Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today

Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today PDF Author: Simon Morrison
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 0871408309
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
In this “incredibly rich” (New York Times) definitive history of the Bolshoi Ballet, visionary performances onstage compete with political machinations backstage. A critical triumph, Simon Morrison’s “sweeping and authoritative” (Guardian) work, Bolshoi Confidential, details the Bolshoi Ballet’s magnificent history from its earliest tumults to recent scandals. On January 17, 2013, a hooded assailant hurled acid into the face of the artistic director, making international headlines. A lead soloist, enraged by institutional power struggles, later confessed to masterminding the crime. Morrison gives the shocking violence context, describing the ballet as a crucible of art and politics beginning with the disreputable inception of the theater in 1776, through the era of imperial rule, the chaos of revolution, the oppressive Soviet years, and the Bolshoi’s recent $680 million renovation. With vibrant detail including “sex scandals, double-suicide pacts, bribery, arson, executions, prostitution rings, embezzlement, starving orphans, [and] dead cats in lieu of flowers” (New Republic), Morrison makes clear that the history of the Bolshoi Ballet mirrors that of Russia itself.

Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today

Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today PDF Author: Simon Morrison
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 0871408309
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 391

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this “incredibly rich” (New York Times) definitive history of the Bolshoi Ballet, visionary performances onstage compete with political machinations backstage. A critical triumph, Simon Morrison’s “sweeping and authoritative” (Guardian) work, Bolshoi Confidential, details the Bolshoi Ballet’s magnificent history from its earliest tumults to recent scandals. On January 17, 2013, a hooded assailant hurled acid into the face of the artistic director, making international headlines. A lead soloist, enraged by institutional power struggles, later confessed to masterminding the crime. Morrison gives the shocking violence context, describing the ballet as a crucible of art and politics beginning with the disreputable inception of the theater in 1776, through the era of imperial rule, the chaos of revolution, the oppressive Soviet years, and the Bolshoi’s recent $680 million renovation. With vibrant detail including “sex scandals, double-suicide pacts, bribery, arson, executions, prostitution rings, embezzlement, starving orphans, [and] dead cats in lieu of flowers” (New Republic), Morrison makes clear that the history of the Bolshoi Ballet mirrors that of Russia itself.

A Century of Russian Ballet

A Century of Russian Ballet PDF Author:
Publisher: Dance Books Limited
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
Ballet.

Basic Principles of Classical Ballet

Basic Principles of Classical Ballet PDF Author: Agrippina Vaganova
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486121054
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Discusses all basic principles of ballet, grouping movement by fundamental types. Diagrams show clearly the exact foot, leg, arm, and body positions for the proper execution of many steps and movements. 118 illustrations.

The Russian Ballet

The Russian Ballet PDF Author: A. E. Johnson
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This book is intended to be an introduction to the layperson of the Russian ballet scene of 1913, and the history behind such developments. It includes an overview of Vaslav Nijinsky's contributions to the art form, a Polish ballet dancer and choreographer cited as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.

Swans of the Kremlin

Swans of the Kremlin PDF Author: Christina Ezrahi
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 0822978075
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Classical ballet was perhaps the most visible symbol of aristocratic culture and its isolation from the rest of Russian society under the tsars. In the wake of the October Revolution, ballet, like all of the arts, fell under the auspices of the Soviet authorities. In light of these events, many feared that the imperial ballet troupes would be disbanded. Instead, the Soviets attempted to mold the former imperial ballet to suit their revolutionary cultural agenda and employ it to reeducate the masses. As Christina Ezrahi's groundbreaking study reveals, they were far from successful in this ambitious effort to gain complete control over art. Swans of the Kremlin offers a fascinating glimpse at the collision of art and politics during the volatile first fifty years of the Soviet period. Ezrahi shows how the producers and performers of Russia's two major troupes, the Mariinsky (later Kirov) and the Bolshoi, quietly but effectively resisted Soviet cultural hegemony during this period. Despite all controls put on them, they managed to maintain the classical forms and traditions of their rich artistic past and to further develop their art form. These aesthetic and professional standards proved to be the power behind the ballet's worldwide appeal. The troupes soon became the showpiece of Soviet cultural achievement, as they captivated Western audiences during the Cold War period. Based on her extensive research into official archives, and personal interviews with many of the artists and staff, Ezrahi presents the first-ever account of the inner workings of these famed ballet troupes during the Soviet era. She follows their struggles in the postrevolutionary period, their peak during the golden age of the 1950s and 1960s, and concludes with their monumental productions staged to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the revolution in 1968.

Ballet in the Cold War

Ballet in the Cold War PDF Author: Anne Searcy
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190945109
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
This book tells the full story of the earliest Soviet-American ballet exchanges, in which the governments of the USSR and the United States sent their most prestigious ballet companies on tours to the other country. Author Anne Searcy draws on Soviet- and American- archival sources and shows the spectacular misunderstandings that happened when audiences trained to view one type of ballet saw a very different style.

The Master of the Russian Ballet (the Memoirs of Cav. Enrico Cecchetti)

The Master of the Russian Ballet (the Memoirs of Cav. Enrico Cecchetti) PDF Author: Olga Racster
Publisher: London : Hutchinson & Company
ISBN:
Category : Ballet
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description


Apollo's Angels

Apollo's Angels PDF Author: Jennifer Homans
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 1847084540
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
Apollo's Angels is a major new history of classical ballet. It begins in the courts of Europe, where ballet was an aspect of aristocratic etiquette and a political event as much as it was an art. The story takes the reader from the sixteenth century through to our own time, from Italy and France to Britain, Denmark, Russia and contemporary America. The reader learns how ballet reflected political and cultural upheavals, how dance and dancers were influenced by the Renaissance and French Classicism, by Revolution and Romanticism, by Expressionism and Bolshevism, Modernism and the Cold War. Homans shows how and why 'the steps' were never just the steps: they were a set of beliefs and a way of life. She takes the reader into the lives of dancers and traces the formal evolution of technique, choreography and performance. Her book ends by looking at the contemporary crisis in ballet now that 'the masters are dead and gone' and offers a passionate plea for the centrality of classical dance in our civilization. Apollo's Angels is a book with broad popular appeal: beautifully written and illustrated, it is essential reading for anyone interested in history, culture and art.

A Passion for Dance

A Passion for Dance PDF Author: Yamini Krishnamurti
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Autobiography of a Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dancer.

Russian Ballet Master

Russian Ballet Master PDF Author: Marius Petipa
Publisher: Dance Books Limited
ISBN: 9780903102001
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description
These highly entertaining memoirs of Marius Petipa, the great Franco-Russian choreogapher had never before been translated into English before their first publication in 1958. As virtual dictator of the Russian ballet in the second half of the 19th century, Petipa moulded its course for many years and may have been said to have created the style of classical dancing still known as Russian. His renown is undisputed, and his work lives not only in the pages of dance history but in the ballet repertoire of most Companies today. Petipa's memoirs reveal many interesting details of his career and of the people he worked with, including Tchaikovsky and the young Pavlova, and give an insight into his character and genius that it is not possible to gain from any other source. Written towards the end of his long life, in a mood of disillusion, when his work was neglected and in decline, he would have been delighted to know that his great ballets such as Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and La Bayadere are more popular today than ever before.