Pilates
Pilates is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates, after whom it was named. Pilates called his method "Contrology", it is practiced worldwide in Western countries such as Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. As of 2005, there were 11 million people practicing the discipline and 14,000 instructors in the United States. There is only limited evidence to support the use of Pilates to alleviate low back pain, or improve balance in elderly people. Evidence from studies show that while Pilates improves balance, limited data exists on whether this impacts on falls by the elderly. Pilates has not been shown to be an effective treatment for any medical condition. There is some evidence regular Pilates sessions can help muscle conditioning in healthy adults, when compared to doing no exercise. In his book Return to Life through Contrology, Joseph Pilates presents his method as the art of controlled movements, which should look and feel like a workout when properly manifested.
If practiced with consistency, Pilates improves flexibility, builds strength and develops control and endurance in the entire body. It puts emphasis on alignment, developing a strong core, improving coordination and balance; the core, consisting of the muscles of the abdomen, low back, hips, is called the "powerhouse" and is thought to be the key to a person's stability. Pilates' system allows for different exercises to be modified in range of difficulty from beginner to advanced or to any other level, in terms of the instructor and practitioner's specific goals and/or limitations. Intensity can be increased over time. Pilates was developed from Mönchengladbach, Germany, his father was his mother a naturopath. During the first half of the twentieth century, he developed a system of exercises which were intended to strengthen the human mind and body. Pilates believed that physical health were interrelated. In his youth he had practised many of the physical training regimes available in Germany, it was from these he developed his own method.
It has clear connections with the physical culture of the late nineteenth century, such as the use of special apparatuses and claims that the exercises could cure ill health. It is related to the tradition of "corrective exercise" or "medical gymnastics" as typified by Pehr Henrik Ling. Pilates said that the inspiration for his method came to him during World War One, while he was being held at the Knockaloe internment camp on the Isle of Man, he developed his method there for four years. Joseph Pilates accompanied his method with a variety of equipment, for which he used the term "apparatus"; each apparatus was designed to help accelerate the process of stretching, body alignment and increased core strength started by the mat work. The best-known and most popular apparatus today, the Reformer, was called the Universal Reformer, aptly named for "universally reforming the body". Pilates designed other apparatus, including the Cadillac, Wunda Chair, High "Electric" Chair, Spine Corrector, Ladder Barrel and Pedi-Pole.
Pilates published two books related to his training method: Your Health: A Corrective System of Exercising That Revolutionizes the Entire Field of Physical Education in 1934, Return to Life Through Contrology in 1945. His first students went on to teach his methods, including: Romana Kryzanowska, Kathy Grant, Jay Grimes, Ron Fletcher, Mary Bowen, Carola Treir, Bob Seed, Eve Gentry, Bruce King, Lolita San Miguel, Mary Pilates, Joseph's niece. Contemporary Pilates includes both the "Classical/Traditional" Pilates. Modern Pilates is derived from the teaching of some first generation students, while Classical Pilates aims to preserve the original work as Joseph Pilates taught it. A number of versions of Pilates are taught today and the majority are based on up to nine principles. Frank Philip Friedman and Gail Eisen, two students of Romana Kryzanowska, published the first modern book on Pilates, The Pilates Method of Physical and Mental Conditioning, in 1980 and in it they outlined six "principles of Pilates".
These have been adopted—and adapted—by the wider community. The original six principles were concentration, center, flow and breathing. Breathing is important in the Pilates method. In Return to Life, Pilates devotes a section of his introduction to breathing "bodily house-cleaning with blood circulation", he saw considerable value in increasing the intake of oxygen and the circulation of this oxygenated blood to every part of the body. This he saw as invigorating. Proper full inhalation and complete exhalation were key to this, he advised people to squeeze out the lungs. In Pilates exercises, the practitioner breathes out in on the return. In order to keep the lower abdominals close to the spine. Pilates breathing is described as a posterior lateral breathing, meaning that the practitioner is instructed to breathe deep into the back and sides of his or her rib cage; when practitioners exhale, they are instructed to note the engagement of their deep abdominal and pelvic floor muscles and maintain this engagement as they inhale.
Pilates attempts to properly coordinate this breathing practice with movement. Pilates demands intense focus, the way that exercises are done is more important than the exercises themselves. "Contrology" was Joseph Pilates' preferred name for his method, it was based on the idea of muscle control. All exercises are done
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor and the Combines are a combination of both, but he worked with photography, printmaking and performance. Robert Rauschenberg was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993, he became the recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts in 1995 in recognition of his more than 40 years of fruitful artmaking. Rauschenberg lived and worked in New York City as well as on Captiva Island, Florida until his death from heart failure on May 12, 2008. Rauschenberg was born as Milton Ernest Rauschenberg in Port Arthur, the son of Dora Carolina and Ernest R. Rauschenberg, his father was of his mother of Anglo-Saxon descent. His parents were Fundamentalist Christians. Rauschenberg was dyslexic.
At 16, Rauschenberg was admitted to the University of Texas. He was drafted into the United States Navy in 1943. Based in California, he served as a mental hospital technician until his discharge in 1945. Rauschenberg subsequently studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Académie Julian in Paris, where he met the painter Susan Weil. In 1948 Rauschenberg and Weil decided to attend Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Josef Albers, a founder of the Bauhaus, became Rauschenberg's painting instructor at Black Mountain. Albers' preliminary courses relied on strict discipline that did not allow for any "uninfluenced experimentation". Rauschenberg described Albers as influencing him to do "exactly the reverse" of what he was being taught. From 1949 to 1952 Rauschenberg studied with Vaclav Vytlacil and Morris Kantor at the Art Students League of New York, where he met fellow artists Knox Martin and Cy Twombly. Rauschenberg married Susan Weil in the summer of 1950 at the Weil family home in Outer Island, Connecticut.
Their only child, was born July 16, 1951. The two separated in June 1952 and divorced in 1953. According to a 1987 oral history by the composer Morton Feldman, after the end of his marriage, Rauschenberg had romantic relationships with fellow artists Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns. An article by Jonathan D. Katz states that Rauschenberg's affair with Twombly began during his marriage to Susan Weil. Rauschenberg died on May 2008, on Captiva Island, Florida, he died of heart failure at the age of 82 after a personal decision to go off life support. Rauschenberg is survived by his partner of 25 years, artist Darryl Pottorf, his former assistant. Rauschenberg is survived by his son, photographer Christopher Rauschenberg, his sister, Janet Begneaud. Rauschenberg's approach was sometimes called "Neo Dadaist," a label he shared with the painter Jasper Johns. Rauschenberg was quoted as saying that he wanted to work "in the gap between art and life" suggesting he questioned the distinction between art objects and everyday objects, reminiscent of the issues raised by the Fountain, by Dada pioneer, Marcel Duchamp.
At the same time, Johns' paintings of numerals and the like, were reprising Duchamp's message of the role of the observer in creating art's meaning. Alternatively, in 1961, Rauschenberg took a step in what could be considered the opposite direction by championing the role of creator in creating art's meaning. Rauschenberg was invited to participate in an exhibition at the Galerie Iris Clert, where artists were to create and display a portrait of the owner, Iris Clert. Rauschenberg's submission consisted of a telegram sent to the gallery declaring "This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so." From the fall of 1952 to the spring of 1953 Rauschenberg traveled through Europe and North Africa with his fellow artist and partner Cy Twombly. In Morocco, he created boxes out of trash, he exhibited them at galleries in Rome and Florence. A lot of them sold. From his stay, 38 collages survived. In a famously cited incident of 1953, Rauschenberg erased a drawing by de Kooning, which he obtained from his colleague for the express purpose of erasing it as an artistic statement.
The result is titled Erased de Kooning Drawing. By 1962, Rauschenberg's paintings were beginning to incorporate not only found objects but found images as well - photographs transferred to the canvas by means of the silkscreen process. Used only in commercial applications, silkscreen allowed Rauschenberg to address the multiple reproducibility of images, the consequent flattening of experience that implies. In this respect, his work is contemporaneous with that of Andy Warhol, both Rauschenberg and Johns are cited as important forerunners of American Pop Art. In 1966, Billy Klüver and Rauschenberg launched Experiments in Art and Technology a non-profit organization established to promote collaborations between artists and engineers. In 1969, NASA invited Rauschenberg to witness the launch of Apollo 11. In response to this landmark event, Rauschenberg created his Stoned Moon Series of lithographs; this involved combining diagrams and other images from NASA's archives with photographs from various media outlets, as well as with his own work.
From 1970 he worked from his studio in Captiva, Florida. His first project on Captiva Island was a 16.5-meter-long silkscreen print called Currents, made with newspapers from the first two months of the year, followed by Cardboards and Early Egyptians, the latter of, a series of wall reliefs and sculptures constructed from u
Isadora Duncan
Angela Isadora Duncan was an American and French dancer who performed to acclaim throughout Europe. Born in California, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50, when her scarf became entangled in the wheels and axle of the car in which she was riding. Isadora Duncan was born in San Francisco, the youngest of the four children of Joseph Charles Duncan, a banker, mining engineer and connoisseur of the arts, Mary Isadora Gray, her brothers were Raymond Duncan. Soon after Isadora's birth, her father was exposed in illegal bank dealings, the family became poor, her parents divorced when she was an infant, her mother moved with her family to Oakland, where she worked as a seamstress and piano teacher. From ages six to ten, Isadora attended school; as her family was poor and her three siblings earned money by teaching dance to local children. In 1896, Duncan became part of Augustin Daly's theater company in New York, but she soon became disillusioned with the form and craved a different environment with less of a hierarchy.
Her father, along with his third wife and their daughter, died in 1898 when the British passenger steamer SS Mohegan ran aground off the coast of Cornwall. Duncan began her dancing career at a early age by giving lessons in her home to neighbourhood children, this continued through her teenage years, her novel approach to dance was evident in these early classes, in which she "followed fantasy and improvised, teaching any pretty thing that came into head". A desire to travel brought her to Chicago, where she auditioned for many theater companies finding a place in Augustin Daly's company; this took her to New York City where her unique vision of dance clashed with the popular pantomimes of theater companies. In New York, Duncan took some classes with Marie Bonfanti but was disappointed in ballet routine. Feeling unhappy and unappreciated in America, Duncan moved to London in 1898, she performed in the drawing rooms of the wealthy, taking inspiration from the Greek vases and bas-reliefs in the British Museum.
The earnings from these engagements enabled her to rent a studio, allowing her to develop her work and create larger performances for the stage. From London, she traveled to Paris, where she was inspired by the Louvre and the Exposition Universelle of 1900. In 1902, Loie Fuller invited Duncan to tour with her; this took Duncan all over Europe as she created new works using her innovative technique, which emphasized natural movement in contrast to the rigidity of tradition ballet. She spent most of the rest of her life touring the Americas in this fashion. Despite mixed reaction from critics, Duncan became quite popular for her distinctive style and inspired many visual artists, such as Antoine Bourdelle, Auguste Rodin, Arnold Rönnebeck, Abraham Walkowitz, to create works based on her. Duncan disliked the commercial aspects of public performance, such as touring and contracts, because she felt they distracted her from her real mission, namely the creation of beauty and the education of the young.
To achieve her mission, she opened schools to teach young women her philosophy of dance. The first was established in 1904 in Germany; this institution was the birthplace of the "Isadorables", Duncan's protégées who would continue her legacy. Duncan adopted all six girls in 1919, they took her last name. After about a decade in Berlin, Duncan established a school in Paris, shortly closed because of the outbreak of World War I. In 1910, Duncan met the occultist Aleister Crowley at a party, an episode recounted by Crowley in his Confessions, he refers to Duncan as "Lavinia King", would use the same invented name for her in his novel Moonchild. Crowley wrote of Duncan that she "has this gift of gesture in a high degree. Let the reader study her dancing, if possible in private than in public, learn the superb'unconsciousness' —, magical consciousness — with which she suits the action to the melody." Crowley was, in fact, more attracted to Duncan's bohemian companion Mary Dempsey, with whom he had an affair.
Desti had come to Paris in 1901 where she soon met Duncan, the two became inseparable. Desti appeared in Moonchild, as "Lisa la Giuffria" She joined Crowley's occult order, helping him to write his magnum opus Magick under her magical name of "Soror Virakam". Desti wrote a memoir of her experiences with Duncan. In 1911, the French fashion designer Paul Poiret rented a mansion — Pavillon du Butard in La Celle-Saint-Cloud — and threw lavish parties, including one of the more famous grandes fêtes, La fête de Bacchus on June 20, 1912, re-creating the Bacchanalia hosted by Louis XIV at Versailles. Isadora Duncan, wearing a Greek evening gown designed by Poiret, danced on tables among 300 guests. Duncan, said to have posed for the photographer Eadweard Muybridge, placed an emphasis on "evolutionary" dance motion, insisting that each movement was born from the one that preceded it, that each movement gave rise to the next, so on in organic succession, her dancing defined the force of progress, change and liberation.
In France, as elsewhere, Duncan delighted her audience. In 1914, Duncan moved to the United States and transferred her school there
Ruth St. Denis
Ruth St. Denis was an American modern dance pioneer, introducing eastern ideas into the art, she was the co-founder of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and the teacher of several notable performers. Ruth Denis was raised on a small farm in New Jersey, daughter of Ruth Emma Hull Denis, Thomas Laban Denis, an inventor, where she studied both Christian Science and theosophy; as a child, she learned exercises based on François Delsarte's Society Voice Culture. This was the beginning of St. Denis's dance training, was instrumental in developing her technique in life. In 1894, after years of practicing Delsarte poses, she debuted as a skirt dancer for Worth's Family Theatre and Museum. From this modest start, she progressed to touring with an acclaimed producer and director, David Belasco. While touring in Belasco's production of Madame DuBarry in 1904 her life was changed, she was at a drugstore with another member of Belasco's company in Buffalo, New York, when she saw a poster advertising Egyptian Deities cigarettes.
The poster portrayed the Egyptian goddess Isis enthroned in a temple. From on, St. Denis was immersed in Oriental philosophies. In 1905, St. Denis left Belasco's company to begin her career as a solo artist, it was about this time that she used the stage name of St. Denis. Late in life she told Paul Hockings, her last research assistant, that she was waiting in a hotel with all the boxes of luggage, just before getting on the liner, when her mother walked around to each box, which had Miss Ruth's name on it, added St; the first piece that resulted from her interest in the Orient was Radha performed in 1906. Drawing from Hindu mythology, Radha is his love for a mortal maid. Radha was performed to music from Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé; this piece was a celebration of the five senses and appealed to a contemporary fascination with the Orient. Although her choreography was not culturally accurate or authentic, it was expressive of the themes that St. Denis perceived in Oriental culture and entertaining to contemporary audiences.
St. Denis believed dance to be a spiritual expression, her choreography reflected this idea. In 1911, a young dancer named. In 1914, Shawn applied to be her student, soon became her artistic partner and husband. Together they founded Denishawn, the "cradle of American modern dance." One of her more famous pupils was Martha Graham. Together St. Denis and Shawn founded the Los Angeles Denishawn school in 1915. Students studied ballet movements without shoes and folk dances, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Delsarte gymnastics. In 1916 they created a collection of dances inspired by Egypt which included Tillers of the Soil, a duet between St. Denis and Shawn as well as Pyrrhic Dance, an all-male dance piece, her exploration into the orient continued into 1923 when she staged Ishtar of the Seven Gates in which she portrayed a Babylonian goddess. Together St. Denis and Shawn toured throughout the 1910s and 1920s performing their works on the vaudeville stage. Other notable dancers such as Doris Humphrey, Lillian Powell, Evan-Burrows Fontaine and Charles Weidman studied at Denishawn.
Graham, Humphrey and the future silent film star Louise Brooks all performed as dancers with the Denishawn company. At Denishawn, St. Denis served as inspiration to her young students, while Shawn taught the technique classes. Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn were instrumental in creating the legendary dance festival, Jacob's Pillow. Although Denishawn had crumbled by 1930, St. Denis continued to dance and choreograph independently as well as in collaboration with other artists. St. Denis no longer redirected her works from the mysteries of the orient to combining religion and dance through her Rhythmic Choir of Dancers. Through these works it is said that St. Denis sought to become the Virgin Mary in the same manner in which she once sought to become goddesses. In 1938 St. Denis founded Adelphi University's dance program, one of the first dance departments in an American university, it has since become a cornerstone of Adelphi's Department of Performing Arts. She cofounded a second school in 1940, the School of Nataya which focused on teaching Oriental dance.
For many years St. Denis taught dance at her studio, located at 3433 Cahuenga Boulevard West. On Sunday, September 16, 1962, she teamed with impresario Raymond D. Bowman to present a full-length Balanese shadow puppet performance at her studio, which lasted more than 8 hours, it was the first such performance in the United States. Ruth St. Denis died of a heart attack on July 21, 1968, aged 89, at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles; the legacy left behind included not only her repertory of orient-inspired dances, but students of Denishawn who became pivotal figures in the world of modern dance. Many companies include a collection of her signature solos in their repertoires, including the programme, "The Art of the Solo", a showcase of famous solos of modern dance pioneers. Several early St. Denis solos were presented on September 2006, at the Baltimore Museum of Art. A centennial salute was scheduled with the revival premiere of St. Denis' "Radha", commissioned by Countess Anastasia Thamakis of Greece.
The program's director, Mino Nicolas, has been instrumental in the revival of these key solos. St. Denis was inducted into the National Museum of D
Contemporary ballet
Contemporary ballet is a genre of dance that incorporates elements of classical ballet and modern dance. It employs classical ballet technique and in many cases classical pointe technique as well, but allows greater range of movement of the upper body and is not constrained to the rigorously defined body lines and forms found in traditional, classical ballet. Many of its attributes come from the ideas and innovations of 20th-century modern dance, including floor work and turn-in of the legs. George Balanchine is considered to have been the first pioneer of contemporary ballet. However, the true origin of contemporary ballet is credited to Russian art producer Serge Diaghilev. Diaghilev wanted to bring an understanding of the arts to the general public, he created a program. When this program had success in Russia, Diaghilev was inspired to bring it to a European audience by creating a new spin on classical ballet, he created Diaghilev's Russian Ballet Company, debuting the first show in 1909. However, Diaghilev was not a choreographer, he entrusted the evolvement of his creation to several well-known choreographers, one of them being George Balanchine.
The style of dance Balanchine developed, which lies between classical ballet and today's contemporary ballet, is known by today's standards as neoclassical ballet. He used flexed hands, turned-in legs, off-centered positions and non-traditional costumes, such as leotards, tunics and "powder puff" tutus instead of "pancake" tutus, to distance his work from the classical and romantic ballet traditions. Balanchine invited modern dance performers such as Paul Taylor in to dance with his company, the New York City Ballet, he worked with modern dance choreographer Martha Graham, which expanded his exposure to modern techniques and ideas. During this period, other choreographers such as John Butler and Glen Tetley began to consciously combine ballet and modern techniques in experimentation. One dancer who trained with Balanchine and absorbed much of this neoclassical style was Mikhail Baryshnikov. Following Baryshnikov's appointment as artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre in 1980, he worked with various modern choreographers, most notably Twyla Tharp.
Tharp choreographed Push Comes To Shove for ABT and Baryshnikov in 1976. Both of these pieces were considered innovative for their use of distinctly modern movements melded with the use of pointe shoes and classically trained dancers—for their use of contemporary ballet. Tharp worked with The Joffrey Ballet, founded in 1957 by Robert Joffrey, she choreographed Deuce Coupe for them in 1973, using pop music and a blend of modern and ballet techniques. The Joffrey Ballet continued to perform numerous contemporary pieces, many choreographed by co-founder Gerald Arpino. Other notable contemporary choreographers include Jorma Elo, William Forsythe, Mark Morris, Jiri Kylian, Alonzo King, Trey McIntyre. Contemporary ballet draws from both modern dance and classical ballet for its training methods and technique. For a dancer to be able to embody various styles the training regimen has become more diverse. In addition to classical technique, which includes the signature speed and style of George Balanchine for American dancers, dancers study modern as well.
In addition, many dancers do various forms of cross training. Pilates and yoga are included to loosen muscles and align the body. Since the late 1920s, Pilates has been a popular form of cross training to help prevent injury, but the Gyrotonic Expansion System is being utilized. With contemporary work, dancers' spines need to be more supple and they need to understand how to be grounded; this is in contrast to classical and neoclassical ballet where the dancers are required to "pull up" and the upper body is held. Dancers are required to first obtain classical ballet training in order to build on it with more modern technique in order to be more versatile. Despite formal training, dancers are affected by ankle injuries, due to the high intensity footwork; the costumes and footwear differ from any other style of dance as well. In contemporary ballet, dancers can be asked to wear pointe shoes, regular ballet shoes, or no shoes at all; the same versatile approach goes for the music and costumes. Contemporary ballet does not require certain standards to be met.
While it has more guidelines that modern dance, it does not conform to the limits of classical ballet. Classical ballet requires pointe shoes and scenery. Contemporary ballet uses different types of costumes, ranging from traditional to more modern tunic type versions; the music choices may vary as well. In Classical ballet, most the choreography is done to classical music. In contemporary ballet, the music can range from the traditional classical music to popular music of today. Today there choreographers all over the world. Notable companies include Nederlands Dans Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Many traditionally "classical" companies regularly perform contemporary works. Most classically trained dancers who may identify as professional ballet dancers are in fact required to be versatile and able to perform work ranging from classical to neoclassical to contemporary ballet to modern dance, they are required to have impeccable ballet technique with a mastery of pointe technique for women, but at the same time, are being asked to be just as comfortable in ballet slippers or bare feet performing the work of modern choreographers such as Paul Taylor or embrac
Loie Fuller
Loie Fuller known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American actress and dancer, a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Born Marie Louise Fuller in the Chicago suburb of Fullersburg, now Hinsdale, Fuller began her theatrical career as a professional child actress and choreographed and performed dances in burlesque and circus shows. An early free dance practitioner, Fuller developed her own natural movement and improvisation techniques. In multiple shows she experimented with a long skirt, choreographing its movements and playing with the ways it could reflect light. By 1891, Fuller combined her choreography with silk costumes illuminated by multi-coloured lighting of her own design, created the Serpentine Dance. After much difficulty finding someone willing to produce her work when she was known as an actress, she was hired to perform her piece between acts of a comedy entitled Uncle Celestine, received rave reviews, she was replaced by imitators. In the hope of receiving serious artistic recognition that she was not getting in America, Fuller left for Europe in June 1892.
She became one of the first of many American modern dancers who traveled to Europe to seek recognition. Her warm reception in Paris persuaded Fuller to remain in France, where she became one of the leading revolutionaries in the arts. A regular performer at the Folies Bergère with works such as Fire Dance, Fuller became the embodiment of the Art Nouveau movement and was identified with Symbolism, as her work was seen as the perfect reciprocity between idea and symbol. Fuller began adapting and expanding her costume and lighting, so that they became the principal element in her performance—perhaps more important than the actual choreography as the length of the skirt was increased and became the central focus, while the body became hidden within the depths of the fabric. An 1896 film of the Serpentine Dance by the pioneering film-makers Auguste and Louis Lumière gives a hint of what her performance was like. Fuller's pioneering work attracted the attention and friendship of many French artists and scientists, including Jules Chéret, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, François-Raoul Larche, Henri-Pierre Roché, Auguste Rodin, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Franz von Stuck, Maurice Denis, Thomas Theodor Heine, Paul-Léon Jazet, Koloman Moser, Demetre Chiparus, Stéphane Mallarmé, Marie Curie.
Fuller was a member of the Société astronomique de France. Fuller held many patents related to stage lighting including chemical compounds for creating color gel and the use of chemical salts for luminescent lighting and garments, she attempted to create a patent of her Serpentine Dance as she hoped to stop imitators from taking her choreography and claiming to be her. Fuller submitted a written description of her dance to the United States Copyright Office. At that time dance was only protected if it qualified as "dramatic" and Fuller's dance was too abstract for this qualification; the precedent set by Fuller's case remained in place from 1892 until 1976, when Federal Copyright Law explicitly extended protection to choreographic works. Fuller supported other pioneering performers, such as fellow United States-born dancer Isadora Duncan. Fuller helped Duncan ignite her European career in 1902 by sponsoring independent concerts in Vienna and Budapest. Loie Fuller's original stage name was "Louie".
In modern French "L'ouïe" is the word for a sense of hearing. When Fuller reached Paris she gained a nickname, a pun on "Louie"/"L'ouïe", she was renamed "Loïe" - this nickname is a corruption of the early or Medieval French "L'oïe", a precursor to "L'ouïe", which means "receptiveness" or "understanding". She was referred to by the nickname "Lo Lo Fuller". Fuller formed a close friendship with Queen Marie of Romania. Fuller, through a connection at the United States embassy in Paris played a role in arranging a United States loan for Romania during World War I. During the period when the future Carol II of Romania was alienated from the Romanian royal family and living in Paris with his mistress Magda Lupescu, she befriended them. Fuller advocated to Marie on behalf of the couple, but schemed unsuccessfully with Marie to separate Carol from Lupescu. With Queen Marie and American businessman Samuel Hill, Fuller helped found the Maryhill Museum of Art in rural Washington State, which has permanent exhibits about her career.
Fuller returned to America to stage performances by her students, the "Fullerets" or Muses, but spent the end of her life in Paris. She died of pneumonia at the age of 65 on January 1, 1928 in Paris, two weeks shy of her 66th birthday, she was cremated and her ashes are interred in the columbarium at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Her sister, Mollie Fuller, had a long career as an vaudeville performer. After Fuller's death, her romantic partner of thirty years, Gab Sorère inherited the dance troupe as well as the laboratory Fuller had operated. Sorère took legal action against dancers who wrongfully used Fuller's fame to enhance their own careers and produced both films and theatrical productions to ho
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology, it has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres and cultures. Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have incorporated their own cultures and as a result, the art has evolved in a number of distinct ways. See glossary of ballet. A ballet, a work, consists of the music for a ballet production. Ballets are performed by trained ballet dancers. Traditional classical ballets are performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, whereas modern ballets, such as the neoclassical works of American choreographer George Balanchine are performed in simple costumes and without the use of elaborate sets or scenery.
Ballet is a French word which had its origin in Italian balletto, a diminutive of ballo which comes from Latin ballo, meaning "to dance", which in turn comes from the Greek "βαλλίζω", "to dance, to jump about". The word came into English usage from the French around 1630. Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the sixteenth centuries. Under Catherine de' Medici's influence as Queen, it spread to France, where it developed further; the dancers in these early court ballets were noble amateurs. Ornamented costumes were meant to impress viewers, but they restricted performers' freedom of movement; the ballets were performed in large chambers with viewers on three sides. The implementation of the proscenium arch from 1618 on distanced performers from audience members, who could better view and appreciate the technical feats of the professional dancers in the productions. French court ballet reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV. Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661 to establish standards and certify dance instructors.
In 1672, Louis XIV made Jean-Baptiste Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique from which the first professional ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet, arose. Pierre Beauchamp served as Lully's ballet-master. Together their partnership would drastically influence the development of ballet, as evidenced by the credit given to them for the creation of the five major positions of the feet. By 1681, the first "ballerinas" took the stage following years of training at the Académie. Ballet started to decline in France after 1830, but it continued to develop in Denmark and Russia; the arrival in Europe of the Ballets Russes led by Sergei Diaghilev on the eve of the First World War revived interest in the ballet and started the modern era. In the twentieth century, ballet had a wide influence on other dance genres, Also in the twentieth century, ballet took a turn dividing it from classical ballet to the introduction of modern dance, leading to modernist movements in several countries. Famous dancers of the twentieth century include Anna Pavlova, Galina Ulanova, Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, Margot Fonteyn, Rosella Hightower, Maria Tall Chief, Erik Bruhn, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Suzanne Farrell, Gelsey Kirkland, Natalia Makarova, Arthur Mitchell.
Stylistic variations and subgenres have evolved over time. Early, classical variations are associated with geographic origin. Examples of this are Russian ballet, French ballet, Italian ballet. Variations, such as contemporary ballet and neoclassical ballet, incorporate both classical ballet and non-traditional technique and movement; the most known and performed ballet style is late Romantic ballet. Classical ballet is based on vocabulary. Different styles have emerged in different countries, such as French ballet, Italian ballet, English ballet, Russian ballet. Several of the classical ballet styles are associated with specific training methods named after their creators; the Royal Academy of Dance method is a ballet technique and training system, founded by a diverse group of ballet dancers. They merged their respective dance methods to create a new style of ballet, unique to the organization and is recognized internationally as the English style of ballet; some examples of classical ballet productions are: the Nutcracker.
Romantic ballet was an artistic movement of classical ballet and several productions remain in the classical repertoire today. The Romantic era was marked by the emergence of pointe work, the dominance of female dancers, longer, flowy tutus that attempt to exemplify softness and a delicate aura; this movement occurred during the early to mid-nineteenth century and featured themes that emphasized intense emotion as a source of aesthetic experience. The plots of many romantic ballets revolved around spirit women who enslaved the hearts and senses of mortal men; the 1827 ballet La Sylphide is considered to be the first, the 1870 ballet Coppélia is considered to be the last. Famous ballet dancers of the Romantic era include Marie Taglioni, Fanny Elssler, Jules Perrot. Jules Perrot is known for his choreography that of Giselle considered to be the most celebrated romantic ballet. Neoclassical ballet is abstract, with no clear plot, costumes or scenery. Music choice can be diverse and will include music, neoclassical.
Tim Schol
