OCTOBER Hispanic Heritage Month Italian Heritage Month BALLET
OCTOBER Hispanic Heritage Month Italian Heritage Month
BALLET ITALY ORIGINS • Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15 th century: • Noblemen and women were treated to lavish events: wedding celebrations, where dancing and music created an elaborate spectacle. • Dancing masters taught the steps to the nobility, and the court participated in the performances. • In the 16 th century, Catherine de Medici: • an Italian noblewoman, wife of King Henry II of France; great patron of the arts — began to fund ballet in the French court. • Her elaborate festivals encouraged the growth of ballet de cour, a program that included dance, decor, costume, song, music and poetry. • A century later, King Louis XIV helped to popularize and standardize the art form: • 1661 a dance academy had opened in Paris • 1681 ballet moved from the courts to the stage. • By the mid-1700 s French ballet master Jean Georges Noverre rebelled against the operaballet, believing: • that ballet could stand on its own as an art form. • that ballet should contain expressive, dramatic movement that should reveal the relationships between characters — introduced the ballet d’action, a dramatic style of ballet that conveys a narrative.
BALLET 19 th CENTURY • Early classical ballets such as Giselle and La Sylphide were created during the Romantic Movement in the first half of the 19 th century: • This movement influenced art, music and ballet- concerned with the supernatural world of spirits and magic and often showed women as passive and fragile. • These themes are reflected in the ballets of the time and are called romantic ballets. • This is also the period of time when dancing on the tips of the toes, known as pointe work, became the norm for the ballerina. The romantic tutu, a calf-length, full skirt made of tulle, was introduced. • The popularity of ballet soared in Russia, and, during the latter half of the 19 th century, Russian choreographers and composers took it to new heights. • Marius Petipa’s The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, by Petipa and Lev Ivanov, represent classical ballet in its grandest form. • The main purpose was to display classical technique — pointe work, high extensions, precision of movement and turn-out (the outward rotation of the legs from the hip)—to the fullest. • Complicated sequences that show off demanding steps, leaps and turns were choreographed into the story. • The classical tutu, much shorter and stiffer than the romantic tutu, was introduced at this time to reveal a ballerina’s legs and the difficulty of her movements and footwork.
BALLET TODAY • In the early part of the 20 th century, Russian choreographers Sergei Diaghilev and Michel Fokine began to experiment with movement and costume, moving beyond the confines of classical ballet form and story: • Diaghilev collaborated with composer Igor Stravinsky on the ballet The Rite of Spring, a work so different —with its inharmonious music, its story of human sacrifice and its unfamiliar movements — that it caused the audience to riot. • Choreographer and New York City Ballet founder George Balanchine, a Russian who emigrated to America, would change ballet even further: • He introduced what is now known as neo-classical ballet, an expansion on the classical form. He also is considered by many to be the greatest innovator of the contemporary “plotless” ballet. • With no definite story line, its purpose is to use movement to express the music and to illuminate human emotion and endeavor. • Today, ballet is multi-faceted: Classical forms, traditional stories and contemporary choreographic innovations intertwine to produce the character of modern ballet.
FLAMENCO • Native to Spain: regions of Andalusia, Extremadura and Murcia. SPAIN • Flamenco includes: • • • cante (singing) toque (guitar playing) baile (dance) jaleo (vocalizations) palmas (handclapping) pitos (finger snapping) • First mentioned in literature in 1774, the genre originates in Andalusian music and dance style • Flamenco is strongly associated with the gitanos (Romani people of Spain)—but, unlike Romani music, the style is distinctively Andalusian and the fusion of the various cultures of southern Spain is clearly noticeable in Flamenco music. • The most widespread highlights a Morisco heritage, the ethnic and cultural melting pot that was Andalusia during the early modern period (locals, Moors, Castilian settlers, Romanis, Jews etc. . ) fostering its development over time. • Flamenco music, as a theatrical representation of Andalusian musical tradition, was first recorded in the late 18 th century but the genre underwent a dramatic development in the late 19 th century. • Flamenco has become popular all over the world and is taught in many non-Hispanic countries, especially United States and Japan. In Japan, there are more flamenco academies than there are in Spain
• El baile flamenco is known for its emotional intensity, proud carriage, expressive use of the arms and rhythmic stamping of the feet. • In the twentieth century, flamenco danced informally at gitano celebrations in Spain was considered the most "authentic" form of flamenco. • The arms are noticeably different from classical flamenco, curving around the head and body rather than extending, often with a bent elbow. • "Flamenco puro" is considered the form of performance flamenco closest to its gitano influences: • In this style, the dance is always performed solo, • Improvised rather than choreographed • Some purists frown on castanets. • "Classical flamenco" is the style most frequently performed by Spanish flamenco dance companies: • exhibit more clearly the characteristics derived from the Seguidilla, a traditional Spanish dance. • It is danced largely in a proud and upright way. • For women, the back is often held in a marked back bend. • Unlike the more gitano influenced styles, there is little movement of the hips, the body is tightly held and the arms are long, like a ballet dancer. • Many of the dancers in these companies have trained in ballet as well as flamenco. Flamenco has both influenced and been influenced by ballet, as evidenced by the fusion of the two created by 'La Argentinita' in the early part of the twentieth century and later, by Joaquín Cortés.
• In the 1950 s Jose Greco-one of the most famous male Flamenco dancers, was performing on stage worldwide and on television including the Ed Sullivan Show, and reviving the art form: • Modern flamenco is a highly technical dance style requiring years of study. • The emphasis for both male and female performers is on lightning-fast footwork performed with absolute precision • The dancer may have to dance while using props such as castanets, shawls and fans. • “Flamenco nuevo" is a recent style in flamenco, characterized by: • cut-down costumes (the men often dance bare-chested, and the women in plain jersey dresses) • props such as castanets, fans and shawls are rarely used. • dances are choreographed and include influences from other dance styles. • The flamenco most foreigners are familiar with is a style that was developed as a spectacle for tourists: • To add variety, group dances are included and even solos are more likely to be choreographed. • The lacey, fancy, huge spotted dresses are derived from a style of dress worn for the Sevillanas at the annual Feria in Seville. • In traditional flamenco, young people are not considered to have the emotional maturity to adequately convey the duende (soul) of the genre: • Therefore, unlike other dance forms, where dancers turn professional early to take advantage of youth and strength • Many flamenco dancers do not hit their peak until their thirties and will continue to perform into their fifties and beyond.
CUMBIA COLOMBIA • The Central American State of Columbia is credited with the origins of Cumbia music and dance. • It began as a courtship dance practiced among the African population on the Caribbean coasts of Colombia: • It was later mixed with Amerindian and European instruments, steps and musical characteristics • Spread throughout Latin America and abroad. • Cumbia music is sometimes called the mother of all Latin music: • It is said to have predated and influenced other types of Latin music including Salsa. • Listening to Cumbia, we can hear elements of Salsa and Samba and in this sense Cumbia is a bridge between Salsa and Samba music. • The Columbian folkloric form known as Gaitero dates back to the early 1880 s. • The initial instruments used in playing of this genre of Cumbia included flutes (gaitas), maracas and African drums. • As the music evolved, bands began to use the guitar, clave, accordion, bass guitar and various electronic musical instruments. • While other genres of Latin American music have remained associated with specific countries or regions: • Cumbia has grown to be one of the most widespread and unifying musical genres to emerge from Latin America. • Today, Cumbia is popular in all Central American states and beyond - from as north as Mexico and as south as Argentina-It is becoming a popular in North America as an alternative or as a companion to Salsa music.
• By the 1940 s Cumbia began spreading from the coast to other parts of Colombia alongside other costeña form of music like porro and vallenato. • Clarinetist Lucho Bermúdez helped bring cumbia into the country's interior. By the 1950 s cumbia was migrating across Colombia's northern and southern borders: • First to Ecuador and Peru, then Mexico and Argentina, and eventually into the rest of Spanishspeaking Central and South America. • The early spread of cumbia internationally was helped by the number of record companies located on the coast: • Originally a working-class populist music, cumbia was frowned upon by the elites, but as the music pervaded class association with the music subsided in Colombia and cumbia became a shared music in every sector of society. • Today, the best representation of traditional Cumbia is shown every year on the Festival de la Cumbia in El Banco, Magdalena
TANGO ARGENTINA • Partner dance that originated in the 1880 s along the River Plate, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. (The dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. ) • Tango is a dance that has influences from African and European culture: • Dances from the candombe ceremonies of former slave peoples helped shape the modern day Tango. • The music derived from the fusion of various forms of music from Europe. • The word "tango" and "tambo" around the River Plate basin were used to refer to musical gatherings of slaves, with written records of colonial authorities attempting to ban such gatherings as early as 1789.
In the early years of the 20 th century: • dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires travelled to Europe, and the first European tango craze took place in Paris. • Towards the end of 1913 it hit New York City (United States), and Finland. In the US around 1911 the word "tango" was often applied to dances in a 2/4 or 4/4 rhythm • Tango music was sometimes played, but at a rather fast tempo. Instructors of the period would sometimes refer to this as a "North American tango", versus the so-called "Argentine Tango". • By 1914 more authentic tango stylings were soon developed • In Argentina, the onset in 1929 of the Great Depression, and restrictions introduced after the overthrow of the Hipolito Yrigoyen government in 1930 caused tango to decline. • Its fortunes were reversed as tango became widely fashionable and a matter of national pride under the government of Juan Peron. • Tango declined again in the 1950 s as a result of economic depression and the banning of public gatherings by the military dictatorships; male-only Tango practice—the custom at the time—was considered "public gathering". • Argentine, Uruguayan, and Ballroom Tango use very different techniques: • In Argentine and Uruguayan tango, the body's center moves first, then the feet reach to support it. • In ballroom tango, the body is initially set in motion across the floor through the flexing of the lower joints (hip, knee, ankle) while the feet are delayed, then the feet move quickly to catch the body, resulting in snatching or striking action that reflects the staccato nature of this style's preferred music.
• In tango, the steps are typically more gliding, but can vary widely in timing, speed, and character, and follow no single specific rhythm. • dance is led and followed at the level of individual steps, these variations can occur from one step to the next. • This allows the dancers to vary the dance from moment to match the music (which often has both legato(tied together) and/or staccato (detached) elements) and their mood. • The Tango's frame, called an abrazo or "embrace, " is not rigid, but adjusts to different steps, and may vary from being quite close, to offset in a "V" frame, to open: • The flexibility is as important as is all movement in dance. • The American Ballroom Tango's frame is flexible too, but experienced dancers frequently dance in closed position: higher in the elbows, tone in the arms and constant connection through the body. • When dancing socially with a beginners, it may be better to use a more open position because the close position is too intimate for them. • In American Tango open position may result in open breaks, pivots, and turns which are quite foreign in Argentine tango and International (English) tango. • There is a closed position as in other types of ballroom, but it differs significantly between types of tango. • In Tango from the River Plate region, the "close embrace" involves continuous contact at the full upper body, but not the legs. • In American Ballroom tango, the "close embrace" involves close contact in the pelvis or upper thighs, but not the upper body. • Followers are instructed to thrust their hips forward, but pull their upper body away and look over their left shoulder In tango from the River Plate region, the open position, the legs may be intertwined and hooked together, in the style of Pulpo (the Octopus). • In Pulpo's style, these hooks are not sharp, but smooth ganchos and the ball or toe of the foot may be placed first or the dancer may take the floor with the entire foot in a cat-like manner. • In the International style of Tango, “heel leads" (stepping first onto the heel, then the whole foot) are used forward steps and includes moves such as the boleo(allowing momentum to carry one's leg into the air) • aancho (hooking one's leg around one's partner's leg or body) in which the feet travel off the ground • Parada (in which the leader puts his foot against the follower's foot) • Arrastre (in which the leader appears to drag or be dragged by the follower's foot) • sacada (in which the leader displaces the follower's leg by stepping into her space).
TARANTELLA ITALY • a rapid whirling dance originating in southern Italy • characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, and most commonly played with a mandolin, a guitar, an accordion, tambourines, flute, fiddle, trumpet and clarinet. • among the most recognized forms of traditional southern Italian music. • The specific dance-name varies with every region
• In the Italian province of Taranto, Apulia- the bite of a locally common type of wolf spider, named "tarantula" after the region, was popularly believed to be highly poisonous and to lead to a hysterical condition known as tarantism- this became known as the Tarantella. • The oldest documents mentioning the relationship between musical exorcism and the tarantula date to around 1100 BC • The tradition persists in the area, and is known as “Neo-Tarantism". • Many young artists, groups and famous musicians continue to keep the tradition alive. The music is very different—its tempo is faster, but it has similar hypnotic effects, especially when people are exposed to the rhythm for a long period of time. • The music is also used in therapy of patients with certain forms of depression and hysteria, and its effects on the endocrine systems recently became an object of research.
Courtship vs tarantism dances • The stately courtship tarantella danced by a couple or couples, short in duration, is graceful and elegant and features characteristic music. Sometimes mimicking courtship or a sword fight. • The Neapolitan tarantella is a courtship dance performed by couples whose "rhythms, melodies, gestures, and accompanying songs are quite distinct" featuring faster more cheerful music. • The original legend tells that someone who had supposedly been bitten by the spider had to dance to an upbeat tempo to sweat the poison out. • Tarantism, as a ritual, has roots in the ancient Greek myths. Victims who had collapsed or were convulsing would begin to dance with appropriate music and be revived as if a tarantula had bitten them. • The music used against spider bites featured drums and clarinets, was matched to the pace of the victim, and is only weakly connected to its later depiction in the tarantellas of Chopin, Liszt, Rossini, and Heller. • The Tarantella is a dance in which the dancer and the drum player constantly try to upstage each other by dancing longer or playing faster than the other, subsequently tiring one person out first.
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