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The World Of Ballet !!!
British Ballet
Two Woman did more than anyone else to bring ballet to Britain. They are Dame Ninette Valois, born in 1898, and Dame Marie Rambert, born in Poland in 1888. Both were dancers at a time when there was no such thing as British ballet, but they have change all that. Marie Rambert, who had been with Diaghilev, started a school in London in 1920. This was the beginning of Ballet Rambert. Ninette de Valois teamed up with another amazing woman, who is in the 1920s was staging Shakespeare and Opera cheaply at London's Old Vic Theatre. Ballet became part of the venture, and when Lilian Baylis reopened Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1931, the Vic-wells (later Sadler) Ballet was born.
Early stars included Alicia Markova, Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann, and choreographer Frederick Ashton. Sadler's Wells Ballet moved to Covent Garden in 1946 and became "Royal" in 1956. Without those two women, British Ballet would not be as famous as it is today............
Russian Ballet
The Russian Revolution, which began in 1917, swept away a great deal, but ballet and the other arts survived. Diaghilev's magnificent company stayed in the West, but standards of dancing in Russia remained as high as ever, and they remain high today. Russian choregraphy, however, has been held back by state control. Too many modren Soviet ballets strong, political messages and uplifting ending. Anything too modren has been frowed upon, Which is the main reason why choreographers and dancers from Balachine to Baryshnikov have left their homeland to seek artistic freedom elsewhere.
There are great companies all over Soviet Union, but the two finest are still the stylish and aristocratic Kirov in Leningrad and Bolshoi in Moscow, where vivid performances and amazing athleticism by the man rule. Both great companies, and lesser ones, give memorable performances of the classics. The most famous modern Russian ballet is Romeo & Juliet, with Prokofiev wonderful music. First performed in Czechoslovakia in 1938, it had its Russian premiere at the Kivor in 1940. The choreographer was Leonid Lavrovsky and the stars, Galina Ulanova and Konstantin Sergeyev. Alas, there are few modern Russian ballet to match the classical ballet........
American Ballet
Ballet is more popular in American than ever before, thanks to a handful of extraordinary figures, the most important of whom George Balanchine. Born in Russian in 1904, he left because his ideal were too advanced for the authorities. After working in Europe, he came to United States in 1934, and he and Lincoln Kirstein founded the School of American Ballet. In 1948 they established the New York City Baller. Over the year, Balanchine choreographed more than 150 ballets for the company. His friendship with his fellow Russian, Igor Stravinsky, resulted in many masterpieces. Balanchine has done more for ballet in the United States than any other person.
America's other great compeny is the American Ballet Theatre, founded in 1939. It concentrares on star performances. it's artists included Makarova and Baryshnikov. Jerome Robbins, who has also worked with Balanchine, and Agnes de Mille are two choreoghaphers who worked with the ABT..
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