entire aesthetic on elements of motion that underlie that coexistence. These elements constitute the principles of movement on which Humphrey based her technique. In describing the effect of gravity on the body, Humphrey wrote that the "natural movements of the human body are the visible evidence of man's ability to survive in a world dominated by gravity. At time his friend, at time his foe, gravitational force imposes itself upon every move he makes. All life fluctuates between resistance to and yielding to gravity" (Humphrey 1959, 106).

Humphrey used the creative exploration of these movement values as the basis of technique: breathing, standing, walking, running, leaping, rising, and falling (Stodelle 1978). Running was an expression of the dancer's will. Leaping was defying gravity, rebounding from its own energies (Stodelle 1978).

The dance experience is the heart and soul of Humphrey's technique; therefore it encompasses more than purely mechanical development and maintenance of body skills. "I wish my dance to reflect some experience of my own in relationship to the outside world; to be based on reality illumined by imagination; to be organic rather than synthetic; to call forth a definite reaction from my audience; and to make its contribution towards the drama of life," said the choreographer (Stodelle 1978, 27 - 28).

In her book about the craft of choreography, The Art of Making Dances (1959), Humphrey analyzed the elements used in making dances and organized them into teaching units. This seminal work has long been considered the primer for dance choreography. (See the History Highlight.)

History Highlight

Doris Humphrey developed the theories of fall and recovery, successional flow, breath rhythms, and oppositional motion as part of her technique, which in turn provided a strong foundation for the future development of modern dance.

1. Theory of fall and recovery:
   • The body is poised triumphantly in midair, having successfully recovered from the perils of falling (Stodelle 1978).
   • Fall: From the static point of poised equilibrium - directly forward, backward, spiral, or sideways - breath expelled.
   • Collapse is imminent just before the moment of rebound.
   • Rebound begins with a sharp inhale as the body recovers equilibrium.
   • Suspension: When rebound entered suspension, a transitory stage of the body off-balance before returning to equilibrium - the point of 0 in physics.
2. Theory of successional flow:
   • Describes the imagined route of breath flow.
   • Breathing establishes a "phrase rhythm which reshapes movement, endowing it with varying intensities and forms" (Stodelle 1978).
3. Theory of breath rhythms:
   • Breath: Moves from torso to extremities; inhalation is the initial force.
   • Exhalation: The successional direction of breath flow is reversed; the torso, releasing its energies, sinks downward and inward.
4. Theory of oppositional motion:
   • Change of weight: The sensation of weight is a reality to the Humphrey dancer. The modern dancer must relate to gravity and reality (Rogers 1941).

History Highlight

Some of the main ideas in The Art of Making Dances are axioms in choreography, such as the following:

• Shorten your work; do the ending before you get there.
• Begin with music or a theme derived from a line of poetry or a dramatic situation; work without sound to complement it.
• The choreographic idea dominates over music; use subtle musicality and unhackneyed spatial arrangements (Percival 1970).

Humphrey's analysis of the emotional meanings of gesture has also been of value to dance in education.

Charles Weidman (1901 - 1975)

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Weidman danced during interludes between silent movies at the Stuart Theatre in downtown Lincoln. He left Lincoln at age 19 to study at Denishawn, where he met Doris Humphrey. After performing with the Denishawn company for eight years, he left with Humphrey to establish a company in New York. During the 1930s, Humphrey and Weidman taught, choreographed, and were artist-teachers at Bennington.

Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey in Duo-Drama (1935).
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The Humphrey-Weidman Studio and Company dissolved in 1945, after which Weidman toured with his own company and continued to teach. In the late 1950s he worked with sculptor Mikhail Santaro, producing mixed-media pieces in which Weidman performed solos, some from earlier works. In 1972 he restaged some of Humphrey's choreography at Connecticut College.

Weidman's choreography was a blend of dance with a subtle use of mime, comedy, and wit. Often he chose autobiographical subjects, as in And Daddy Was a Fireman (1943). Although famous for his skill at satiric pantomime dances, Weidman also created works with pure dance movement. He was one of the first artists to explore kinetic pantomime, in which he took literal movement and moved it into the abstract. His dances celebrated the incongruities of human encounters.

Weidman died in 1975 and was buried on Limón's New Jersey farm.

Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Born Johanna Eckert, Hanya Holm grew up in Germany, the daughter of a wine merchant and a mother devoted to the arts and chemistry. She was interested in music and drama and attended the Institute of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. In 1921 she saw German expressionistic dancer Mary Wigman perform; impressed, she went to Wigman's school and later joined her company. Her decision to dance with Wigman coincided with her divorce from painter-sculptor Reinhold Martin Kuntze.

The Wigman school in Dresden had a reputation that attracted students from all over Europe. From 1923 through 1928 the Wigman troupe toured Europe, until financial crisis led to the dissolution of the company. Holm became the chief instructor and codirector of the Wigman school in Dresden. In 1931 Sol Hurok brought Holm to New York to start a branch of the school there. Holm remained in New York, created a company that toured the gymnasium circuit of colleges throughout the country, and joined the summer school faculty at Bennington College. In 1936 the Wigman school was renamed Hanya Holm Studio (and later Hanya Holm School of the Dance) because of the negative association of Wigman's name as tensions escalated between Germany and the United States.

During the 1940s Holm directed and taught modern dance at Colorado College. She also taught at Mills College, the University of Wisconsin, and Alwin Nikolais' school in New York. Holm's choreography focused on movement in its relation to space and on emotion as the basis for creating movement; her work is an extension of Wigman's and Laban's. Holm worked with movement projecting into space, molding and being molded by the space. Avoiding stylization, she worked from the premise that if the body were developed in this pure fashion, it could assume any style that was required. This lack of stylization made Holm's technique extremely attractive to modern dance teachers and professional dancers.

Holm's signature piece was Trend (1937), created at Bennington for her New York debut. Her works Dance of Work and Play (1938) and Metropolitan Daily (1938) were clear indications that Holm understood American society. On Broadway she choreographed many musicals, including Kiss Me Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960).

Holm was an exponent of German modern dance that was at least 10 years older than American modern dance and used space, emotion, and feeling as the basis for movement.

Her generic modern dance technique became the basis for modern dance courses taught in colleges, disseminated through the work of Margaret H'Doubler. Generations of modern dancers and dance educators have benefited from her teaching, and her work is a link in a continuum from Wigman to Nikolais and Pilobolus. Her work on Broadway is a testament to her versatility and understanding of the musical-theater genre.

History Highlight

At her school, Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation. President Roosevelt's War Department had to be convinced that Laban's symbols did not contain a secret code.

Helen Tamiris (1905 - 1966)

Dancer, choreographer, and director Helen Tamiris was born in New York City as Helen Becker, later taking the name Tamiris. As a child she studied with Fokine at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and she joined the opera ballet at 16. In the 1930s she married her dance partner, Daniel Nagrin, with whom she formed Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company in 1960. She is remembered for her dances based on Negro spirituals (she was the first to use this music in concert dance) and her choreographic contributions to American musical theater.

Tamiris made her concert debut in New York in 1927; Louis Horst was her accompanist. The next year she performed in Paris, where she was an immediate success in Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, a work inspired by the Negro spiritual (and later part of Negro Spirituals). In 1930 she organized Dance Repertory Theatre in New York and established the School of American Dance, which existed until 1945. During the 1930s she participated in the Federal Dance Project (FDP) - New York, part of the Federal Works Project. During the 1940s and '50s Tamiris choreographed Broadway musicals, including Showboat (1946), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fanny (1954), Plain and Fancy (1955), and Touch and Go (1949), for which she won a Tony Award.

Tamiris used music by 20th-century composers such as George Gershwin and Claude Debussy for her choreography. Her dances were about oppressed people and the need for social justice. A series of dances she created from 1928 through 1941, known as Negro Spirituals, included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Go Down, Moses." "How Long Brethren?", created for the Federal Dance Project and choreographed in 1937, became another of her concert signature pieces. This work was to win the 1937 Dance Magazine Award for best ensemble choreography.

Tamiris made one of her greatest contributions to dance through the New Dance Congress. As its president, she was the force behind it, lobbying for dance to become a part of the Federal Theatre Project.

Katherine Dunham (1909 - 2006)

Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, teacher, and writer Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago but raised in Joliet, Illinois. After studying ballet as a teenager, she went to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1936 with a degree in anthropology. She studied dance forms in the West Indies, including Haiti, which had a great influence on her work. She married John Pratt, a theatrical designer she met working in the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago.

Katherine Dunham.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

In 1931 Dunham founded a student company at the University of Chicago, called Ballet Nègre. Two years later she starred in Ruth Page's La Guiablesse. Later in the 1930s she founded Negro Dance Groups, creating her Haitian Suite for the Negro Dance Evening in New York in 1937. After a year as director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago, she moved her company to New York. There she worked as dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the musical Pins and Needles. A year later Dunham and her company appeared in Cabin in the Sky, which she co-choreographed with Balanchine (but was not given credit).

In the later 1930s Dunham continued to explore, blending African, European, Afro-Caribbean, and American dance. She and her company performed on Broadway and toured Europe, Mexico, and Latin America during the 1940s. She went to Hollywood, performing in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Stormy Weather (1943), among other motion pictures. Returning to New York in 1945, she opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater. In 1950, for health and financial reasons, she redefined her professional and company work. In 1962, she staged a production on Broadway that featured the Royal Troupe of Morocco, along with the Dunham Company, and the following year she became the Metropolitan Opera's first African American choreographer. In the late 1960s she opened the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Dunham made many contributions to 20th-century American dance as a dancer, choreographer, and social activist. She

• choreographed 90 dances and 5 revues - 4 of them on Broadway;
• created a repertory of dances that explored diverse themes, folklore, and ideas; and
• wrote Journey to Accompong (1946), The Dances of Haiti (1947; her master's thesis), and Island Possessed (1969).

Dunham influenced many artists, including Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and other dancers and choreographers.

History Highlight

Dunham technique is a blend of African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles. The technique requires a flexible torso and spine and uses isolation and polyrhythm in its movements. Her technique is taught at The Ailey School.

Personalities Who Contributed to the Development of American Dance

Some of the most influential contributors to the formation of American modern dance were musicians and writers.

Louis Horst (1884 - 1964)

Louis Horst was a composer, music historian, and mentor to the first generation of modern dance artists. He taught choreography and lectured at the New School of Social Research and Juilliard, among other schools, and wrote about modern dance choreography. For 10 years he was musical director for Denishawn. He was inspired by Mary Wigman and the German art scene and saw a need not only for new movement and subject matter for dance but also for a new form. He worked as Martha Graham's musical and choreographic advisor and mentor for 20 years, and he worked with Humphrey and Weidman. In 1934 Horst founded Dance Observer, the first journal to be devoted exclusively to modern dance.

Horst developed a method of teaching modern dance choreography based on his own analysis of preclassic dance forms popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. He believed that other contemporary arts could be absorbed into modern dance. His musical compositions supported the developing modern dance artists as they searched for ways to communicate their artistic ideas. In teaching choreography, he established it within a musical base. He wrote Pre-Classic Dance Forms (1938) and Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts (1961), the latter with co-author Carroll Russell.

History Highlight

Horst's review of a 1957 Paul Taylor performance, which he published in Dance Observer, was a blank column.

John Martin (1893 - 1985)

A drama critic for the New York Times, John Martin became that newspaper's first dance critic in 1927. A champion of the new modern dance, he wrote The Modern Dance in 1933 and several other works that supported American dance development, including Introduction to the Dance (1939) and World Book of Modern Dance (1952).

Modern Dance Companies and Schools

During the 1930s and 1940s several modern dance companies emerged. Modern dance artists' choreography developed from solos and duets to group works. To support these emerging modern dance companies, schools provided ways for artists to apply their theories, techniques, and styles of movement and for dancers to train for their companies.

Humphrey-Weidman Company

After leaving Denishawn, Humphrey and Weidman started their company in New York in 1928; it continued into the early 1940s. Through her work, Humphrey explored and developed her theories of modern dance composition. In contrast to his partner's serious works, Weidman's gift for the comic provided a balance for the company repertory.

Graham Company and School

Martha Graham's company, which was populated by the leading modern dancers of the 1930s and 1940s, was created in 1926. Graham's works during this period used minimal costumes and sets as she explored and developed her dance technique and vocabulary.

Bennington School

Bennington College in Vermont offered a summer school that became the center for modern dance training for many college and university teachers from across the country. The Bennington years (1934 - 1942) fostered the growth of modern dance and its artists and built audiences for the first generation of modern dancers by presenting many of the modern dance classics created during this period. The program was the ingenious idea of Martha Hill, a staff dance teacher who became the director; Mary Josephine Shelly, a physical educator and administrator from Columbia University; and Robert Devore Leigh, Bennington's president. In the school's first years, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm taught the sessions. The school expanded as time went on to include Louis Horst, who taught dance composition, and critic John Martin. From the Bennington School emerged the modern dancers who toured the college gymnasium circuit (Kriegsman 1998).

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was part of the Works Progress Administration, which was developed during the Depression in order to provide theater professionals with work. The program supported many modern dance artists in projects in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Each city had a leader or two. Tamiris and Kirstein were leaders in New York, Ruth Page in Chicago, and Edith James (who had studied at Denishawn) in Dallas. Tamiris and James choreographed for the project, as did Charles Weidman, who created Candide. This was the first time that dance received federal funding.

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Classical Ballet in Russia

It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend. August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

"It is not so much on the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progress and skill depend."

August Bournonville, Etudes choréographiques

Classical music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? Was it the historical time in which the artwork was generated? Was it the form the artist used to create it? In the second half of the 19th century, visual arts styles went through romanticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and postimpressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig van Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The classical era in music ranged from the second half of the 18th century through the first two decades of the 19th century. For ballet, the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia; Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. As chief architect of the classical ballet, choreographer Marius Petipa took elements from romanticism, which he expanded and wove into fantasy plot lines, while adding pointe work and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and continues to be reconstructed, restaged, and reenvisioned by great ballet companies and artists throughout the world.

Swan Lake (1895), the prototype of classical ballet.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography, Petipa sculpted ballet into a classical form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest decor, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the world's greatest theaters and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.

Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evenings of entertainment. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dances interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylized mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes, and elaborate scenery. The female ballerina still dominated the stage, with the male dancer as her partner. The leads were supported by a hierarchy of dancers, including a large corps de ballet.

Glance at the Past

During the second half of the 19th century, Italy solidified as a country and Prussian nationalism and power expanded under Bismarck into a unified Germany. In England, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the far-flung British Empire under their guidance. At the French court, Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie ruled over the Second Empire until the 1870s. And in the United States, tensions mounted quickly into the Civil War, followed by years of reconstruction and the advent of industrialism.

History and Political Scene in Russia

Since Catherine the Great's reign, Russia had been under an autocratic rule that dominated the nobles, who in turn ruled the serfs. In 1825 reformers wanted Nicholas I to ascend the throne under a constitutional monarchy, but that effort was squashed. Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. During the last half of the 19th century, Russia became more industrialized and expanded its power west to Afghanistan, China, and the Pacific. The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad linked Europe and Asia. When Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, a governmental reform movement was afoot, with his reactionary ministers setting the path to revolution in the next century.

Society and the Arts

Although Russia was distant from European cities, ambassadors visited the French court as early as the 17th century, then brought the latest fashions and dances home with them. Throughout the 18th century Russian aristocrats emulated French style and arts and spoke French. Russia was locked in a feudal system headed by a powerful nobility with vast land holdings. In isolated country estates, nobles had their own theaters in which serfs provided the talent for entertaining the noble family and guests.

Russia's Age of Realism began in the second half of the 19th century. Novels such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina revealed the dark side of Russian society.

Dancers and Personalities

Ballet in the last half of the 19th century was dominated by the development of classical ballet in Russia. While in European and American theatres, ballet moved into entertainment forms, touring companies, and vaudeville.

Dancers and Choreographers

The dancers and other personalities were not all Russian; many were European, and choreographers and teachers were predominantly male. The ballerina remained the center of attention with her technical feats en pointe and was supported by male dancers in pas de deux.

Arthur Saint-Léon (1821 - 1870)

A French dancer, choreographer, violinist, and composer, Saint-Léon was considered one of the best dancers of his time, with extraordinary ballon (effortless, suspended jumps) and elevation. His dancing took him to theaters in London and throughout Europe. In 1845 he married ballerina Fanny Cerrito. He worked as a ballet master throughout Europe and was appointed company teacher at the Paris Opéra in 1851, where he created many of the divertissements for various productions. He developed a notation system that he published in 1852.

From 1859 to 1870 Saint-Léon succeeded Perrot as ballet master of St. Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, where he choreographed new works and restaged others, often including national dances in his ballets. During this time, his duties there were such that he was able to divide his time between St. Petersburg and Paris. His ballet Coppélia (1870) remains in ballet repertories today.

Marius Petipa (1819 - 1910)

Marius Petipa was born in France but made his fame in Russia. A son of a French dancer, he and his brother, Lucian, along with other family members, began studying dance with his father. By 1838 Petipa was a principal dancer and had created his first ballet. He studied with Auguste Vestris, traveled to the United States with his family, and danced and choreographed in Bordeaux and Spain. He was acclaimed as a dancer in romantic ballets and often was a partner to Fanny Elssler. In the 1840s Petipa was a principal dancer in Paris. He went to St. Petersburg in 1847, where he danced and assisted Perrot; in 1862 he was appointed ballet master there. His first successful ballet in Russia was La Fille du Pharaon, in that same year.

Marius Petipa.
© Sovfoto.

Over his career in Russia, Petipa created 50 or more ballets. Some are considered classics of ballet, including the following:

• Don Quixote (1869)
• La Bayadère (1877)
• The Sleeping Beauty (1890)
• Cinderella (with Enrico Cecchetti and Lev Ivanov; 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov; 1895)

One of the first choreographers to work closely with a composer, Petipa collaborated with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on many ballets. In his collaborations with Tchaikovsky, Petipa would give the composer specific instructions about the quality of the music and other details, such as how many measures of 3/4 time, followed by so many measures for pantomime, and so on. His ballets were spectacles, with lavish costumes and sets in which both ballet and pantomime were used to tell the story, providing an entire evening of entertainment. Petipa included national or character dances in his works. He demanded technically strong ballerinas and premier danseurs (lead male dancers). Imported Italian dancers, including Cecchetti, Legnani, and Zucchi, starred in the classical ballets and provided competition for developing Russian dancers.

Petipa's standards for ballet sent it into its classical era. His attention to dramatic content, form, and music in creating a unified production is what crystallized the form by the end of the century. He has left a legacy of ballets. Today some are performed in their entirety, while only pas de deux or parts of other ballets remain. Petipa created a marriage between Italian and French ballet in Russia, thereby leading ballet into a new style and school, the Russian ballet.

History Highlight

Character dances in a ballet represent a specific national folk dance, using the steps and style of the folk dance but with ballet elements included.

Lev Ivanov (1834 - 1901)

A Russian dancer and choreographer, Lev Ivanov was born in Moscow. He studied ballet in Moscow and St. Petersburg and joined the Maryinsky Theatre's company in 1850. During his career as a dancer, he was admired in character roles. In 1885 Ivanov choreographed a new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, his first full ballet, and then other works. When Petipa became ill, Ivanov choreographed The Nutcracker. For a benefit for Tchaikovsky, he choreographed the second act of Swan Lake. Petipa was so impressed that he mounted the entire ballet with Ivanov, allowing him to create the second and fourth acts, in which the swans dance.

Ivanov is considered by many to have been a sensitive artist with a keen vision and poetic style. His delicate sense of music still radiates from his work today, and his beautiful choreography in the second act of Swan Lake proves his talent. Unfortunately he remained in the shadow of Petipa throughout his career, his work overlooked by a regime that focused on European talent and leadership.

Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928)

Born in Rome into an Italian dancing family, Enrico Cecchetti was a dancer, mime, and teacher. Most of his career was connected with the Russian ballet, first under Petipa and then under Serge Diaghilev. His development of a daily ballet curriculum is his legacy to modern ballet; he created a logical progression of class exercises and components and balanced the adagio and allegro parts of the class. Cecchetti taught the great dancers of the early 20th century, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Anton Dolin, and Ninette de Valois. After his retirement he moved to London. Prodded by English author and publisher Cyril W. Beaumont and assisted by his student Stanislas Idzikowski, Cecchetti published A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing in 1922. This book became the curriculum basis of the Cecchetti Society, which was founded in England to train teachers. Subsequently, branches of the Cecchetti Society were formed in other countries to continue this master's teachings.

Pierina Legnani (1863 - 1923)

Pierina Legnani was born in Milan, where she studied and danced with the ballet at La Scala. She became a ballerina in 1892 and toured Europe, then went to Russia. She appeared in St. Petersburg in 1893, performing her renowned 32 fouettés en tournant in Cinderella (which she had performed the year before in London). In 1895 she starred in Swan Lake, creating the dual role of Odette/Odile and performing its famous 32 fouettés in the third act.

Legnani inspired Russian dancers to emulate her technical feats. Each year she returned to Russia to perform, and she was the only European ballerina to be appointed as prima ballerina assoluta (the highest honor for a ballerina). She created many of the leading roles in Petipa's ballets. Legnani's technique brought a new standard for the ballerina of the classical era, which set the tone for the next century of dancers.

Virginia Zucchi (1847 - 1930)

An Italian dancer who studied with Blasis in Milan, Virginia Zucchi performed in Italy, Berlin, London, and St. Petersburg, where she was a success. A technical dancer of virtuoso skill, she was invited to join the ballet company of the Maryinsky Theatre. Zucchi's work as a dancer and her acting skills contributed to the development of the St. Petersburg Ballet School. She spent many years in Russia, retiring to Monte Carlo to teach. Zucchi's dancing, acting, and technical clarity led the St. Petersburg Ballet School to make greater demands of its dancers in terms of technical perfection. The results of her influence would be revealed in the next generation of Russian dancers.

Dance in Russia

To set the stage for the ascent of ballet to a classical art in Russia, you first need to step back in time to gain a historical perspective of dance in that country before the second half of the 19th century. Russia had a rich dance history. Russian folk dances that had existed since the earliest times never lost their features, despite the country's numerous invasions. These dances were incorporated into Russian ballets. Under the reign of various czars, dance flourished. The first Romanov czar, Mikhail, set up an amusement room - a forerunner of the court theater. Czar Alexi presented the first ballet on the Russian stage in 1673; he had heard from his ambassadors about the entertainments presented in European courts and ordered a performance of "French dancing." The first professional ballet in Russia was produced during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanova in 1736, in the opera The Power of Love and Hate. The dances were arranged by Jean-Baptiste Landé for students from the military academy. Later in the 18th century, Catherine the Great of Russia (1729 - 1796) produced a ballet in 1768 to commemorate her heroic act of being inoculated against smallpox.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, court theaters were replicated by the lesser nobility, featuring serf ballerinas. Some nobles even had theaters built as separate rooms in their houses or as separate buildings on their estates. In these theaters, serfs performed for their masters and the masters' visitors.

Bolshoi Theatre

Public ballets performed in Moscow can be traced back to 1759. Giovanni Battista Locatelli built a private theater for the performance of operas and ballets, which were similar to those presented at the Russian court. In 1764 Filippo Beccari organized a dancing school at the Moscow orphanage. When he was engaged to train professional dancers in 1773, almost a third of the orphans trained became soloists with professional dancing careers in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. The orphanage ballet school came under the direction of the Petrovsky Theatre.

In 1780 the Petrovsky Theatre was built on the site of the present Bolshoi Theatre. After the Petrovsky burned in 1805, Czar Alexander I established the Moscow Ballet and Opera Theatre as an imperial theater. In 1862 the Moscow Theatre separated from the jurisdiction of St. Petersburg. Opera, ballet, and dramatic theaters in Moscow were influenced by the city's university and enlightened circles of society; thus, in Russian opinion, the Moscow Ballet Theatre had an advantage over St. Petersburg in that it was allowed to develop more freely and was less influenced by the court.

Maryinsky Theatre

Jean-Baptiste Landé was the founder of the St. Petersburg Ballet School, the nucleus of professional ballet theater in Russia under the czars and later to become the Imperial Ballet School. During the reign of Anna Ivanova in the mid-1700s, significant developments took place in Russian ballet. Dance training was included in the military school's curriculum, and Landé established a school at the Winter Palace, which was the direct ancestor of the present Vaganova Choreographic Institute. One purpose of the ballets during the 17th century was to glorify the power of the Russian State. The spectacles ranged from dances in operas to ballet-pantomimes to ballets d'action. They included new ballets as well as restagings of ballets being performed in Europe.

The Maryinsky Theatre was an outgrowth of the court theater in St. Petersburg. Catherine II created the position of the director of the imperial theaters in 1766, whose task it was to bring all of the drama, opera, and ballet training and production under his authority. The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg was closely associated with the court and included a training school. During the 18th and 19th centuries foreign dance masters continued to visit Russia.

Ballroom Dances of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the century many of the dances continued, including the quadrille, polka, and schottische, only to be surpassed by the waltz and the music of Johann Strauss the younger. The galop, a ballroom dance since the 1830s, gained new prominence as the last dance at the ball and galop music accompanied the suggestive can-can dances in which girls kicked spectators' hats off in Parisian music halls (Priesing 1978).

Classical Ballet Forms

The classical ballets, although they had some elements in common, varied considerably. They ranged from two acts (The Nutcracker) to four acts (Swan Lake), and some were even longer, with an epilogue (The Sleeping Beauty). They had both fantastic and realistic story elements and took place in an obscure, earlier time or place.

Character dancers performed a blend of national dances and ballet, portraying a national style. These performances became a major dance component in full-length ballets. For example, Swan Lake contains Neapolitan, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian dances.

The ballerina and the other female dancers performed en pointe. They wore tutus that ranged from above the knee to mid-calf, depending on the ballet. Male dancers wore tunics or peasant shirts and vests, tights, and either knee breeches or shorter pants. Character dancers wore stylized national costumes, usually with boots.

The ballerina and the premier danseur, along with a hierarchy of soloists and a corps de ballet, told the story through ballet dances, mimed interludes, and character dances. Acting roles were played by retired dancers or those who specialized in mime roles. Throughout the ballet male and female dancers or two characters performed pas de deux, or dances for two. Some dances were performed by members of the corps, and others by specific characters, but the grand pas de deux was reserved for the ballerina and the premier danseur.

The grand pas de deux developed from the pas de deux in romantic ballets, such as the one in the second act of Giselle and others in earlier ballets. Because of the four-act scheme in classical ballets, the grand pas de deux takes place in a later act, such as act III of The Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake has two grand pas de deux. One is performed by the Prince and Odette in act II and is called the White Swan pas de deux; the other is performed by the Prince and Odile in act III and is called the Black Swan pas de deux.

All grand pas de deux are performed by a male dancer and a female dancer, who performs en pointe. They all have a similar structure, as follows:

• Part I: Adagio. In this first dance to a slow musical tempo, the dancers begin with grandiose bows. As they dance, the ballerina executes supported extensions. The man turns slowly, holding the ballerina as she also turns slowly or promenades on one leg, en pointe, in arabesque or another position. He lifts her in various positions or supports her while she does multiple pirouettes.
• Part II: Female variation. In her solo, the ballerina exhibits her technical virtuosity. The variation includes high extensions and often quick, difficult footwork. Usually it ends with a rapid series of pirouettes, done in a circle or on a diagonal path from upstage left to downstage right, and ending in a pose.
• Part III: Male variation. The male dancer exhibits his virtuosity in a solo that includes beaten steps, leaps, and turns. To complete the variation, he performs multiple jumps and turns that end in a pose, often on one knee.
• Part IV: Finale (coda). The coda is another dance for two, but in a quick, allegro tempo. The male and female dance together, performing supported lifts and rapid turns. Then each one dances one or more solo sections that include displays of their technical virtuosity in showy turns, jumps, and beaten steps. They perform the last part of the dance together.

Significant Dance Works and Literature

The work and influence of people from the romantic era created a bridge to classicism and contributed to the development of classical ballet. In Europe, while ballet became staid as an art form, it migrated into spectacle and entertainment. Meanwhile, ballet in Russia soared to new heights, crystallizing in a classical form. Dance literature continued to expand, trying to capture dance through notation, positioning it within society, and exploring its aesthetic values.

Dance Works

Although the focus of this chapter is on classical ballet, a bridge to this period is Coppélia. Choreographed before the development of classical ballet, its form and subject provide an intermediary link between romantic and classical ballets. In the latter decades of 19th-century Russia, Petipa and his artistic staff churned out ballet after ballet to meet audiences' insatiable appetite for novelty, spectacle, and grandeur. These works, the core of classical ballet, have been handed down from one generation of dancers and choreographers to the next, and are still being produced today.

Coppélia, or The Girl With Enamel Eyes (1870)

Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon, opened at the Paris Opéra in 1870. Charles Nuitter and Saint-Léon wrote the three-act scenario, basing it on the story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman. The ballet is romantic and fantastic. Franz and Swanilda are the romantic couple. Dr. Coppélius, a dollmaker, creates a doll with a soul, named Coppélia. When Franz sees the doll in Dr. Coppélius' shop he falls in love with her, thinking she is alive. Later in the ballet Franz and Swanilda reunite, and the third act is a wedding celebration. This charming ballet is often produced today in various renditions. In some 19th-century versions the role of Franz was played en travesti (by a female). Coppélia has many of the vestiges of the romantic era along with the fantastic elements of the classical period.

The Sleeping Beauty (1890)

The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky, was based on a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Petipa created the scenario, which is presented in three acts (four scenes and a prologue). It was produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. The ballet has been considered the high point of 19th-century czarist culture and contains some of Petipa's greatest choreographic ideas, including

• the fairy variations,
• Aurora's variations (including the Rose Adagio),
• character dances,
• the Bluebird pas de deux, and
• the grand pas de deux in act III.

The Sleeping Beauty ballet has had many versions since its first production.

The Nutcracker (1892)

Although Petipa wrote the scenario for The Nutcracker, he became ill and the creation of the choreography fell to Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky. This two-act ballet was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892.

In the first act, a young girl named Clara receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, at a family Christmas party. Clara falls asleep and dreams that she defends the doll against the Mouse King, and the doll changes into a handsome prince. He takes her on a journey through a Land of Snow on their way to the Land of Sweets. In act II they arrive in the Land of Sweets; after being welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the prince are entertained with a series of divertissements. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier perform for them a grand pas de deux. Little beyond the original grand pas de deux has survived in this popular ballet, which is produced yearly at Christmas in many versions.

Swan Lake (Lac des cygnes ) (1895)

An early version of Swan Lake was incompletely and unsuccessfully produced at the Bolshoi in 1877. It was re-created in 1895 by Petipa and Ivanov, with music by Tchaikovsky, and produced at the Maryinsky Theatre, starring Pierina Legnani and Pavel (also known as Paul) Gerdt.

Swan Lake is a four-act ballet. Acts I and III, both set in the palace, were choreographed by Petipa; acts II and IV, the "white" acts, were created by Ivanov. The ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been turned into a swan by the magician von Rothbart. At midnight she and her swan companions dance, and she falls in love with a human who is later unfaithful to her.

In act I Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21st birthday. When his mother reminds him of his duty to choose a bride, the unhappy prince leaves the party and goes to the lakeside.

In act II Siegfried meets Odette, the Swan Queen, at the lakeside. He falls in love with her and promises fidelity. They dance a pas de deux to seal their love vows. The White Swan pas de deux symbolizes the purity of Odette's trusting love for Siegfried.

Act III takes place the next evening at a ball in the palace. Von Rothbart appears and introduces Siegfried to Odile, the Black Swan. She is a captivating young woman who looks like Odette. In the Black Swan pas de deux, Siegfried and Odile dance and she bewitches him with her fiery beauty. He asks her to marry him. A vision of Odette appears, and Siegfried realizes he has broken his promise to her and rushes to the lakeside.

In act IV, Siegfried searches for Odette. When he finds her he tells her of his unfaithfulness and asks forgiveness. The ballet has had several endings, both sad and happy. In some versions von Rothbart creates a storm and both lovers drown, or Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows. In others, Siegfried defeats Rothbart and breaks the spell.

Swan Lake is the prototype of a classical ballet. The dual role of Odette/Odile is challenging for the ballerina, who must be able to portray both good and evil characters. She must have both expressive and technical virtuosity for the dual role. Many shortened versions of the ballet have been created, some combining the second and fourth acts into a one-act version. With its music, story line, and symbolism, Swan Lake is an enduring work of classical ballet as an art form.

Dance Literature

During the second half of the 19th century, social dance instruction books continued to dominate dance literature. Choreographers were still searching for ways to notate dance. Publications included Saint-Léon's La Stéochoréographie or L'art écrire promptement la danse (1852) and later Friedrich Zorn's Grammar of the Art of Dancing. The technical demands of dance had changed vastly from the previous century, so Feuillet notation had become inadequate. Zorn's book, written in German, was translated into English and Russian. His notation used stick figures below musical staffs and drew the dancers from the point of view of the audience.

One of the monumental books of this period was August Bournonville's My Theatre Life, a three-volume memoir published in 1847, 1865, and 1878. Throughout his career, Bournonville wrote articles and essays on the aesthetics and philosophy of the arts. He wanted to be recognized as a man of the theater as well as an intellectual.

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