De La Danse Research Articles

The Arabesque: A compositional design

Nothing can be more agreeable to the eye than those charming positions which we call arabesques, and which we have derived from antique bassorilievos, from a few fragments of Greek paintings, and from the paintings in fresco at the Vatican, executed after the beautiful designs of Raphael, wrote Carlo Blasis in The Code of Terpsichore (1828).' As everyone knows, the pose or body attitude called arabesque is executed in supporting the body on one leg while the other leg is held backward in the air. Eight years before, in his first work, Traite elementaire theorique etpratique de l'art de la danse, Blasis had theorized the arabesque as a body attitude, the first to do so in dance technique. Its meaning, though, was still broad: the free leg could be extended both backward and forward. In the Traite he emphasized, however, that the word arabesque was long since in use with a broader meaning: Nos maitres d'ecole de danse auront aussi introduit dans l'art cette expression, a raison des tableaux ressemblans [sic] aux arabesques de la peinture, par les groupes qu'ils ont forme de danseurs et de danseuses, s'entrelacant de mille manieres, avec des guirlandes, des couronnes, des cerceaux ornes de fleurs, et melanges quelquefois d'instrumens [sic] antiques propres a la pastorale.2

“The memory of dance,” an international conference of dance historians in Barcelona, 1994

The Association Europeenne des Historiens de la Danse (A.E.H.D.) held its annual conference at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, Spain, October 27-30, 1994. Attended by more than 130 participants, mostly from Spain (about sixty-five percent) and other parts of Europe (about twenty-six percent), the conference included presentations on the oral tradition, conventional and peripheral sources, archival work, notation, and the uses of computers and audiovisual technology in historical research. Of the 32 presenters, 9 were from Spain, 8 from the United States, 5 from England, 3 from France, 2 from Canada, and one each from Russia, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, and South Korea. The languages of the conference were Catalan, Spanish, and English, and simultaneous translation was provided throughout. Nelida Mones y Mestre, on the dance faculty of the Institut, was responsible for the excellent local arrangements. As so often with conferences, this one was an assemblage of intense experiences: contacts with old friends and new; a barrage of data, insights, and thoughts from the presentations; impassioned conversations; never enough time; and the physical battle from jet lag to stay awake.

Ballet on British television 1948–1949, part I: Company debuts • teleballets • recitals

By 1948, BBC television had been back on the air for eighteen months after its wartime closure, but like the rest of the country it was still in the grip of austerity. There were an estimated 200,000 viewers, including family groups and their invited friends and neighbors, in an area of some thirty miles radius of the country's sole transmitter, situated in Alexandra Palace in north London. As far as dance was concerned, new developments added variety to the staple diet of repertory ballets, mostly from smaller English companies (discussed in my last article). New in the years 1948 and 1949 were an experimental series called Mirror to Music; appearances on television by the Metropolitan Ballet, the Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo, and Les Etoiles de la Danse; two ballets created especially for

Book Reviews

IRISH FOLK DRAMA. By ALAN GAILEY. The Mercier Press, Cork, 1969. Pp. 104. 8s. 6d. Reviewed by Alex Helm. THE GROWTH OF LITERATURE. By H. Memo CHADWICK AND N. KERSHAW CHADWICK. Cambridge University Press 1932. (Reprinted 1968.) 3 vols. Vol I £5 Vol II £6 Vol III £6 10s. Reviewed by A. C. Percival. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF UKRAINIAN FOLKLORE IN CANADA, 1902–64. Compiled by ROBERT B. KLYMASZ. Ottawa, Ontario: The Queen's Printer, 1969. ‘Anthropology Papers: The National Museum of Canada No. 21.’ Pp. vi + 53, preface, summary. Reviewed by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. THE ANGAMI NAGAS. By J. H. HUTTON. Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. 499. Rs. 40. Reviewed by E. O. James. ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY, Essays in Commemoration of Verrier Elwin. Edited by M. C. PRADHAN, R. D. SINGH, P. K. MISRA, D. B. SASTRY, Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. 328. 69s. Reviewed by E. O. James. LORE AND LANGUAGE: The Journal of the Sheffield Survey of Language & Folklore. No. 1, July, 1969. Edited by J. D. A. Widdowson. Department of English Language, University of Sheffield. 2S.6d. Reviewed by Theo Brown. CHILDREN'S GAMES IN STREET AND PLAYGROUND. IONA and PETER OPIE. Oxford, 1969. Pp. xxvi. 343 p. 40s. Reviewed by A. W. Smith. BEITRÄGE ZUR DEUTSCHEN VOLKS- UND ALTERTUMSKUNDE, vol. 13. Hamburg (Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte), 1969. Pp. 140, Plates 5. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger. A SOCIAL HISTORY OF TRADITIONAL SONG. By REGINALD NETTEL. (First Published in 1954 under the title Sing a Song of England, ‘Documents of Social History’ Series, Editor Anthony Adams.) Adam and Dart, Phoenix House, London 1969. Musical illustrations, index. Pp. 182. Reviewed by Lucile Armstrong. SONG, DANCE AND POETRY OF THE COURT OF SCOTLAND UNDER KING JAMES VI. By HELENA MENNIE SHIRE, with musical illustrations of Court-song edited by Kenneth Elliott, Cambridge, at the University Press, 1969. Pp. xii, 286. Plates, Map, Bibliography. £6. Reviewed by Margaret Dean-Smith. LA CONTREDANSE ET LES RENOUVELLEMENTS DE LA DANSE FRANÇAISE — JEAN MICHEL GUILCHER. Paris, 1969. Reviewed by Violet Alford. FENLAND MEMORIES, By ARTHUR RANDELL. Edited by Enid Porter. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969. Pp. 108. Plates 14. 218. Reviewed by Theo Brown.