Preview

Dance Appreciation

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
405 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dance Appreciation
Introduction
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev commonly known as Serge outside Russia, was a Russian promoter, ballet impresario and art critic. He was the founder and patron of the Ballets Russes, which is credited with producing many famous dancers and choreographers.
Sergei is remembered all over the world as one of the greatest ballet personalities that have ever lived. He was born on March 31, 1872 in Russia in an affluent family with a history in music. He initially studied law at the University of St. Petersburg but would later take singing lessons. However, he never was a big success as a singer as his voice was unpleasant. Though he neither composed nor choreographed, he was extremely able to pick those who had the talent. He died on August 19, 1929 having left an indelible imprint in the world of music and dance.
Contributions
Sergei cofounded and edited the World of Art, an art magazine, which became extremely popular to the lovers of art in his day. He also edited the Annals of the Imperial Theatre and transformed it, taking it a notch higher in terms of graphic design and typography though he is criticized for overrunning his budget. However, these two magazines remained very popular in the world of art during his tenure as the editor.
His greatest brainchild, Ballets Russes, became instrumental in popularizing ballet throughout Europe. It is through this group’s productions that ballet became a fundamentals part of the European culture. Apart from popularizing the dance, the group brought into recognition some of the greatest choreographers the world has ever seen- Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, Nijinska, and Balanchine. The composer Stravinsky was also virtually unknown and has Sergei to thank for making his genius known to the world.
Conclusion
Though Sergei was equally successful in collecting and exhibiting art and his ability to recognize talent in a painter was no less than in recognizing a talent in ballet, his greatest achievements will no

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Beginning the second part of the article with “The Corporate Model of Developing Art”, Steinberg compares modern artists to engineers and research technicians because they are often presented tasks or problems that require solutions. The strength of an artist is…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a small town and how his path that he carried ‘til this day made him the king of Broadway today. Through his deepest anxiety and not fitting in the American dream, his compassion made it big in ballet and Broadway. With his passion and determination, he was known for his unique and imaginative choreography. Through sweat and tears, he was a choreographer at New York City of Ballet, Ballet U.S.A, American Ballet Theatre, and many other international companies.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Queensland Ballet Essay

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This ballet school made its first appearance in 1960 when Charles Lisner OBE established it as the Lisner Ballet Academy. Two years later it was re-named to its current name - Queensland Ballet. Charles was the artistic director of the academy between 1960 and 1974. He was born in 1928 and lived until he unfortunately died of cancer at age 60. In his life, he studied ballet in Australia and England. After he completed his studies of ballet, he moved to Queensland to establish this amazing ballet academy.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The founder and Ballet Master of the New York City Ballet. The father of American ballet. The best choreographer of the twentieth century. George Balanchine carries all these impressive titles and more, yet still, almost no one today knows his name. He was the unseen puppeteer of the NYCB, the man who was admired but unknown. Those lucky dancers he trained went on to become the biggest ballet stars of their time, and his beautiful dances were and are still performed all over the world, yet most of the people who watch them have no idea who the genius was who made them. George Balanchine was and still is the star of the ballet world, the man who breathed life…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    George Balanchine was born January 22, 1904, Saint Petersburg, Russia. His dad was a composer. He studied piano growing up he want to join the military. But at the age of 10 he join Imperial Ballet School he learned athletic russian dancing styles. After the russian revolution he was training in a government theater. He went to the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music to study piano but still in ballet at State Academy of Opera and Ballet…

    • 77 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dance 101

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As a group, sit down to brainstorm, discuss and decide upon a social or political issue that you want to explore through movement. Examples of social/political issues are: homelessness, oppression, environmental issues, corporate avarice, racism, domestic violence, racial profiling, but there are many, many issues that can be explored in addition to those mentioned above. You may wish to bring in source material (a photograph, a poem/song, a painting, news clip, a personal story, etc., related to the social/political issue. Using the source material as a starting point, independently create a phrase of movement for yourself that is 32 counts in length utilizing at least 8 of the movement elements listed below. In groups, using your individual phrases as a starting point, combine, manipulate and abstract your phrases, adding formal elements, to create a dance composition. The composition should be between 3-4 minutes long. You may set your dances to recorded music, a sound collage of your own creation or they may utilize text (pre-recorded or spoken in performance). Silence is also an option. Try to avoid music with lyrics that describe your issue. You should aim to explore and portray your topic through movement, sound and/or text. You may also incorporate props, or costumes if these seem crucial to the performance of your dance composition.…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    George Balanchine was not in the business to prove anything to anyone. Dance was his passion. His coworkers could see it in his presence. Stravinsky, a renowned composer, describes his collaboration with George, “Balanchine composed the choreography as he listened to my recording, and I could actually observe him conceiving gestures, movement, combinations, and composition. The result was a series of dialogues perfectly complimentary to and coordinated with the dialogues of the music.” He did not want his dance to be about the extra fluff but rather the raw talent of a cohesive group. Although George Balanchine is no longer on this earth, his legacy lives…

    • 107 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sergei Vassilievich Rachmaninoff was born on April 1st, 1873 in Semyonovo, Russia on an estate owned by his grandparents that bordered Lak Ilmen. Sergei was born into an experienced military family. His grandmother, Arkady, was a retired army general and a cadet school teacher, his father, Vasily, a retired army officer, and his mother, Lubov, the daughter of an army general. Sergei also had two sisters, Yelena and Sofia. Both of Sergei’s parents were amateur pianists, and at a young age it was his mother who gave him his first lessons. After realizing their son was talented, they hired Anna Ornatskaya, a St. Petersburg musician who would give Sergei lessons for the next three years. These expensive lessons ended when his father caused massive financial debts for their family, ultimately leading to their last estate, Oneg, to be sold at an auction in 1882. To get away from Semyonovo, the Rachmaninoff’s moved to St. Petersburg where Sergei was granted a scholarship by the local conservatory. Unfortunately, harsh times…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Despite dance being the primary subject, it is necessary to note the orchestra’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s compositions. The orchestra consisted…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dance History Review

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. How did the Ballet Russe under the Russian director, Diaghilev, break from the ballet traditions of Russian ballet in the early 20th century? What were the existing ballet traditions at the end of the 19th century in Russia and what new innovations were made in ballet by BR?…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    female dancers. In the age of neo-classical dance he forged a new path for female dancers,…

    • 6018 Words
    • 25 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In 1909 Sergei and Diaghilev created the Ballets Russes and it was phenomenal. The company started with strong Russian formal tradition and attitude. In addition, in the 19th century a lot started to get even more interesting. For example in 1913, Nijinsky, a choreographer created a new ballet dance known as “The Rite of Spring”. This dance became surprisingly exiting because its name had the audience fighting and acting in all types of irrelevant ways. The 19th century was an actual revival and expansion of the Russian ballet dance form for it’s major final hit of the Ballets Russes was in 1921 and 1922 with Petipa’s version of the sleeping beauty.…

    • 1182 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rudolf Laban (1879-1953) was born in Austro-Hungary. Laban became interested in the relationship between the moving human form and the space which surrounds it. He was a dancer, a choreographer and a dance / movement scholar. Laban was the first person to develop community dance and he set out to reform the role of dance education, emphasizing his belief that dance should be made available to everyone.…

    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sergei Rachmaninoff

    • 2523 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was born April 1st, 1873 in Semyonovo, Russia and can be classified as a Russian-American composer, pianist and conductor. While his reputation as a composer only came later in life, Rachmaninoff 's skill as pianist was well-known and highly respected. He was one of the greatest pianists of his generation, having legendary technical facilities and rhythmic drive, and his large hands were able to cover a thirteenth interval on the piano (a distance requiring a hand span of approximately twelve inches) (Wikipedia, 2006). Like most artists, Rachmaninoff endured periods of extreme mental depression and also had to suffer the strain of leaving his own native country in which he emigrated to American at the height of his fame, due to the Russian Revolution of 1917. His life was one of comparative stability in the history of Russian and American music. In him, there were none of the emotional complexities of Tchaikovsky or Scriabin, yet there were contradictions of his personality. Audiences, who observed him for the first time, were amazed to see that such a cool outward appearance could conceal the warmth of feeling of his piano playing. It was only in his music, both as a pianist and composer, that he was able to release his inner emotions (Norris, 1976). It is with this inner passion, that Rachmaninoff was able to create an abundant amount of imaginative and innovative music.…

    • 2523 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    What Is Art for Me?

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Art has been created by all people at all times; it lives because it is liked and enjoyed. Art involves personal experiences of an individual accompanied by some intensity of emotion. Art is made of man, no matter how close it is to nature. Although each work of art is evidently the expression of an artists’ personal thoughts and feelings it may be inferred that, like any other individual, he belongs to a million, and he cannot free himself from the influence of his social, economic, political, cultural, geographic, scientific, and technological environment.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays