Modern Ballet
By: Tyler Richardson
I choose to research ballet because it is a dance that is new to me. I have never known much about this type of dancing, but know it is one of the more popular forms. I thought it would be a very interesting type of dance to learn about in more depth. I choose modern ballet, in particular, because the modern style is more interesting to me due to the fact that it is the type of ballet that is currently performed. This appealed to me because I prefer the contemporary form of dancing more than the “old fashion” style.
When watching modern ballet performed, what first come to mind for me is how well rehearsed the dances that I watched were. It is clearly a form of dancing that is not quickly learned. It seems like it would take many hours of practice to be able to perform. Not only would it take countless hours of practice, but I think only a certain type of dancer could perform ballet. The group performances I watched were very well rehearsed and all the dancers were perfectly in sync, so only serious dancers would be suited for this type of dance.
When I watch modern ballet performed it has a relaxing effect. This is in part because of the music that accompanies the dances, I’m sure; however it is also due to the type of dance that ballet is. It is relaxing, although it is not always slow. Sometimes the dancing can be at a fast paced, but it still has a relaxing effect because it is a graceful dance.
Modern Ballet is defined by thefreedictionary.com as a style of ballet that admits a wider variety of movements than classical ballet. While ballet has stayed similar throughout the years, there are some subtle and some not so subtle differences between the classical style of ballet and what ballet has evolved to today. A major difference between the two styles of ballet include that in the mid-1900’s many choreographers based their works on dramatic action, whereas today many choreographers prefer to display dancing without the story (Ballet History)
Around the time period of the mid 1900’s, the American dancers Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey, the German dancer Mary Wigman, and others broke away from traditional ballet to create their own expressive movement styles and to choreograph dances that were more closely related to actual human life (History of Ballet). Basically, dance in general became more about expressive movement and started to drift away from being very structured and precise. It moved towards the style of being more free and less restrictive. When dance in general made this transition, ballet followed. Popular dance forms also enriched the ballet. In 1944 the American choreographer Jerome Robbins created "Fancy Free", a ballet based on the jazz-dance style that had developed in musical comedy. (History of Ballet). With this influence from popular dance, ballet was changed to be more main-stream. This has definitely influenced modern ballet, because many of these changes are still affecting the way ballet is performed currently.
Modern Ballet has been heavily influenced by two companies in particular. These two companies are the Dance theatre of Harlem, which was founded in 1970 and the New York City Ballet, which was founded in 1948. (Ballet: History of Modern Ballet Renaissance). These two companies kind of paved the way for the evolution of ballet. Today’s ballet is not so dependent on a plot, it is more just about the dancing itself, and a lot of times it is accompanied by modern music. Another change that has happened over time is that the costumes are now more simplified than what they once were.
Modern ballet and classical ballet are very similar in a lot of ways. Although they share many similarities it is the subtle differences that have occurred over time that make the two forms unique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ0L24YbGGI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVUxE77VHEw
