The Ballets of Ludwig Minkus

The Ballets of Ludwig Minkus PDF Author: Robert Ignatius Letellier
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443800805
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
The composer Ludwig Minkus represents one of music’s biggest mysteries. Who was he? Hardly anything is known about him, and yet he occupied an influential position in the theatres of the Imperial ballet in late nineteenth-century Russia. He has been recognised as a predecessor of Tchaikovsky, but as a musician is commonly held to have been so feeble as to be beneath contempt. Yet despite the scorn heaped on him, and his consequent obscurity, Minkus is far from being forgotten. Since the early 1960s his name has slowly begun to re-surface. Two works, Don Quixote (1869) and La Bayadère (1877), have been presented in their entirety for the first time to new audiences all over the world. The musical and dramatic power of both ballets has taken people by surprise. The stories have a very real human appeal, the choreography attracts the admiration of balletomanes, and the music, with its rhythm, verve, and beauty of melody, holds attention and engages the heart wherever it is heard. This introduction seeks to discover something more behind the blank façade of Minkus’s life and work. What do we actually know about him as a man and as an artist? Are we able to apprehend his oeuvre as a whole, and how much can we establish from the available material? What is the nature of the music he created for those few works that have survived the years, and that have come to the fore again recently to delight those who have ears to hear? This study includes iconography from the life and times of the composer, many musical examples from his works, and a comprehensive bibliography and discography.

The Ballets of Ludwig Minkus

The Ballets of Ludwig Minkus PDF Author: Robert Ignatius Letellier
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443800805
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Get Book Here

Book Description
The composer Ludwig Minkus represents one of music’s biggest mysteries. Who was he? Hardly anything is known about him, and yet he occupied an influential position in the theatres of the Imperial ballet in late nineteenth-century Russia. He has been recognised as a predecessor of Tchaikovsky, but as a musician is commonly held to have been so feeble as to be beneath contempt. Yet despite the scorn heaped on him, and his consequent obscurity, Minkus is far from being forgotten. Since the early 1960s his name has slowly begun to re-surface. Two works, Don Quixote (1869) and La Bayadère (1877), have been presented in their entirety for the first time to new audiences all over the world. The musical and dramatic power of both ballets has taken people by surprise. The stories have a very real human appeal, the choreography attracts the admiration of balletomanes, and the music, with its rhythm, verve, and beauty of melody, holds attention and engages the heart wherever it is heard. This introduction seeks to discover something more behind the blank façade of Minkus’s life and work. What do we actually know about him as a man and as an artist? Are we able to apprehend his oeuvre as a whole, and how much can we establish from the available material? What is the nature of the music he created for those few works that have survived the years, and that have come to the fore again recently to delight those who have ears to hear? This study includes iconography from the life and times of the composer, many musical examples from his works, and a comprehensive bibliography and discography.

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet PDF Author: Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190871490
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 1013

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Book Description
"Nearly four hundred and fifty years in, ballet still resonates-though the stages have become international, and the dancers, athletes far removed from noble amateurs. While vibrations from the form's beginnings clearly resound, much has transformed. Nowadays ballet dancers aspire to work across disciplines with choreographers who value a myriad of abilities. Dance theorists and historians make known possibilities and polemics in lieu of notating dances verbatim, and critics do the daily work of recording performance histories and interviewing artists. Ideas circulate, questions arise, and discussions about how to resist ballet's outmoded traditions take precedence. In the dance community, calls for innovation have defined palpable shifts in ballet's direction and resultantly we have arrived at a new moment in its history that is unquestionably recognized as a genre onto its own: Contemporary Ballet. An aspect of this recent discipline is that its dancemakers, more often than not, seek to reorient the viewer by celebrating what could be deemed vulnerabilities, re-construing ideals of perfection, problematizing the marginalized/mainstream dichotomy, bringing audiences closer in to observe, and letting the art become an experience rather than a distant object preciously guarded out of reach. Hence, the practice of ballet is moving to become a less-mediated and more active process in many circumstances. Performers and audiences alike are challenged, and while convention is still omnipresent, choices are being made. For some, this approach has been drawn on for decades, and for others it signifies a changing of the guard, yet however we arrive there, the conclusion is the same: Contemporary Ballet is not a style. That is to say, it is not a trend, phase, or fashionable term that will fade, rather it is a clear period in ballet's time deserved of investigation. And it is into this moment that we enter"--

Dance

Dance PDF Author: DK
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1465407723
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
In styles as diverse as flamenco, czardas, and bangra, dance reflects cultural identity and inspires and energizes individuals and groups. Dance contains everything you need to know about world dance. With lively and colorful presentation, young people will discover the joy of movement from cultures all over the globe.

International Dictionary of Ballet: L-Z

International Dictionary of Ballet: L-Z PDF Author: Larraine Nicholas
Publisher: Saint James Press
ISBN: 9781558621589
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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Book Description
Arranged alphabetically from Adolphe Adam to Jiri Kylian, this reference includes entries on individual artists, individual ballets, and on ballet companies.

Europe Dancing

Europe Dancing PDF Author: Andree Grau
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113469654X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Europe Dancing examines the dance cultures and movements which have developed in Europe since the Second World War. Nine countries are represented in this unique collaboration between European dance scholars. The contributors chart the art form, and discuss the outside influences which have shaped it. This comprehensive book explores: * questions of identity within individual countries, within Europe, and in relation to the USA * the East/West cultural division * the development of state subsidy for dance * the rise of contemporary dance as an 'alternative' genre * the implications for dance of political, economic and social change. Useful historical charts are included to trace significant dance and political events throughout the twentieth century in each country. Never before has this information been gathered together in one place. This book is essential reading for everyone interested in dance and its growth and development in recent years.

Mfab Catalog 2011-2012

Mfab Catalog 2011-2012 PDF Author: Ken Ludden
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1257053779
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
The Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet offers complete education in ballet and related art forms (music, drama and painting) for students who aim to have a professional career in classical ballet or any other type of professional dance. We offer residency and visa support for International students. Students from the United States who do not live in the New York area can also apply for housing through MFAB. The Lower School accepts applicants from ages 8-15, the Upper School accepts applicants from age 16-22. You must audition.

Cranko

Cranko PDF Author: Ashley Killar
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1803132574
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Shortly after the New York Times had hailed John Cranko’s achievement as 'The German Ballet Miracle', his death mid-Atlantic deprived the world of one of its greatest choreographers. After leaving his native South Africa at eighteen, never to return, Cranko quickly became a resident choreographer with the Royal Ballet. He collaborated closely with luminaries such as Benjamin Britten and John Piper and encouraged the young Kenneth MacMillan. Tirelessly innovative, he devised a hit musical revue, Cranks as well as perennial favourites such as Pineapple Poll. His charm and wit endeared him to colleagues and royalty alike, but in the late 1950s his star began to wane. This, and a much-publicised scandal, drove Cranko to leave England for Germany. There, his work as director and choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet enjoyed phenomenal success in USA, Russia and Europe. Fifty years after his tragically early death, Cranko’s story ballets continue to enrich ballet audiences around the world. The author danced in the Stuttgart Ballet’s premieres of Cranko’s Onegin, Romeo and Juliet and many more. He reveals the man behind the masterpieces and explores an array of lesser-known works, bringing to light fascinating facts about the genesis of Cranko’s ballets. Lavishly illustrated with rare photographs, the book contains Cranko’s personal letters and extensive reference material. It brings the reader surprising insights into the life and work of a truly exceptional man of theatre.

The Ballet Lover's Companion

The Ballet Lover's Companion PDF Author: Zoe Anderson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300154291
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
This engaging book is a welcome guide to the most successful and loved ballets seen on the stage today. Dance writer and critic Zoe Anderson focuses on 140 ballets, a core international repertory that encompasses works from the ethereal world of romantic ballet to the edgy, muscular works of modern choreographers. She provides a wealth of facts and insights, including information familiar only to dance world insiders, and considers such recent works as Alexei Ramansky's Shostakovich Trilogy and Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale as well as older ballets once forgotten but now returned to the repertory, such as Sylvia. To enhance enjoyment of each ballet, Anderson also offers tips on what to look for during a performance. Each chapter introduces a period of ballet history and provides an overview of innovations and advancement in the art form. In the individual entries that follow, Anderson includes essential facts about each ballet’s themes, plot, composers, choreographers, dance style, and music. The author also addresses the circumstances of each ballet’s creation and its effect in the theater, and she recounts anecdotes that illuminate performance history and reception. Reliable, accessible, and fully up to date, this book will delight anyone who attends the ballet, participates in ballet, or simply loves ballet and wants to know much more about it.

The Boy from Kyiv

The Boy from Kyiv PDF Author: Marina Harss
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374717494
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and The New Yorker The Boy from Kyiv is the life story of Alexei Ratmansky, the most celebrated ballet choreographer of our time. “A revelatory book about how [Ratmansky] evolved into the internationally sought-after choreographer of the moment . . . A must-read.” — Martha Anne Toll, NPR Alexei Ratmansky is transforming ballet for the twenty-first century. An artist of daring imagination, the choreographer has created breathtakingly original works for the world’s most revered companies. He has fashioned a singular approach to balletic storytelling that bridges the space between narrative and abstraction and heightens ambiguity and surprise on the stage. He has boldly restored great centuries-old ballets to their former glory, combining archival research with his own choreographic genius to retrieve detail and color once lost to the ages. And above all, he is renowned for fusing the Western and Eastern ballet traditions, and for drawing on the visual arts, literature, music, film, and beyond with inspired vim, to forge a style that is vibrant, eclectic, and utterly new: one that promises to leave an indelible mark on this venerable art form. But before Ratmansky was the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, the resident choreographer at American Ballet Theatre, the artist in residence at New York City Ballet, and generally, as The New Yorker has it, “the most sought-after man in ballet,” he was just a boy from Kyiv, sneaking into the ballet at night, concocting his own juvenile adaptations of novels and stories, and dreaming up new possibilities for bodies in motion. In The Boy from Kyiv, the first biography of this groundbreaking artist, the celebrated dance writer Marina Harss takes us behind the curtain to reveal Ratmansky’s fascinating life, from his Soviet boyhood through his globe-spanning career. Over a decade in the making, this biography arrives at a pivotal moment in Ratmansky’s journey, one that has seen him painfully and publicly break ties with Russia, the country in which he made his name, in solidarity with his native Ukraine, and take on a new challenge at the storied New York City Ballet. Told with the lyricism, drama, and verve that befit its subject, The Boy from Kyiv is a riveting account of this major artist’s ascent to the peaks of his field, a mesmerizing study of creativity in action, and a triumphant testament to ballet’s enduring vitality.

Shifting the Scene

Shifting the Scene PDF Author: Ladina Bezzola Lambert
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874138603
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
The title of this collection, Shifting the Scene, adapts words from one of the Choruses in Henry V. Its essays try, without denying authority to the text and the theatre, to widen the scene of inquiry to include other institutions, like education, politics, language, and the arts, and to juxtapose the constructions of Shakespeare and his works that have been produced by them. However, as in Henry V, there is also a geographical dimension. The collection goes beyond England and the English-speaking world and focuses on Europe (including Britain). It brings together 17 essays by leading authorities and promising young scholars in the field