Ballet Theatre Research Articles

II. The Identity of Tudor's Dark Elegies as Mediated by Two Dance Companies and Two Technologies

This discussion focuses on the extent to which the essential components of a choreographic work are transmitted in different renderings of it. Tudor's Dark Elegies is observed in performances by two different companies as mediated by film and television. The 1976 American Ballet Theatre (ABT) production of the work is documented in a black and white archival film of a stage rehearsal in which dancers perform in tights and leotards and are accompanied by a piano rendering of the score. The 1974 videotape produced by Swedish television and performed by members of the Royal Swedish Ballet translates Tudor's proscenium work into a television event. The comparative analysis of these two productions addresses (a) variants in the performance of choreographic motifs that were made by Tudor for the two companies, and (b) the perceptual differences arising from the nature of the film record versus the television adaptation. The discussion of film and television interventions in rendering a work conceived for the proscenium stage is of particular relevance at a time when much of western theatrical dance research relies on resources in which the material is transmitted by these media.

Classical ballet technique

In more than 2600 photographs, professional dancers (from such companies as the American Ballet Theatre and the Jaffrey Ballet) demonstrate in sequence every movement in the classical repertoire, from the most basic to the most advanced. Each photograph is accompanied by a text that details appropriate teaching techniques and describes the proper execution of each step. Warren combines the best instructional aspects of several international schools, including Soviet, Danish and English. A glossary defines common dance terms, and a pronunciation guide provides phonetic transcriptions of French ballet terms. A chapter specially for teachers delineates a variety of methods classroom-tested by Warren, a teacher-training expert and former professional dancer with extensive credentials.

What killed Giselle?

century French ballet, we know great deal about the original production of Giselle in June 1841. Cyril Beaumont, in The Ballet Called Giselle, describes the sets and costumes, down to the peacock feather in Albrecht's black velvet barret and the two hundred bullrushes in the Wilis' glade.' Serge Lifar, in his Giselle-Apotheose du Ballet Romantique, furnishes interesting details about the choreography, including the fact that the first Myrtha, Adele Dumilatre, crossed the stage first on her toes, and then, relying on the machinist, engaged in series of flights, darting from a tuft of flowers to branch of the willow tree.2 Ivor Guest, in The Romantic Ballet in Paris, provides wealth of information about the last-minute preparations and the first few performances, including the facts that the orders of the chief machinist could be heard in the house at the premiere and that during the second performance the machinery for Giselle's flight across the stage stuck.3 But we still do not know how the original Giselle died. Did she thrust Albrecht's sword into her body, as she did in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo production of 1938?4 Or did she simply give up the ghost after swooning, brokenhearted, in her mother's arms, as she has done in the American Ballet Theatre

Dancing for Joffrey

Although I began ballet lessons in my hometown of Boston at the age of two, I did not become serious about a career until I was three, when I began studying with Harriet Hoctor, a former Ziegfeld Follies ballerina who was admired by George Balanchine and who appeared in several Hollywood films, including Shall We Dance with Fred Astaire. Before leaving Boston, I also studied with E. Virginia Williams, the founder of the Boston Ballet. In 1954, at the age of sixteen, I was seen in Frederic Franklin's class in New York by Sergei J. Denham, the director of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, who invited me to join the company. I toured with them for four years, eventually attaining the rank of soloist. In the summer of 1957, I was studying with Valentina Pereyaslavec at the Ballet Theatre School. One day, as I was leaving the studio after class, Erik Bruhn passed me on his way in. I immediately turned around and followed him back into the studio, determined to take class with him from whoever was teaching. It was Robert Joffrey, and my life was changed forever. Regularly attending Bob Joffrey's classes at that time, both at the Ballet Theatre School and at his own studio, were well-known Broadway and modern dancers and members of Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and eventually, owing to my enthusiastic recommendation and my obvious improvement, several from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Looking at pictures

L'Apres‐midi d'un Faune: Vaslav Nijinsky 1912. Thirty‐three photographs by Baron Adolf de Meyer with an essay by Jennifer Dunning and contributions by Richard Buckle and Ann Hutchinson Guest. Illustrated. 130 pp. Brooklyn: Dance Horizons, 1983. $29.95. Ballet: George Platt Lynes. Photographs by George Platt Lynes with essays by George Balanchine and George Platt Lynes. Illustrated. 124 pp. Pasadena, Calif.: Twelvetrees Press, 1985. $45.00. Stars of the American Ballet Theatre in Performance Photographs. Stars of the Ballet and Dance in Performance Photographs. By Fred Fehl. Illustrated. 136 pp. 139 pp. New York: Dover, 1984. $8.95 each. Stars of the Contemporary Ballet: 106 Full‐Page Photographs. By Daniel S. Sorine. Illustrated. 107 pp. New York: Dover, 1983. $6.95. Great Ballet Stars in Historic Photographs: 248 Portraits of Dancers, 1855 to 1955. Edited by Parmenia Migel. Illustrated. 138 pp. New York: Dover, 1985. $9.95.

A Nutritional and Hematologic Assessment of Elite Ballet Dancers.

In brief: We studied the nutritional and hematologic status of 22 professional ballet dancers (10 men, 12 women, mean age 25), from American Ballet Theatre by analyzing daily dietary intake and laboratory data including blood vitamin assays. The dancers had law percent body fat. Daily calorie intake was 2,967 ± 667 kcal for men and 1,673 ± 450 kcal for women. Carbohydrate consumption (38% of the total daily calorie intake for men and 50% for women) was too law for efficient energy use. Hemoglobin and red cell indexes were normal, but serum ferritin was below normal in eight women and three men. Serum chemistry values were normal. Blood vitamin assays were normal in all dancers, reflecting widespread use of vitamin supplements. By sports medicine standards, the dancers' law calorie diets were suboptimal for strenuous physical exercise.

Cardiorespiratory responses to ballet exercise and the &OV0312;o2max of elite ballet dancers

Physiologic responses to ballet exercise and VO2max during treadmill running were studied in elite professional ballet dancers (7 men, 8 women; age 20-30 yr) from American Ballet Theatre. Ten dancer were studied during standard 1-h ballet classes consisting of 28 min of barre and 32 min of center floor exercise. Eight dancers performed maximal treadmill running tests yielding VO2max values (ml . min-1 . kg-1) of 48.2 (range 43.8-51.9) for men and 43.7 (range 40.9-50.1) for women. Mean VO2 (ml . min-1 . kg-1) during barre exercise was 18.5 (38% VO2max) for men and 16.5 (38% VO2max) for women; during center floor exercise 26.3 (55% VO2max) for men and 20.1 (46% VO2max) for women, with a peak of 77% VO2max for a male dancer. Mean caloric output values (kcal . kg-1 . min-1) during barre exercise were 0.09 and 0.08 for men and women, respectively, and during center floor exercise 0.13 for men and 0.10 for women, with a peak of 0.18 for one male dancer. Estimated net caloric outputs for the entire ballet class averaged 200 kcal . h-1 for women and 300 kcal . h-1 for men. During barre exercise, HR was below the training sensitive zone (70% HR max) for significant periods of time. Peak HR (beats . min-1) was relatively high during allegro center floor exercise, averaging 178 (92% HR max) and 158 (85% HR max) for men and women, respectively. However, these were maintained for only brief durations similar to sprint or burst activities. We conclude that these physiologic data obtained during ballet class represent only a relatively modest stimulus for augmenting aerobic (VO2max). In conjunction with the strong isometric component in ballet exercise, along with the sprint or burst component of ballet exercise, these factors would produce in elite ballet dancers VO2max values in the range of non-endurance athletes.

Cor de Ballet

Lest, carried away by our imagination, we read into the title "The Heart of a Dancer"¹allusions to a great love affair in the life of a celebrated prima ballerina or a renowned male ballet star, the subtitle promptly reminds us that what it is all about is not romance but "the noninvasive cardiac evaluation of professional ballet dancers." This reminder may come as a bit of a jolt. We are accustomed to viewing dancers as artists in need of appreciation rather than as athletes in need of cardiac evaluation. To assess the effect of ballet training on the heart, Cohen and associates¹compared some basic cardiovascular variables in 30 (15 women and 15 men) American Ballet Theatre dancers with those in 15 matched sedentary control subjects. On the basis of physical examination findings, echocardiography, phonocardiography, and ECGs, they established statistically significant differences. Male dancers, for instance, had

The heart of a dancer: Noninvasive cardiac evaluation of professional ballet dancers

To establish the range of normal cardiovascular variables of professional Ballet dancers and to assess the effect of ballet training on the heart, 30 ballet dancers (15 men and 15 women) from the American Ballet Theatre were studied using physical examination, phonocardiography, electro-cardiography and echocardiography. When compared with 15 sedentary control subjects (8 men and 7 women), male dancers were found to have an increased incidence of the third heart sound (p < 3.01) and female dancers an increased incidence of sinus bradycardia (p < 0.01) and sinus arrhythmia (p < 0.05). Echocardiographic data showed significant increases for dancers compared with control subjects in interventricular septal thickness (men p < 0.05, women p < 0.001), left ventricular posterior wall thickness (p < 0.01), left ventricular end-diastolic internal dimension (p < 0.05) and left ventricular mass index (men p < 0.001, women p < 0.01). The observed pattern of combined left ventricular hypertrophy and increased left ventricular internal dimension is consistent with the mixed isometric-isotonic nature of ballet exercise. It is concluded that, as with athletes, physiologic left ventricular enlargement develops in ballet dancers in proportion to their training and that these persons represent a subgroup of subjects whose heart findings are variants of normal.

American Ballet Theatre — A Chronology, 1959–1964

(1978). American Ballet Theatre — A Chronology, 1959–1964. Dance Chronicle: Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 279-326.

The miraculous reality

Dance Is a Contact Sport. By Joseph H. Mazo. Illustrated, 313 pp. New York: Saturday Review Press/E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1974. $10.95; softcover, DaCapo, $5.95. Dance As Life: A Season with American Ballet Theatre. By Franklin Stevens. Illustrated, 190 pp. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. $10.00; softcover, Discus Books, $2.25. Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet. By Nancy Reynolds. Introduction by Lincoln Kirstein. Illustrated, 358 pp. New York: The Dial Press, 1977. $22.50 Inside American Ballet Theatre. Introduction and Commentaries by Clive Barnes. Illustrated, 184 pp. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1977. $15.00; softcover, $6.95.

Topsy's company

American ballet theatre. Text and commentary by Charles Payne. Illustrated, 380 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978. $39.95.

New Film Catelog American Ballet Theatre: A Close-Up in Time

New Film Catelog American Ballet Theatre: A Close-Up in Time

New Film Catelog American Ballet Theatre: A Close-Up in Time

New Film Catelog American Ballet Theatre: A Close-Up in Time

Political Theatre as Popular Entertainment: The San Francisco Mime Troupe

In the exuberance of revolutionary zeal, it is natural that certain political theatre groups should turn to forms of entertainment associated with fun, with the common man, with people in general regardless of social, economic, or educational status, in contrast with the traditional aristocratic forms that have “artistic” pretensions and tend to be more contemplative than energetic. It is also predictable that such groups should shun ballet, opera, the symphony, and literary theatre, and use instead techniques from commedia dell'arte, circus, puppet shows, music hall, vaudeville, parades, magicians, carnival side shows, buskers, brass bands, comic strips, striptease, melodrama, minstrel shows, and other means of exhilarating celebration.Since the present seemed to hold no answers, it was inevitable that the search by these groups for political theatre forms would turn to the past, a past which, through education and television, had become more accessible than ever before. Such breaks with the present served another purpose as well—they demonstrated a disassociation with the Establishment and its theatre.

Ballet Theatre after Fifteen Years

This year Ballet Theatre celebrates its fifteenth anniversary with a three-weeks' season in April at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. After fifteen years it still remains one of the greatest companies in the world, and if the New York City Ballet has become more widely accepted as America's leading company, there can be no doubt that the influence of Ballet Theatre has been decisive in establishing the popularity of ballet throughout the United States.

REVIEWS OF RECORDS

Journal Article REVIEWS OF RECORDS Get access COPLAND: Billy the Kid (Ballet Suite); SCHUMAN: Undertow, Choreographic Episodes for Orchestra. Ballet Theatre Orch. cond. Joseph Levine. 12“ LP. Capitol P-8382. IRVING FINE IRVING FINE Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Musical Quarterly, Volume XL, Issue 4, October 1954, Pages 622–624, https://doi.org/10.1093/mq/XL.4.622 Published: 01 October 1954

At the Ballet: Americans at Covent Garden

The American Ballet Theatre has held its first London season at that Mecca of every ballet-company outside Soviet Russia, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.Ballet Theatre is, for the most part, a young, long-limbed and eminently adaptable company, presenting the classics with a rather touching wariness and their own creations with zest.

Introducing American Ballet

The six weeks' visit of the American Ballet Theatre to Covent Garden, commencing July 2, is a rare event for balletomanes. The Ballet Theatre has won its place during the war years as the foremost American dancing company, giving lengthy seasons at the Metropolitan Opera House in the spring and autumn, and undertaking important tours in many parts of the United States. It should not be confused with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo or the Russian Ballet Company, both of which have been playing in America since they were last seen in England before the war.