Ballet is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary. Ballet has been influential globally and has defined the foundational techniques which are used in many other dance genres and cultures. Various schools around the world have incorporated their own cultures. As a result, ballet has evolved in distinct ways.
The Vaganova method is a ballet technique and training system devised by the Russian dancer and pedagogue Agrippina Vaganova (1879–1951). It was derived from the teachings of the Premier Maître de Ballet Marius Petipa, throughout the late 19th century. It was Agrippa Vaganova who perfected and cultivated this form of teaching classical ballet and turned it into a viable syllabus. The method fuses elements of traditional French style from the romantic era with the athleticism and virtuosity of Italian Cecchetti technique. The training system is designed to involve the whole body in every movement, with equal attention paid to the upper body, legs and feet. Vaganova believed that this approach increases consciousness of the body, thus creating a harmony of movement and greater expressive range.
Doris Batcheller Humphrey was an American dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century. Along with her contemporaries Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham, Humphrey was one of the second generation modern dance pioneers who followed their forerunners – including Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn – in exploring the use of breath and developing techniques still taught today. As many of her works were annotated, Humphrey continues to be taught, studied and performed.
Classical ballet is any of the traditional, formal styles of ballet that exclusively employ classical ballet technique. It is known for its aesthetics and rigorous technique, its flowing, precise movements, and its ethereal qualities.
Lar Lubovitch is an American choreographer. He founded his own dance company, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. Based in New York City, the company has performed in all 50 American states as well as in more than 30 countries. As of 2005, he had choreographed more than 100 dances for the company. In addition to the company, Lubovitch has also done creative work in ballet, ice-skating venues, and musical theater, notably Into the Woods. He has played a key role in raising funds to fight AIDS.
Russian ballet is a form of ballet characteristic of or originating from Russia.
Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova was a Soviet and Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method – the technique which derived from the teaching methods of the old Imperial Ballet School under the Premier Maître de Ballet Marius Petipa throughout the mid to late 19th century, though mostly throughout the 1880s and 1890s. It was Vaganova who perfected and cultivated this form of teaching the art of classical ballet into a workable syllabus. Her Fundamentals of the Classical Dance (1934) remains a standard textbook for the instruction of ballet technique. Her technique is one of the most popular techniques today.
Mansur Kamaletdinov was a Soviet-born ballet dancer, teacher, ballet master and choreographer of classical ballet and classical character dance.
The Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet is a school of classical ballet in St Petersburg, Russia. Established in 1738 during the reign of Empress Anna, the academy was known as the Imperial Ballet School until the Soviet era, when, after a brief hiatus, the school was re-established as the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute. In 1957, the school was renamed in honor of the pedagogue Agrippina Vaganova, who cultivated the method of classical ballet training that has been taught there since the late 1920s. Many of the world's leading ballet schools have adopted elements of the Vaganova method into their own training.
Arabesque in dance, particularly ballet, is a body position in which a dancer stands on one leg–the supporting leg–with the other leg–the working leg–turned out and extended behind the body, with both legs held straight.
There are two basic positions of the arms in ballet. In one, the dancer keeps the fingers of both arms fully touching to form an oval shape, either almost touching the hips, or at navel level, or raised above the dancer's head. In the other, the arms are extended to the sides with the elbows slightly bent. These positions may be combined to give other positions.
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical ballet, and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Benjamin Feliksdal is a Dutch ballet dancer. He has danced as soloist and principal dancer with Het Nederlandse Ballet 1960, Het Nationale Ballet 1961/1971, and with the Royal Ballet of Flanders 1972/1973.
Varvara Pavlovna Mey was a prima ballerina, ballet instructor and author.
Michelangelo Canale is an American dancer, teacher, choreographer and artistic director of ballet.
Peggy Willis-Aarnio was an American choreographer, historian, author and teacher of classical ballet. She was a professional dancer in the early 1970s with the Ft. Worth Ballet in Fort Worth, Texas. She was the first American ballet teacher to be sanctioned as a "Certified Practitioner and Teacher of the Teaching Method of Classical Ballet" by the Vaganova Academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Lea Elizabeth Ved is an American contemporary dancer and choreographer. She was a second soloist contemporary dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet, dancing with the company from 2016 until 2018. Ved currently dances with Nederlands Dans Theater.
Janet L. Springer is an American ballet dancer, artistic director, choreographer, and specialist in classical ballet. She was a professional dancer in the early 1970s with the Oklahoma City Ballet. She is a ballet pedagogue, specializing in the method of teaching classical dance; the six and eight-year program of ballet training developed by Agrippina Vaganova, and Vaganova's assistant, Vera Kostrovitskaya.
Ryan Martin is an American ballet dancer, ballet teacher and artistic director. He was the first American male to study at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the first male American student to receive a scholarship to train there.
Sheila Willis (Hart) Kleiman is an American ballet teacher, ballet dancer, modern dancer, choreographer, interior designer and subject matter expert of classical ballet. She is the founder and president of the Performing Arts Cultural Exchange, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to providing teacher training, teaching scholarships and ballet scholarships to students world-wide. The foundation was started to honor her sister, Peggy Willis-Aarnio's legacy and life work for pedagogical ballet training of teachers. The International Classic Ballet Theatre of Marina Medvetskaya is a subsidiary of PACEBALLET.ORG and Tours the United States, United Kingdom and Europe on a regular basis.
