Compare and Contrast Balanchine to Petipa

¶ … Balanchine to Petipa

George Balanchine was born in the year 1904. He was invited to come over the United States of America by Lincoln Kirstein, in the year 1933, and subsequently, Balanchine arrived in America in the month of October 1933. One of the very first things that Balanchine is reputed to have done after his arrival in the United States, was to found the 'School of American Ballet', which opened in the year 1934, with a class of twenty five students. It must be stated here that although Balanchine and Kirstein made several attempts through many years to start a Company, they did not succeed in their endeavor, but the School of American Ballet, however, has endured and remains intact, to this day. This was the Scholl through which Balanchine was able to present his very first ballet to the entire world, in America, which was named the 'Serenade'. The performance was held in December 1934, at Avery Memorial Theatre, Hartford located in Connecticut, and its first professional performance was on March 1, 1935 at Adelphi Theatre in New York. (George Balanchine, 1904 to 1983: www.cmi.univ-mrs)

This performance has also endured over many years, and it must be remembered that although Balanchine was to abandon many ballets over the following years, this particular one remained his all time favorite, which he would never ever give up. This performance was in fact written specifically for students, and was therefore quite an easy one to execute. This becomes evident in the slow and easy steps that the students are to execute, and mush of the entire choreography relies on the use of arms rather than on footwork and steps. Balanchine did not have very many male dancers, and there are almost no real main parts for males; rather, the entire performance is female based, and he has numerous women dancers in his performance. Serenade is known for its exemplification of how much can actually be achieved with rather limited means; it is till today known as a remarkable and outstanding 'tour de force'. (George Balanchine, 1904 to 1983: www.cmi.univ-mrs)

It was in the year 1935 that there was hope that Balanchine would be able to form an alliance with the Metropolitan Opera, but this idea, however, did not work out suitably, and the entire alliance had to break up in the year 1938. Later, in the year 1941, Balanchine choreographed the 'Balustrade', which premiered in January 1941 at the Fifty First Street Theater, New York. This work has been described as being a virtual 'fantasy of contrasting moods', which was expressed in a series of mere movements, without a story. In fact, the entire performance was noted for its surrealistic appearance, complete with trees glowing with blood red ganglia. (Balustrade)

The performance was meant for the Original Ballet Russe, and Balanchine continued to work for the Ballet Russe until the year 1946. Most of the time during the 1930's and the 1940's, however, Balanchine concentrated most of his efforts on choreographing for various musical comedies, and he became known for his swiftness and shi readiness for hard work and effort, and this in turn made him an extremely popular person in Broadway at the time. It is said that Balanchine single-handedly managed to revolutionize the so called 'musical-comedy dancing', wherein he would use the actions of the dancers to carry the plot of the performance forward. (George Balanchine, 1904 to 1983: www.cmi.univ-mrs)

George Balanchine is even today regarded as one of the most famous and the foremost contemporary choreographers of is time, in the world of ballet, and it is said that since he was the son of a composer himself, he had a great advantage over others in the deep seated knowledge that he possessed about choreography and about composing his ballet performances in the United States of America. He was both a dancer and a musician, both of which helped him a great deal in his work, and it is said that Balanchine gave his very first performance as a dance at the age of ten in the 'Sleeping Beauty' where he played the role of Cupid, in the performance produced by the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet Company. It was in fact in the summer of the year 1924 that Balanchine left the then newly formed Soviet Union on a tour of Western Europe, upon the invitation that had been extended to his group by Sergei Diaghilev to give their auditions for his Ballet Russe which was based in Paris. Having impressed Diaghilev suitably, Balanchine was hired as a dance master by him to replace Bronislava Nijinska. (George Balanchine, 1904 to 1983: www.nycballet.com)

Soon afterwards, Balanchine reportedly injured his knee, an event which made his devote more time to choreography rather than to dancing. He therefore continued to serve as a dance master under Diaghilev, until Diaghilev died in the year 1929. Balanchine soon started to travel extensively all over Europe, and he even became involved in making movies with Lydia Lopokova, who was a former Diaghilev dancer, which became popular in Greta Britain of the time. He soon started to stage dance extravaganzas in Britain, especially for the Cochran Musical Theater Revues, and later, when he returned to Paris, Balanchine formed his very own dance company named "Les Ballets', in the year 1933. This was also the time when the Boson born dance and choreographer Lincoln Kirstein noticed the young and vibrant dancer- choreographer Balanchine, whose dream at that time was to successfully establish a dance company that would finally rival the dance schools of Europe, a feat as yet unaccomplished by anybody from the United States of America.

In fact, the dream that Kirstein harbored was to establish an American Dance School, or a Ballet Company, which would be unrivalled elsewhere in the world. It was when he saw Balanchine that he realized that his dreams may come true after all, and that he would invite the young dancer to come to the United States, for which Balanchine expressed great interest and desire. After his arrival, the 'Scholl of American Ballet' was established, and soon afterwards, performances were created and showcased on various stages across the United States. After the performances that Balanchine choreographed for this School, like for example, The Serenade, Balanchine and Kirstein together set up a touring company of dancers form their School, and named it the 'American Ballet'. It was with this group, with Balanchine serving as the Metropolitan Opera's resident dance master that several exquisite dance performances were put up by the students of the American Dance School, among them the better known being the 'Apollo', and the 'Le Baiser de la Fee', and the 'Card Game'. These efforts would stand Balanchine in good stead at the time when he would need it in his later years, when he would be invited to direct the three Stravinsky Festivals. (George Balanchine, 1904 to 1983: www.nycballet.com)

In the year 1938, Balanchine's partnership with the Metropolitan Opera became dissolved, and soon thereafter, the great dance master started to devote all his time to teaching at the School, and also to working in musical theatre and also in films. In the year 1941, Kirstein and Balanchine together assembled the 'American Ballet Caravan', and the beautiful 'Concerto Barocco' and the Ballet Imperial', 'Raymonda', and 'La Somnambula' were all created by Balanchine at this time. In sum total, it is said that Balanchine manage to create more than four hundred and sixty five exquisite dance performances during his lifetime, and some of the most famous of these are: Firebird, made in 1949, Bouree Fantasque, in 1949, the Nutcracker, made in the year 1954, along with other works such as Ivesiana and Western Symphony. Agon was made in 1957, and the Seven Deadly Sins, Stars and Stripes, and Episodes came at a later date. A Midsummer Night's Dream was choreographed in the year 1962, and Don Quixote in 1965.

Soon after that was Jewels, Balanchine's first ever ballet performance without a real plot, and then came Who Cares in 1970. Balanchine also created quite a few musical comedies, and also contributed to movies, and he has always been known for his neo-classical style, and for his reactions to the Romantic anti-Classicism of his time. When he choreographed, Balanchine would make sure that there was a de-emphasis on plot, and he believed that it was in this way that 'dance' could become the real star of the entire show, and not the plot or settings, and so on. In 1972, the U.S. News and World Report gave an in-depth analysis of this great man's work, and stated that Balanchine was an individual, who had successfully managed to fuse and combine modern concepts and ideas with old traditional ones, which was used in Classical Ballet. He had received his primary training and instruction in dance in Russia before he arrived in the United States. (George Balanchine, 1904 to 1983: www.nycballet.com)

And when he saw the free flowing dance forms that the dancers in the United States were using at that time, he was greatly inspired to develop new and better techniques in dance, which in fact served to change the entire world's pre-conceived notions of dance and ballet in general. His themes would be very simple and easy to comprehend, and these he would combine well with the modern music of his time, and each of his ballet performances would be unique and known for their innovation and originality and simplicity of theme, as well as for their exclusiveness and their exquisite nature. Balanchine often called himself a 'craftsman', and preferred not to call himself a 'creator' of anything at all, and this was because he believed that he was crafting the already existing dance form into a beautiful performance. He believed in the visual impact that a ballet performance would have on the audience, and he therefore concentrated most of his efforts on this aspect of the performance and not on the plot at all.

Therefore, he stated, the audience must also be trained to see the performance through the 'eye' and not through any other sense. As a matter of fact, he said, it is the illusion created by the dancers on stage that would have the desired impact, and if for some reason the illusion has not been created in a satisfactory manner, then it can also be said that the ballet has 'failed' even if the media praises it. (George Balanchine, 1904 to 1983: www.nycballet.com) For example, Balanchine's 'Apollo' was quoted to be at times, auto erotic, because of the gestures that Apollo performs on the stage, but this is the charm and the mystique and the magic of Balanchine's work, where such gestures convey the feeling of the character, and in the case of Apollo, the gesture of Apollo's right arm swinging in lazy circles when he is strumming the lute tells the audience that Apollo is a wild and half human youth, who will eventually acquire 'nobility through his art'. (Scholl, 79)

Marius Petipa was born in the year 1822 in Marseilles, to a dance and choreographer and a teacher father named Jean Antoine Petipa. Although both Marius and Lucien Petipa, two brothers, were brought up to love the art form of dancing, and Lucien concentrated on dance for his entire career, Marius Petipa, despite having begun his training in the dance from at the tender age of seven, did not in fact really take to it as fully and completely as his brother had done before him; frankly, he did not much care for dance. However, he started performing on stage when he was still a young child, and he first starred in his father's production, 'La Dansomanie' in 1831. By the year 1838, Marius Petipa had become the principal dancer in Nantes, where the family had shifted due to the ongoing Belgian Revolution at that time. Marius Petipa subsequently was to star in quite a few performances being choreographed by his father, like for example, Giselle, La Fille mal Gardee and La Peri, among others. (Marius Petipa, Choreographer)

It was at this time, in Bordeaux that Marius Petipa started to choreograph his own productions, and some of these initial works were La Jolie Bordelaise, La Vendange, L'Intrigue amoureuse and Le Langage des fleurs. He was then engaged in the King's Theater in Madrid, where he remained for numerous years, studying the art form of Spanish dance with great interest. The Spanish influence on his choreography is very much in evidence in Marius Petipa's works like Carmen et son Torero, La Perle de Seville, L'Aventure d'une fille de Madrid, La Fleur de Grenade, and Depart pour la course des taureaux. In 1847, Petipa moved to St. Petersburg, where he was offered a contract of one year as a contract dancer. Soon he produced Paquita, which was deemed to be one of the biggest hits ever produced at that time in St. Petersburg. One of the very first ballets that Marius Petipa choreographed in Russia was the 'Swiss Milkmaid' in 1849. (Marius Petipa, Choreographer)

When the ballet Giselle happened to be revived in the year 1850, Petipa made some changes as he desired in certain scenes, like for example, the Willis scenes, and this became known in later years as the Grand Pas Des Willis, in the year 1884. In the same year Petipa became the dance instructor in the Imperial School, and at the same time, Marius Petipa continued to dance, as well as to restage ballets from the so called French repertoire, to his own satisfaction. There is some doubt about the very first original work that was produced by this great dancer, and the doubt is whether it was The Star of Granada or A Marriage during Regency. In Russia, Petipa enjoyed his first taste of success when he happened to choreograph the Pharaoh's Daughter, and over the next thirty years, he managed to produce more than fifty new ballets, as well as revive and restage more than seventeen older ballets, as well as arrange for the dancing in more than thirty five operas during his time. His productions such as Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake and Raymonda are some of the best of his works, and are renowned even today for their beauty and exquisiteness. (Marius Petipa: (b. Marseiles 1818. d. Russia 1910))

In fact, it is often stated that it was these very works by Marius Petipa that served as the foundations for the future Schools of Russian Ballet. Marius Petipa is considered even today as being one of the greatest choreographers of all time. He would in fact do extensive research on the subject matter of all the plays that he would stage, and this would in fact help him to make careful and detailed descriptions of each and every scene that was being staged. He would also work in very close coordination with his composer as well as with his designer, and it was this attentiveness to details and a close watch and supervision on every single detail involved in the production of a ballet performance that was responsible for him becoming a much acclaimed and famous figure during his own lifetime. This was also perhaps the main reason that Russian Ballet happened to be elevated to international fame, and which laid the cornerstone or the foundation for the future twentieth century ballet of Russia. (Marius Petipa: (b. Marseiles 1818. d. Russia 1910))

It must be remembered that around fifty years ago, the word 'choreography' would not have found to have evoked the same amount of response that it does of today. But it must also be taken into consideration that it was during the last fifty years that ballet has actually come of age and progressed a lot and has become well-known. Ballet has now become respected as a dance and art form all throughout the world and it is no longer restricted nowadays or confined to just a few members belonging to the profession. It is now used by everyone who wishes to use it to express themselves. (Brinson; Church; Praagh; Knopf, 217) An important matter which is to be understood is regarding the times when the two choreographers and dancers Balanchine and Marius Petipa lived. It was in extremely turbulent and troublesome times that they worked and this is to be quite obviously reflected and expressed in their works which were being performed at that time. (Pitou, 143)

However, this period is also known all over the world as being the most fabulous in ballet history, and Marius Petipa was one individual who would manage to actually play a large role in shaping the future of ballet on his own. How he managed to achieve this is by creating in Imperial Russia a body of work which was so very good that it would be able to challenge every great dancer from anywhere in the world to imitate it, even if unsuccessfully. Everywhere in Europe and in other parts of the world as well, the time during the second half of the nineteenth century saw a decline in ballet, but in Russia, because of the patronage of the Czars, it was very different. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Imperial Ballet Companies that existed in St. Petersburg and in Moscow at that time, where constant encouragement was offered to the choreographers and to the ballet dancers through the support and the patronage of the czars. Even before the time of the French Petipa, there had been a constant flow of talent from the outside world into Russia, for ballet and other dance forms, and for many decades, the prestige of French ballet masters had been established very securely in Russia. (Dancing Times into Dance, Ballet in Russia, part II)

It is often stated that it was Petipa's classicism that managed to integrate the very purity of the traditional French Schools with a real Italian virtuosity. (Marius Petipa: www.abt.org) In the year 1936, Martha Graham wrote in a series of articles entitled 'affirmations', that no artist can really be ahead of his own times; rather, he is his time. It is just that others of his time are often beyond his time. If one were to have to search for the periods of the greatest creativity and inspiration and ingenuity, and the time when choreographers happened to blossom, and when the art form in itself started to replicate and reproduce and ultimately to repeat into newer and more diverse and exquisite forms, then one would have to look at the time when all this happened; the time when there was so much creativity in the art world. It is only if one manages to do this that one would be able to find the key to the survival of the art form of those days, in this day, today. (Choreography)

As a matter of fact, one of the Great Pioneers of Dance, and the Father of Dance, was Marius Petipa, but the secret is that he was not all seeking to be a pioneer, he was rather responding to the existing society of his time in the only way he knew bets how to, which was through the medium of his dance from. Petipa is alleged to have stated 'I am finished' when he happened to view the brand new ballet of Fokine, the 'La Bayadere' and coincidentally, this was the same day that another dancing great, Balanchine was born. This composition was in fact to later on set the path to realism in ballet, which started in the Diaghilev era and then continued on to the times of Nijinsky, Nijinska, and Balanchine. These were people who would carry on the torch of 'modernism' in their work and in their lives. It is at times stated that modernism was the time when God was supposed to be dead to man, and where man would often assume the power that would in general be attributed only to God and to no one else.