BELL RINGER – 2/13 M.Socrative.com – Room 38178

Questions:1. Who wrote the Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets? (the

answer is in your music notes...)

Multiple choice on the devices!!

You CAN use cell phones for the bell ringers, but after that they MUST be put up (tablets too!)

ROMANTIC DANCEBallet

ROMANTIC DANCE Known as the “Golden Age of Ballet”

Turned against neoclassicism

Subjective viewpoint and feeling sought attention

The music is written first, dance written to fit It was the opposite in the Classical Period

THEOPHILE GAUTIER The writings of Gautier (1811-1872)

Gautier was a poet and critic who believed that dance was visual stimulation to show “beautiful forms in graceful attitudes.”

Dancing, for Gautier, was like a living painting or sculpture – “physical pleasure and feminine beauty.”

In Romantic ballet, male dancers were reassigned to the background, females were the lead They could do more

CARLO BLASIS Blasis (1803-1878) wrote the “Code of Terpsichoro”

His principles covered training, structure, and positioning

Everything in ballet required a beginning, a middle, and an ending

Dancers needed to display the human figure with taste and elegance

THE FIVE POSITIONS OF BALLET

The “beginnings” and “endings” of each move

Invented in the Baroque period by Beauchamp

1.

2.

3.

4.5.

EN POINTE Comes from the classical idea

Developed from the desire for dancers to appear weightless

Literally means “on the tip”

Special shoes called “pointe shoes” or “toe shoes”

Both men and women can dance en pointe, but most commonly performed by women

EN POINTE Can cause foot

deformities if started too early (usually age 10 at the earliest)

Blisters, boils, athlete’s foot, cuts, and bleeding are to be expected

EN POINTE

EN POINTE - INJURIES

ROMANTIC BALLET Choreographers of romantic ballet sought magic and

escape in fantasies and legends

Ballets about elves and nymphs enjoyed great popularity, as did ballets about madness, sleepwalking, and dreamsTaglioni’s La Sylphide: about how a man leaves his fiance for

a mythical creature, but encounters a witch who curses her to death

Taglioni’s The Revolt in the Harem: wives revolt against their oppressors with the help of ‘the spirit of womankind’

TWO RUSSIAN BALLETS Influence Western dance – Ballet as we know it today

Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Swan LakeThe Nutcracker (1892)Swan Lake (1877)

Swan Lake popularized the fouette, or whipping turn.The star of Swan Lake dances 32 consecutive fouettes –

mandatory!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOdE0P7K0HM

THE NUTCRACKERWe’ll study, watch, and listen to parts of the

Nutcracker today.

(We’ll do Swan Lake tomorrow)

THE NUTCRACKER 2 Act Ballet

Music by TchaikovskyThe story is based of Hoffman’s story “The Nutcracker and

the Mouse King.”

Premiered in St. Petersburg on Sunday Dec. 18th, 1892Always performed around Christmas time because the ballet

takes place at Christmas

THE NUTCRACKER Today, American ballet companies generate about 40%

of their annual ticket revenue from performances of the NutcrackerLOTS of people go see it around the holidays It’s a tradition for a lot of families

(UofL does “Clara’s Dream” EVERY YEAR to a PACKED house!)

THE NUTCRACKER What is it about?

GENERAL SYNOPSIS – ACT 1 It’s Christmas Eve

Main character: Clara

Clara’s godfather, a toy maker, gives her a nutcracker that she takes a liking to. Fritz, her sibling, purposely breaks it and Clara is heartbroken.

GENERAL SYNOPSIS – ACT 1 Once everyone goes to sleep, Clara gets up to check

on her beloved Nutcracker.

Suddenly, mice begin to fill the room and the Nutcracker grows to life-size (some interpret this as her dreaming, others say the godfather is a magician and shrinks her)

The Nutcracker and his army of toys are fighting an army of Mice led by the Mouse KingThe mice start eating the gingerbread soldiers

GENERAL SYNOPSIS – ACT 1 As the Mouse King goes to attack the wounded

Nutcracker, Clara throws a shoe at him which distracts him long enough to get stabbed by the Nutcracker

The Nutcracker transforms into a handsome prince

GENERAL SYNOPSIS – ACT 2 Clara and the Prince go to the Land of Sweets (where

the Prince is apparently from)

Clara is showered in sweets from all around the world

During the final waltz, Clara and the Prince are crowned rulers of the Land of Sweets

WATCH – THE NUTCRACKER Battle Scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEbobwxU4OU

RECOGNIZABLE MUSIC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8J8urC_8Jw

The music is used a LOT in popular culture – movies, commercials, tv shows, concert performances, etc. Some of the most recognizable classical music EVER! Marche Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Trepak (Russian Dance) Arabian Dance Chinese Dance Reed-Flutes Waltz of the Flowers

(You will NOT need to recognize these for the test because there’s so many of them – but you should be familiar with them!!!)

CARTOONS Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy: http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8At8zfh_o3E

Arabian Dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxVWlqcpeTg