1. Bell Ringer – 2/13 M.Socrative.com – Room 38178 Questions:
1. Who wrote the Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets? (the answer is in your music notes...)
Multiple choice on the devices!!
You CAN use cell phones for the bell ringers, but after that they MUST be put up (tablets too!)

2. Romantic Dance
Ballet

3. Romantic Dance Known as the “Golden Age of Ballet”
Turned against neoclassicism
Subjective viewpoint and feeling sought attention
The music is written first, dance written to fit
It was the opposite in the Classical Period

4. Theophile Gautier The writings of Gautier (1811-1872)
Gautier was a poet and critic who believed that dance was visual stimulation to show “beautiful forms in graceful attitudes.”
Dancing, for Gautier, was like a living painting or sculpture – “physical pleasure and feminine beauty.”
In Romantic ballet, male dancers were reassigned to the background, females were the lead
They could do more

5. Carlo Blasis Blasis (1803-1878) wrote the “Code of Terpsichoro”
His principles covered training, structure, and positioning
Everything in ballet required a beginning, a middle, and an ending
Dancers needed to display the human figure with taste and elegance

6. The five positions of ballet2. 1. 3. 4. 5.
The “beginnings” and “endings” of each move
Invented in the Baroque period by Beauchamp

7. En Pointe Comes from the classical idea Literally means “on the tip”
Developed from the desire for dancers to appear weightless
Literally means “on the tip”
Special shoes called “pointe shoes” or “toe shoes”
Both men and women can dance en pointe, but most commonly performed by women

8. En Pointe
Can cause foot deformities if started too early (usually age 10 at the earliest)
Blisters, boils, athlete’s foot, cuts, and bleeding are to be expected

9. En Pointe

10. En Pointe - Injuries

11. Romantic Ballet
Choreographers of romantic ballet sought magic and escape in fantasies and legends
Ballets about elves and nymphs enjoyed great popularity, as did ballets about madness, sleepwalking, and dreams
Taglioni’s La Sylphide: about how a man leaves his fiance for a mythical creature, but encounters a witch who curses her to death
Taglioni’s The Revolt in the Harem: wives revolt against their oppressors with the help of ‘the spirit of womankind’

12. Two Russian Ballets
Influence Western dance – Ballet as we know it today
Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Swan Lake
The Nutcracker (1892)
Swan Lake (1877)
Swan Lake popularized the fouette, or whipping turn.
The star of Swan Lake dances 32 consecutive fouettes – mandatory!

13. The Nutcracker
We’ll study, watch, and listen to parts of the Nutcracker today.
(We’ll do Swan Lake tomorrow)

14. The Nutcracker 2 Act Ballet Music by Tchaikovsky
The story is based of Hoffman’s story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”
Premiered in St. Petersburg on Sunday Dec. 18th, 1892
Always performed around Christmas time because the ballet takes place at Christmas

15. The Nutcracker
Today, American ballet companies generate about 40% of their annual ticket revenue from performances of the Nutcracker
LOTS of people go see it around the holidays
It’s a tradition for a lot of families
(UofL does “Clara’s Dream” EVERY YEAR to a PACKED house!)

16. The Nutcracker
What is it about?

17. General Synopsis – Act 1 It’s Christmas Eve Main character: Clara
Clara’s godfather, a toy maker, gives her a nutcracker that she takes a liking to. Fritz, her sibling, purposely breaks it and Clara is heartbroken.

18. General Synopsis – Act 1
Once everyone goes to sleep, Clara gets up to check on her beloved Nutcracker.
Suddenly, mice begin to fill the room and the Nutcracker grows to life-size (some interpret this as her dreaming, others say the godfather is a magician and shrinks her)
The Nutcracker and his army of toys are fighting an army of Mice led by the Mouse King
The mice start eating the gingerbread soldiers

19. General synopsis – Act 1
As the Mouse King goes to attack the wounded Nutcracker, Clara throws a shoe at him which distracts him long enough to get stabbed by the Nutcracker
The Nutcracker transforms into a handsome prince

20. General Synopsis – Act 2
Clara and the Prince go to the Land of Sweets (where the Prince is apparently from)
Clara is showered in sweets from all around the world
During the final waltz, Clara and the Prince are crowned rulers of the Land of Sweets

21. Watch – the Nutcracker Battle Scene

22. recognizable music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8J8urC_8Jw
The music is used a LOT in popular culture – movies, commercials, tv shows, concert performances, etc. Some of the most recognizable classical music EVER!
Marche
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Trepak (Russian Dance)
Arabian Dance
Chinese Dance
Reed-Flutes
Waltz of the Flowers
(You will NOT need to recognize these for the test because there’s so many of them – but you should be familiar with them!!!)

23. CARTOONS
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy:
Arabian Dance: