ballet

music and spectacle

A ballet may be choreographed either to music especially composed for it or to music already existing. Until the 20th century, specially composed music was more common. Sometimes the choreographer and composer worked closely together, but sometimes they had little or no contact.

The use of previously existing music for dance became more frequent due in large measure to American dancer Isadora Duncan. One of the pioneers of modern dance, she often used music by such composers as Ludwig van Beethoven and Frédéric Chopin. Existing music can be used in its original form or it can be adapted and arranged by another composer to suit the choreographer's needs.

The plot of a ballet is called its libretto or scenario. The narrative content of a ballet can be written especially for it or can be adapted from a book, poem, play, or opera. Modern ballet choreographers often borrow cinematic devices such as the flashback, or use other contemporary innovations found in literature, drama, and films. In contrast to story ballets are plotless ballets, which create a mood, interpret a musical composition, or simply celebrate dancing for the sake of dancing.

Scenery for ballet is limited by the need to provide sufficient space for dancing. The center of the stage is almost always kept clear. Many ballets use only a backdrop and sidepieces or wings. Some modern ballets supplement the scenery with slide projections, films, and special lighting. Others simply rely on the dramatic range of lighting effects permitted by modern stage lighting.

Early ballet costumes were simply the fashionable dress clothes of the time. The tutu, a bell-shaped skirt of translucent fabric, was popularized by Marie Taglioni in the ballet La Sylphide (1832). It was shortened in the course of the century and became the standard dress of the ballerina. Ballet costume became more varied under the influence of 20th-century Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokine.

Dancers today perform in many types of costume, including the simple practice clothes worn in the studio. Although first used by Russian-American choreographer George Balanchine for financial reasons, practice clothes are often a deliberate costume choice because of their simplicity and clarity of line.

Main picture: Alessandra Ferri

Contributed by Susan Au, M.A., Dance historian. Author of Ballet and Modern Dance.