The World of Ballet

2006-01-27T22:59:00.000-08:00

I have been unable to find information about this lovely painting.

2006-01-25T03:03:00.000-08:00

SISTER"Sisters",
http://www.kosorukov.com/portraits2.html
Oil on Canvas, 48" x 36"S

2005-12-22T23:10:00.000-08:00

A Ballet by Tchaikowsky

The Nutcracker Ballet is based on the The Nutcracker and the King of Mice from Tales by Hoffman and although the ballet does not follow the story in much detail the plot is still basically the same.

The story is set in Germany and it is Christmas Time

The Party Scene:

Christmas Eve at the Stahlbaum house -- A large and grand house with the most beautiful tree imaginable. The Stahlbaums are having their annual Christmas party and welcoming the arrival of their family and friends.
The children, Clara and Fritz, are dancing and playing as they welcome their friends too.
Godfather Drosselmeyer who is a skilled clock and toy maker arrives on the scene. Drosselmeyer draws attention as he presents two life-size dolls. They are the delight of the party, each taking a turn to dance.The children begin to open gifts when Drosselmeyer presents his to Clara and Fritz. Clara has a Nutcracker in the form of a soldier. Fritz is immediatly invidious, he snatches the nutcracker from Clara and promptly breaks it. Clara is heartbroken but Drosselmeyer quickly repairs the Nutcracker with a handkerchief he inds round the broken jaw.
As the evening grows late, the guests depart and the Stahlbaum family retires for the evening. Clara, worried about her beloved Nutcracker, tiptoes back to the tree to have another look at him and falls asleep with him in her arms.

The Battle

As the clock strikes midnight strange things begin to happen. The toys around the tree come to life while the room fills with an army of mice, lead by the fierce Mouse King. Nutcracker awakens and leads his army of toy soldiers into battle with the mice. The Mouse King corners Nutcracker and they fight. The Nutcracker seems to be no match for the Mouse King. The Nutcracker and his army can go on no longer and are captured by the mice and their King. Clara in desperation throws her slipper at the Mouse King, hitting him on the head. The Mouse King drops to the floor and the mice scamper off with their leader's lifeless body.

The Land of Snow

The Nutcracker transforms into a handsome Prince and takes Clara on a journey to the Land of Snow, an enchanted forest wonderland where they are welcomed by dancing snowflakes.

The Land of Sweets

The Prince escorts Clara to the Land of Sweets where they are greeted by the Sugar Plum Fairy. The Prince tells her about their daring battle with the army of mice and they have a celebration party. They watch a variety of dances:
The Spanish Dance
The Arabian Dance
The Russian Dance
The Chinese Dance
The Mirliton Dance
The Waltz of Flowers.
As a finale, the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Nutcracker Prince dance a beautiful Pas De Deux.

The Dream Ends

Clara awakens from her dream and finds herself by her Christmas tree with her beloved Nutcracker.

2005-12-22T12:33:00.000-08:00

Marcia Haydeé

Prima ballerina Stuttgart Ballet

by Kevin Ng

Marcia Haydee, the former prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet, is one of the most renowned dramatic ballerinas of the twentieth century. Haydee, now in her early sixties, has maintained her star status for nearly four decades.

In the 1960s the Stuttgart Ballet was under the artistic direction of John Cranko who created a number of full-length dramatic ballets which established the company's reputation. Haydee was his muse, and among her most famous roles are Juliet, Tatiana in "Onegin" and Kate in "The Taming of the Shrew". In Stuttgart Haydee formed a celebrated partnership with her colleague Richard Cragun which lasted for nearly 30 years.

To find out more about Marcia Haydeé go to

http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_01/apr01/interview_marcia_haydee.htm

2005-12-22T12:22:00.000-08:00

Vaclav Nijinsky

1890-1950

Russian ballet dancer and choreographer, celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. Considered among the great male dancers in history, Nijinsky had remarkable technical powers; his grands jetés, for example, created the illusion that he was suspended in midair.Nijinsky was probably born in 1890 in Kiev, where his parents were on tour. His mother, Eleonora Nicolaevna Bereda and his father, Thomas Lavrentievitch Nijinsky were dancers from Poland. They danced in theatres, opera houses, circuses and carnivals throughout the Slavic countries. Vaclav was the middle child. His elder brother, Stanislav, fell out of a window when a child and damaged his brain, as a result of which he became violent and disruptive and had to be institutionalised. His younger sister, Bronislava Nijinska was later to became a famous dancer and choreographer in her own right.In 1950, Nijinsky died in the London Clinic. At his funeral mass at St James', Spanish Place, his pall bearers included Frederick Ashton, Michael Somes, Serge Lifar and Anton Dolin. He was buried in London, but later re-interred at Montmartre Cemetery in Paris.

2005-12-22T04:11:00.000-08:00

Scenes and Costumes designed by SEVASTYANOV for the Ballet SLEEPING BEAUTY

2005-12-22T03:56:00.000-08:00

Scenarios and costumes for the ballet CARMEN by SEVASTYENOV

2005-12-22T03:32:00.000-08:00

IVAN VASILYEVICH SEVASTYANOV was born in 1920 in the village of Bereznyaki in the Saratov Region. He studied Theatre Design and was conferred many important awards.Throughout his creative life Ivan Vasilyevich Sevastyanov produced stage designs for about 200 productionsand also took part in numerous exhibitions.

2005-12-22T03:13:00.000-08:00

Galina Ulanova 1910 - 1998 Kirov Ballet, Bolshoi

Galina Ulanova was born in St Petersburg in 1910. She studied at the Leningrad Choreography School. Graduated in 1928 and danced with the Kirov Ballet until 1944 when she transferred to Bolshoi Theatre.

Her impact on both Russian and Western ballet was enormous. In 1959 she became ballet mistress of the Bolshoi and coached Ekaterina Maximova. She is the winner of many international prizes.She died on March 21, 1998.

2005-12-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

THE STONE FLOWER BALLET by PROKOFIEV

Once upon a time in the heart of the Russian Urals, in a little wooden hut on the edge of a birch forest there lived a man called Danilo and his wife Katya.

Danilo was a gifted stone-cutter and his greatest desire was to create a perfect flower in stone. He felt so strongly about this, that one day he said goodbye to his wife and left home in search of a way of fulfilling this dream. He stayed away for so long that his friends gave up expecting him to come back and said he must have died but Katya wouldn't hear of this and although extremely worried, with great determination she, in turn, set off to search for him.

Danilo's quest took him through many lands until finally he came to the fabulous Copper Mountain, the home of a beautiful Fairy Queen. It was in the strange caves of this mountain that the mysterious and beautiful being showed him her exquisite collection of stone flowers. Impressed by his enthusiasm she offered to teach him the art but as soon as he agreed he fell under her magic spell and from then on his home was in these mountain caves and earthly influences were no longer of consequence to him so that he completely forgot about his wife and little home in the Urals and under this enchantment be became the cleverest stone cutter that had ever lived.

Only Katya had the possibility of freeing her husband from this spell and when after many adventures and perils she eventually found him she was able, but with great difficulty to convince the Queen of the Copper Mountain to let him free, by demonstrating that it was indeed true love that brought her to the mountain so the Fairy Queen broke off the enchantment and Danilo was free to go back home with his wife.

When Danilo returned to his village he immediatly set up a workshop to create and sell his carved flowers: his beautiful flowers of stone, as fresh and life-like just like the flowers growing in the fields. He and Katya had many children and all were taught the intricate techniques that the Queen of the Copper Mountain had taught Danilo, years ago, in the dark caves of the Fabulous Copper Mountain.

Sergey Prokofiev wrote the ballet the Stone Flower based on Bazhov's tale in 1953. He started the work in 1948 finishing it five years later, and it became his final ballet.

2005-12-20T00:12:00.000-08:00

I was very impressed by the first ballet I saw as a small child which was at the London Colesseum where one of my uncles worked. We entered by a side door near the stage and it for me it was like entering into Fairyland.

From then on I was always at the table with pencil and coloured crayons drawing ballerinas on stage with a row of spectators looking on, paying particular attention to the hats and hair styles ( the audience was seen from behind).

Above all else I would like to have been a ballerina.I am not isolated from this world, however, because my son Bruno plays the piano for ballet students in Turin and I sometimes get free tickets and anyway hear all the chit-chat but I have noticed that many young students (apart from those I know personally I belong to various ballet groups and chats on the net) know very little about the Ballet World apart from the exercises they perform in class. They know Nureyev and Swan Lake but not much more. With this Blog then I have few pretentions but would like awake interest in this ethereal and colourful world.

2005-12-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

The Mariinsky Opera and Ballet Theatre (in the Soviet times called the Kirov Theatre) is one of the best classic theatres in the world and the most popular theatre in Russia. Only the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow may compete with it. Indeed, a kind of cold war for popularity between the two giants of dramatic art has been on for many years. Naturally, such a strong competition turned quite beneficiary for the both.

The Mariinsky Theatre foundation is traditionally dated as 1783 .

The vast auditorium with blue velvet chairs is lavishly adored with azure, crystal and gilt decoration. It seats 1.625 people. The most honourable spectators, presidents or governors, sit in the guilt imperial box just in front of the stage.

The Mariinsky Theatre companies, especially the ballet one, have always been formed of nobody but the best from the best. Such famed artists as Istomina, Pavlova, Baryshnikov, Didlot and Semenova danced on the Mariinsky’s stage. In the Soviet epoch the Mariinsky ballet troupe was starred by Galina Ulanova, Natalia Dudinskaya, Irina Kolpakova, Konstantin Sergeyev .

The Russian opera school was as well founded in Saint-Petersburg, the city called “home of the Russian opera”. Mariinsky opera performances are especially popular for staging operas by Araia, Traetta, Sarti, Paisiello, Galuppi, Mozart, Rossini,Verdi, Strauss, Berg and Wagner. Recently, under the present art director Valeriy Gergiev’s creative management, a special attention is paid for works by Russian composers, such as Musorgsky, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov.

It was the Mariinsky Theatre where such masterpieces of classic as "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by Glinka, "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina" by Musorgsky, "Prince Igor" by Borodin, "La forza del destino" by Verdi, many works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Chaikovsky, Prokofiev and Glazunov were premiered. The Theatre was the first in Russia to stage the whole cycle of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen". Many of the great composers themselves watched their works performed on the Mariinsky’s stage.

Season by season Mariinsky Theatre keeps on surprising its audience with exciting, sometimes even scandalous, premieres. Still, the fame of the Theatre is its permanent repertoire which consists of classical ballet and opera performances starred by artists of the highest rank.

2005-12-19T23:04:00.000-08:00

The Bolshoi Theatre Moscow
The company was founded in 1776 and initially gave performances in a private home, but 1780 it acquired the Petrovsky Theatre and began producing plays and operas.
The current building was built in 1825 on the site of the Petrovsky Theatre, which had been destroyed by fire in 1805. It was designed by architect Joseph Bove,
The theatre was inaugurated on 18 January 1825. and initially presented only Russian works, but foreign composers entered the repertoire starting from 1840. A fire in 1853 caused extensive damage but reconstruction was carried out, , and it was reopened in 1856. During World War II, the theatre was damaged by a bomb but was promptly repaired.

The Bolshoi has been associated from its beginnings with ballet, and is home to the Bolshoi Ballet troupe. Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake premiered at the theatre in 1877.

Current status
The main Bolshoi (the "old" one and the primary subject of this article) is currently closed for restoration work.
The New Bolshoi theatre, adjacent to it, continues to stage an extensive repertory of concerts and performances.

2005-12-19T13:52:00.000-08:00

SISTERS
Oil on Canvas by Kosorukov

http://www.kosorukov.com/portraits2.html

2005-12-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

BALLET POSTERS

2005-12-19T04:08:00.000-08:00

MARGOT FONTEYN

Margot Fonteyn was born in Reigate, Surrey, England in 1919. She became the world's greatest ballerina and could have retired when she was 40. But then her association and partnership with Rudolf Nureyev in the 1960s prolonged her fame and she continued dancing until until the age of 58.

2005-12-18T23:13:00.000-08:00

Anna Pavlova was born in St. Petersburg on January 31 1881 and died on January 23 1931

'I always wanted to dance, from my youngest years. I could think of no other future, could not see myself in any other role than that of dancer on a big stage in front of a crowded audience. I wanted to perform for them the perfect beauty of movement, to wait with baited breath and a convulsing heart for their applause. Thus I built castles in the air out of my hopes and dreams, which work was crowned when I was taken for the first time to the Maryinsky Theatre...to a performance of the Sleeping Beauty ...I was so riveted by the spectacle that I sat motionless. I hardly dared to breathe, fearful to break the spell. Then, in the second act, just when many couples were waltzing, I was suddenly tapped on my arm. I was startled, looked about and saw that it was my mother who touched me. My breathless attention had struck her. "Nura", she said, "would you like to be dancing with them?". I said "No, I would rather be dancing there alone, like that sweet Princess" ... When I was eight years old I could no longer keep my aspirations in check, and begged to be allowed to learn to dance'

(translated from Anna Pawlowa, Tanzende Fuesse. Der Weg meines Lebens, Dresden 1928).

2005-12-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

MARKOVA

ALICIA MARKOVA (1910) who was English had one of the most remarkable careers of any dancer living and was for years considered the greatest classical ballerina of the Western world.
At 14 Markova was hired by Diaghilev, as his first and only child-star. She was probably the greatest exponent in the West of the classical repertoire.
People trying to describe her style invariably talk about the extraordinary impression of lightness she gave - the result of course of technique and control gained by years of hard work. She gave "the illusion of moving without a preparation...as if she had no weight to get off the ground" - Merce Cunningham.