Famous Ballerina

For the period of roughly 150 years baroque dance ruled in Europe. Throughout 17 century and half of 18th century baroque dance was tightly connected with baroque music, opera and theater. It would probably be forgotten and totally discarded by next generations if French noble style of the baroque dance did not survive in its new form. We know it as classical ballet.
 

 

French noble style or belle danse appeared in 17th century at the French court of Louis 14. It included the majority of great innovations derived from European baroque dance and, thus, became a stylistic ancestor of classical ballet. During the baroque era French noble style used the same basic technique at social events – in court ballets, theatrical dance and at public theaters. Naturally, in theatrical productions like opera-ballets or big court ballet entertainments it was danced mostly by professional dancers. However, some aristocrats including French king Louis 14 himself experimented with the baroque ballet dance too.
 

 

Modern encyclopedias list the following types of French noble style of baroque dance:

• Bourrée
• Canarie
• Chaconne
• Courante
• Entrée grave
• Forlane
• Gavotte
• Gigue
• Loure (slow gigue)
• Menuet
• Musette
• Passacaille
• Passepied
• Rigaudon
• Sarabande
• Tambourin

Other baroque dance styles are much less well-studied. For example, we don’t know a lot about the Italian and Spanish dances of the baroque period. As time progressed, French ballroom dances such as the sarabande or minuet became so refined that they were widely adopted not just as ballet show but also at fashionable courts.
 

 
We are lucky to have over 300 choreographies left to us in Beauchamp-Feuillet notation comissioned by Louis 14. It was used to record dances for the stage and domestic use throughout the 18th century. Many other historical dance manuals of that period survived as well. This wealth of documents has allowed modern scholars and dancers to recreate French baroque ballet dances. The revival of baroque music in 20th century sparkled renewed interest in baroque dance as well. However, it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that serious scholars began to decipher the notation and reconstruct baroque ballet dances.

In 1992 young ballerina Vera Arbuzova finished the Ballet School in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Talent scouts noticed her and she joined corps de ballet of Boris Eifman Ballet Theater in St. Petersburg. It took only a year and a half for Vera to become a soloist and perform as Mercedes in Don Quixote ballet.

Since that time she performed the leading roles and main parts in many complex ballets. A windfall of awards poured on young ballerina for her exceptional dancing skills. She became an Honored Artist of Russia. Keep an eye on Vera raising through the ranks. Watch her dancing in a leading role in the ballet Red Giselle choreographed by ballet master Boris Ejfman.

 

It is hard to imagine that French ballet would really take off without constant patronage, funding and financial support of King of France Louis XIV called The Sun King. People may view his life and policies negatively but we do not intend to go into that in a simple blog post. There is just one thing we know for sure – Louis loved ballet and ballet dancing.

The Sun King frequently danced in court ballets during the early half of his reign. He danced four parts in 3 of Molière’s comédies-ballets. When Louis danced at court ballets, his performances were accompanied by majestic music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and lyrics that expressed royal power and benevolence of the king. Louis danced as long as he could until he gained weight and could not perform anymore.

Philippe Beaussant the most famous expert on French baroque music created a biography of Jean-Baptiste Lully which served as the basis of the film Le Roi Danse (The King Is Dancing). In the year 2000, Belgian director Gérard Corbiau made a beautiful film which is a must see for any ballet lover and anybody who would like to learn more about history of ballet. This extravagant and this lavish costume drama depicts the rise of the Sun King through the eyes of the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. King’s power and growing influence are presented through the elaborate ballet dance routines.

It took several years for this film to get the English titles, so now it is available to English-speaking audience as well as French. Here is an extract that we found for you. It is in French but it shows some of the best dances in the movie and the birth of the official French ballet.

 

 

 

Legendary French ballerina Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo was born in Brussels in 1710. Marie’s family could hardly make ends meet. Her father of Spanish ancestry, who was earning peanuts as a dance instructor and violinist, trained Marie for stage since her childhood.

Her talents got noticed by the first dancer of Paris Opéra Françoise Prévost. She took Marie under her wing and gave her lessons. The training was so successful that Marie Camargo soon got an engagement as the first ballerina dancer in Brussels and then in Rouen.

Marie became the darling of French ballet audience when she debuted at at the Paris Opera ballet in 1726. Her extraordinary ballet technique truly amazed Parisians. They nicknamed her in awe La Camargo and it sounded higher than any aristocratic title. Every new Parisian fashion had her name; her hair styles were copied by all ladies at king’s court; even her shoemaker made a fortune.

As La Camargo’s fame rose, so were the scandals connected to her name. There was another ballet star in Paris – ballet legend Marie Sallé. And both stars were competitive and enigmatic. Each rival wanted to rule the stage and put sometimes extreme efforts to be above the other. And, surprisingly, this rivalry enriched both of them as Camargo and Sallé achieved new heights in ballet. The stakes for both ballerinas were high which brought to life Voltaire’s satirical quote: “Ah! Camargo. How brilliant you are! But, great gods, how ravishing is also Sallé.”

Marie Camargo led and extravagant life. Aristocratic admirers were fighting for her attention, and showering beautiful ballerina with expensive presents. One of them Louis de Bourbon, Count of Clermont took her away from the stage for five years, from 1736 to 1741. But Marie returned back to Paris Opera and danced for another ten years, without losing an inch of admiration from her audience.

Ballet Changes Introduced by La Camargo

Obviously, Camargo’s adventurous life still enchanted ballet public for another century as brilliant Marius Petipa created a new ballet Camargo based on the incident when Maire and her sister were abducted by the Comte de Melun in 1728. And this ballet The work was later revived in 1901 for the Russian Imperial Ballet with Pierina Legnani played the leading role as Camargo.

Throughout her life La Camargo successfully performed in 78 ballets or operas, always to the delight of the public.  She retired from stage in 1751 and received a generous government pension. Marie died in 1770.

Here is a short list of her innovations and contributions to ballet that does not include her technique and dramatic performance:

• she was the first woman to execute the entrechat quatre.
• she was the first dancer to wear slippers instead of heeled shoes.
• first female to wear the short calf-length ballet skirt, what afterwards became the regulation length.
• first ballerina dancer to wear ballet tights that are now standardized.

 

 

Marie Sallé lived only 49 years but she became one of those brilliant dancers and choreographers who started and continued ballet reforms in the 18th century. Born in humble surroundings in 1707, she began dancing at an early age and at 11 debuted at the comical opera on a simple fair. Marie toured many fairs for several years before she took the stage of Parisian Opéra in 1721. Françoise Prévost, sponsored her debut.

Her success on stage gave her a chance to study in the Académie Royale de Danse, the first dance institution established in the Western world. Marie and her famous future rival Marie Camargo were taught ballet by their famous ballet predecessor, famous ballerina and choreographer Françoise Prévost who also helped to establish the classical ballet.

At that time neither Sallé nor Camargo could not advance rapidly through the ranks as Françoise Provost was still a premiere danseuse in the Paris Opera holding back both ambitious ballerinas. This is why Marie’s initial performances took place in London at at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre where she spent two years honing and polishing her dancing skills.

Ballet Experiments and Scandals

Upon her return to Paris, Marie joined corps de ballet in Opera and was quickly recognized for her talents. Her dancing career took on as well as well as famous rivalry with Marie Camargo. In 1734 caused shock in Parisian audience as she dared during the dances to raise her her fashionably oppressive, skirts above her ankle for more freedom of movement. To outdo Camargo Marie Sallé caused even bigger scandal. She appeared in her own ballet production of Pygmalion with her hair down, wearing only a tunic.

We call Marie Sallé a reformer of the ballet dance for her expressive dramatic performances unusual at that time. Before ballet reforms of Jean-Georges Noverre in the late 18th century she already started choreographic experiments integrating music, costumes, and dance styles of her ballets with their themes. Marie had a firm belief that ballet dances should be natural and expressive, thus, dropping burdensome ornaments and heavy dresses out and replacing them with light muslin ones in her productions.

In 1740 Marie retired from the stage but many of her ballet experiments were adopted by her successors including Noverre and became the part of the classical ballet. She died in 1756.

If you ever ask French people about Yvette Chauviré, they will tell you that she is France’s greatest ballerina ever lived. It is hard not to agree with them as Yvette’s brilliant ballet career spanned from 1937 to 1972. She was born in Paris in 1917 and celebrated her 90th birthday in 2007. For many years she was a true ballet start and prima ballerina at the Paris Opera Ballet. When she retired from dancing Yvette became its artistic director. Through her teaching new talented ballerinas are dancing in Paris Opera Ballet. Among them prima ballerina Sylvie Gulliem – one of the most prominent figures in the history of ballet.

 
French ballerina Yvette Chauviré performs the Dying Swan.

A significant part of ballet terminology is in the French language, because Ballet became formalized in France, thus, a a major part of of ballet terminology is in French. Pirouette is translated into English as a “whirl”. It is an important part of the ballet training when ballerina makes a controlled turn on one leg, starting with one or both legs and rising on pointe.

On this video the art of pirouette is demonstrated during ballet training by Finis Jhung – one of the legendary American ballet instructors. He began teaching ballet lessons since the beginning of the seventies and trained many dancers of New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, aspiring professional ballerinas and amateur adult beginners.

Pirouettes can be executed with a single or multiple rotations. Ballet instructor Jhung shows in normal and slow motion how the non-supporting leg can be held in retiré position, or in attitude, arabesque level or second position. Then the pirouette returns to the starting position or finishes in arabesque or attitude positions.

If you could ask any Russian ballet fan of the 19th who is his favorite male ballet dancer, there would come up only one name – Paul Gerdt.  He spent fifty six years on the ballet stage and performed in the roles of nearly every lead male character of famous Russian ballets.  For his extraordinary ballet technique and dancing Paul Gerdt  received the mot prestigious title of the Premier Danseur of all three significant theaters in the tsarist Russia: the Imperial Ballet, The Bolshoy Kammeny Theater and Mariinsky Theater.

Gerdt had the unusual longevity for any male ballet dancer: he was born in 1844, started performing very young and retired one year before his death in 1917.  Public loved and worshiped him. In addition, to his brilliant career and titles, audience nicknamed him Blue Cavalier.  Admiring public also awarded him with another title: the Prince of Saint Petersburg stage.  This was true enough because Paul Gerdt was the first to dance Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty, and Prince Coqueluche in The Nutcracker.

His mentors and teachers that helped him start his amazing career of a dancer were also the best that Russian ballet could offer.  Gerdt’s first teacher was Alexander Pimenov who himself was a student of the Father of Russian ballet – Charles Didelot.  His next teacher was Jean Petipa, famous ballet dancer, father of probably the second person of importance after Didelot for Russian ballet – Marius Petipa. Old Jean in his youth underwent extensive training by the giant of the French ballet Auguste Vestris.

Paul Gerdt was quite an eccentric, nobody at the theater knew how old he was.  When asked, he would give one and the same response, claiming that he was 23 years old. He excelled not only in dancing but in teaching as well.  He left after himself the whole brilliant team of students among which there were Anna Pavlova, George Balanchine, Michel Fokin, Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky. It is interesting to note that Michel Fokin trained Gerdt’s daughter – great ballerina Elizaveta Gerdt. And Vaslav Nijinsky was Elizaveta’s partner in ballet dancing.

Avdotia Istomina was one of the most famous ballerinas of the Russian ballet in the 19th century. Having said that, I must add that her origin and place of birth remain unknown. My intense web analytics search did not reveal any of her ancestors. Supposedly, she was born in 1799. She was brought to the ballet school by a flutist in an Army orchestra when she was just six years old.  She was the best student of the First ballet master Charles Didelot who managed to pass to her the best techniques, artistic methods and progressive ballet moves and positions.

She debuted in the Russian Imperial Ballet when she was only sixteen.  Charles Didelot was very proud of her. None of his other female dancers appeared on stage as often as Istomina, nor danced as many roles as she did.  For a long time Istomina, as a a prima ballerina had no equal in the Russian and, possibly, European ballet.

All young noble Russian aristocrats  and courtiers were in love with Istomina.  Famous writer Alexander Pushkin dedicated her beautiful lines in Eugene Onegin.  Noblemen were competing for her heart.  These dangerous competitions led to dueling during which several of them were killed.  Among those who died for her was influential young Count Sheremetev. Even Russian famous playwright and diplomat Alexander Griboedov was shot through the palm during one of those dangerous competitions.

The contemporaries describe her as a medium built, well-shaped brunette.  She had black, fiery eyes veiled by long eye-lashes,  great strength in her feet, aplomb on the stage, and together with that, grace. Lightness and speed in movements; her pirouettes and her elevation were astounding.

She was on the peak of her fame when suddenly famous Didelot left the theare after a conflict with theater administration in 1829.  It all went down the hill after Father of Russian ballet left.  Many romantic leading roles were taken away from Istomina and she played older characters on stage as the years rolled by. Her salary was lowered twice and in the end she requested her retirement from ballet and it was officially given to her by the emperor Nicholai I. Her days ended in relative obscurity in 1848.