The Ballets Russes was only one of the few collaboration with artists that Diaghilev had produced. Paris had proven to be the perfect soil for Diaghilev to plant his artistic vision in, and it is the aim of this essay to illustrate the significance of Paris and its social and cultural effect on the work, ideas and strategies of Sergei Diaghilev had his Ballets Russes. Diaghilev started working for the Imperial Theatre in Russia in 1900 and together with fellow art critic and stage designer Alexandre Benois concocted an extravagant performance which startled the established personnel of the Imperial Theatre. It caused his expulsion from the theatre and was subsequently frowned upon as a social stigma by the nobilities, partly due to Diaghilev’s homosexuality. Paris, where artists from all over the world flocked to, was in the peak of an artistic innovation and expression.
Soon, Kirkland became a favorite of Balanchine who went on to choreograph a production of his 1949 Firebird for her. Balanchine became sort of like a father figure to her, but when he belittled her ballet idols such as Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn they had a falling out and quit speaking. In 1970, Kirkland was promoted to soloist and then principal dancer in 1972. While in the New York City Ballet she performed a variety of leading roles in their repertory, including Concerto Barocco, The Cage, Irish Fantasy, Symphony in C, La Source, Theme and Variations, Tarantella, Harlequinade, The Nutcracker and Dances at a Gathering. In 1974, Kirkland was asked by Mikhail Baryshnikov to join him as a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater (ABT).
At first when he signed on to do The King and I he was under the impression that “he only had to do (that) one ballet” (Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theatre, His Dance, pg 46) but he did end up choreographing many other dance sequences like “Getting to Know You” or “The March of the Siamese Children”. “Robbins planned the scene to delight both Anna and the audience. Some carry out their duties in exemplary fashion, which highlighted the different ones and the tiniest provide a high degree of adorable and some concern they’ll screw up” (Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theatre, His Dance, pg
ALICIA ALONSO Cuba is known for Castro, Cuban cigars, and communism. But thanks to the talent of Alicia Alonso, it is also a world-renowned center for ballet. When Alonso was born in the early 1920s there was no ballet school or professional company in Cuba. Instead she traveled to New York City, Russia, Spain, and Monte Carlo to dance, eventually becoming arguably the most popular and admired ballerina in the 20th Century. Despite a lifelong struggle with failing vision and the political conspiracy that have defined post-revolutionary Cuba, Alonso returned to her beloved land and founded the Ballet Nacional de Cuba and created the island's first dance school.
She later changed her name to Fanny Brice and got her first professional job in the chorus of The Talk of the Town but ironicely she got fired during rehearsals by the big current star George M. Cohen. Young Fanny was a strong fighter and didn't give up her dream of entertaining. She then finally landed a spot in The Trans-atlantic Burlesquers where she did an Irving Berlin song, "Sadie Salome, Go Home." She did this in a Yiddish dialect seeing that she looked the way she did. Although she was not Jewish, she quoted " In anything Jewish I ever did, I wasn't standing apart making fun.
The first time George Balanchine danced was as a cupid in the Maryinsky Theatre Ballet Company Production of The Sleeping Beauty, his favorite ballet (“George Balanchine”). He later joined the company as part of the corps de ballet at age seventeen. Balanchine
Ballet Theatre offered him a smorgasbord of roles, including the occasional turn as a classical cavalier but generally in dramatic or comic assignments. He worked under Mikhail Fokine, Leonide Massine, Anton Dolin, Antony Tudor, and Agnes de Mille. Within two years he was allowed to portray the role of Petrouchka in Fokine’s popular ballet and succeeded Leonide Massine as the Gypsy dancer in “Capriccio
In 1907 she began a composition course at the Royal College of Music, where she was Stanford’s first female student. Again, she was unable to finish her studies, as her father suddenly banished her from the family home. In order to support herself, she had active performance as a violist. In 1912 she became one of the first female musicians in a fully professional (and formerly male) ensemble, when Henry Wood admitted her to the Queen’s Hall orchestra. Clarke’s music spans a range of 20th-century styles including Impressionism, post-Romantic, and neo-Classical.
Her father was very interested in the way people used their bodies, an interest that inspired her daughter. In only seven years, Graham went from a dance student, to a teacher, to one of the best-known performers of all time. In these seven years, she probably had the expert hours of 10,000 hours, which according to Gladwell would make her an outlier. Many of her dances came from past history and history that was surrounding her. Many outliers got their ideas and thoughts on the outside history that was surrounding them as well.
Burlesque was often used to mock famous and well known classical theatre productions, such as ballet, which is a show seen by the upper class of the time. Burlesque performances where based on opera and ballet pieces but were adapted to be made more like a comic play or a musical play by using quotes from the originals and making them funny, almost taking the mickey out of the upper class. Parts of the history of Burlesque that I want to relate to our choreography is how it has never been taken very seriously and its having fun on stage, showing off and showing something about your personality to the audience. I think to have a successful showcase of