WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.280 . 2 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:00.280 3 00:00:08.200 --> 00:00:13.700 Colquhont L Hart of � jest 4 00:00:18.180 --> 00:00:19.580 wasx 5 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:49.560 We are now going to explore one of the least 6 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:56.220 understood of the arts, but one of the most popular. The art of the ballet. When you go to the ballet, 7 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:02.960 do you ever stop and wonder how such beautiful and exciting effects are achieved? It all looks so 8 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:11.120 easy. Every dancer seems to know precisely what he's doing. Every effect seems so spontaneous. 9 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:18.980 Who is responsible for this? Who is the creator of all this order? It's the choreographer. Since 10 00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:26.600 I'm a choreographer, I'm going to tell you what a choreographer is and does. A choreographer is a 11 00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:33.660 composer of dances, but actually he is much more than that. He is a sort of a catalyst who brings 12 00:01:33.660 --> 00:01:40.940 together all the various elements that go into the making of the ballet. The story, the music, 13 00:01:41.340 --> 00:01:48.540 the scenery and costumes, the lighting and casting, all of almost equal importance as the ballet itself. 14 00:01:48.540 --> 00:01:55.840 It is how to put them together that is the heart of the matter of creating a ballet. The whole must 15 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:03.500 be much greater than the sum of its parts. No matter how well each individual artist does his work, 16 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:09.640 it is whether the choreographer has put these parts perfectly together that is the final test. 17 00:02:10.380 --> 00:02:16.080 You may like the music better than the dancing or vice versa, but even if you like everything 18 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:23.800 equally well, we still have failed if the essential drama resulting from the combined work of all the 19 00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:30.780 contributing artists fails to move or excite us at the end of the performance. When we do succeed, 20 00:02:31.220 --> 00:02:37.300 there is a sort of a magical communication between the artists on the stage and the people in the 21 00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:45.920 audience. This is the important thing. Even the greatest artists cannot explain their own creations. 22 00:02:45.920 --> 00:02:53.160 Perhaps you know the story about the lady who bought a Picasso picture and she said to him, 23 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:59.800 Mr. Picasso, now that I own your picture, I wish you'd explain to me what this picture means exactly 24 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:07.540 to you. Picasso thought for a while and finally the best answer he could give was, it means to me 25 00:03:07.540 --> 00:03:16.320 exactly $50,000. Actually, there is nothing one can say about dancing half as effective as the 26 00:03:16.640 --> 00:03:19.300 dancing itself. Let me show you. 27 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:43.620 However, it is interesting to try and analyze an artwork after it's finished and at least something of its 28 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:52.480 mechanics can be explained. There are three main sources of material for dance movement. The ballet 29 00:03:52.480 --> 00:04:02.420 or theater dance, modern or free dance, and folk or national dance. Each has its own style. In the ballet, 30 00:04:02.600 --> 00:04:09.840 there are probably not more than about 30 basic steps. We learn these steps as children at the bar 31 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:16.580 and when we leave the bar, the teacher puts these different steps together for us in various combinations 32 00:04:16.580 --> 00:04:22.580 called enchainements. The names are all in French. Here is an example. 33 00:04:52.200 --> 00:05:01.040 Now this is a typical conventional ballet enchainement. Now I want to introduce to you four of my dancers. 34 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:04.680 They are all soloists from the Chicago Lyric Opera. 35 00:05:39.380 --> 00:05:43.500 Will you do it as an adagio? 36 00:06:02.760 --> 00:06:06.480 Barbara, do the same steps now tragically. 37 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:35.460 Now Chuck, take the same step and do it comically. 38 00:06:47.880 --> 00:06:53.560 Composers sometimes use their themes upside down. Would you like to try it upside down, Barbara? 39 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:12.840 You see, the dancers must be able to try any crazy thing the choreographer asks of them because that 40 00:07:12.840 --> 00:07:19.240 is the only way we can arrive at something new. Now Barbara, you and Chuck jazz this enchainement. 41 00:07:36.200 --> 00:07:44.300 Chuck, you finished the enchainement. This is not a jam session. That last was a typical jitterbug lift. 42 00:07:44.880 --> 00:07:51.180 Now we're going to show you how to develop a more classical lift. It's in four stages. 43 00:07:56.200 --> 00:08:13.940 Now do it with a turn. Now jump into it. Now do it without your hands. 44 00:08:23.340 --> 00:08:31.360 What you've seen so far is not choreography. It's just exercises both for the choreographer and the dancers. 45 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:39.360 Now the next dance you'll see is completely choreographed. The music is by DeLibes from the ballet Sylvia. 46 00:08:39.820 --> 00:08:48.060 The style is 19th century and shows the conventional mannerisms and steps of the old fashioned classical ballet. 47 00:12:06.740 --> 00:12:14.760 In the full version of this little ballet, two cupids dance at this point, which gives the soloists a chance to catch their breath. 48 00:12:14.760 --> 00:12:20.000 Almost every classical dance has a coda, which means a short brilliant finale. 49 00:14:01.760 --> 00:14:10.480 The choreographer must always take into account the costumes that the dancers are going to wear, because the costumes often dictate the style of the movement. 50 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:22.560 For instance, in a Japanese kimono, the only way you can move is like this. Even in a modern tight Dior dress, if you want to pick something up, you have to go like this. 51 00:14:25.900 --> 00:14:34.120 So today, Etta Burrow will wear her costume for the next dance, because the skirt and even the headdress are part of the choreography. 52 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:42.180 You'll recognize certain basic ballet steps, but they are all used unconventionally. 53 00:14:42.580 --> 00:14:51.060 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. They are married, but not to each other. 54 00:15:31.300 --> 00:15:34.100 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. They are married, but not to each other. 55 00:16:01.240 --> 00:16:04.040 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. They are married, but not to each other. 56 00:16:04.040 --> 00:16:34.020 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. They are married, but not to each other. 57 00:16:34.020 --> 00:17:04.000 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. They are married, but not to each other. 58 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:33.980 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. They are married, but not to each other. 59 00:17:42.420 --> 00:17:48.180 An entirely different problem is the dance from the triumphal scene in Aida. 60 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:55.180 No one knows today how the Egyptians used to dance centuries ago, and there's no way of finding out. 61 00:17:55.340 --> 00:17:58.860 Yet the choreographer must conjure up an Egyptian mood. 62 00:17:58.860 --> 00:18:09.460 So this Aida dance is inspired by the acrobatic positions of the dancers on the Egyptian bas-reliefs, but no sense copies them. 63 00:18:09.820 --> 00:18:16.040 Imagine the soloists surrounded by a large court of ballet, and they do movements like this. 64 00:18:19.060 --> 00:18:24.860 The dancers have round flat golden disks on their hands, and they dance like this. 65 00:18:36.700 --> 00:18:41.120 You might describe it as a kind of an operatic ballet style. 66 00:19:21.840 --> 00:19:24.640 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. 67 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:54.620 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. 68 00:19:54.620 --> 00:20:24.540 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. 69 00:20:53.980 --> 00:20:54.260 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. 70 00:20:54.260 --> 00:21:24.240 The dance is about two lovers who are flirting outrageously in a moonlit garden. 71 00:21:37.760 --> 00:21:40.200 Let's turn to a different problem. 72 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:44.700 Edda and Chuck will dance the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore. 73 00:21:45.180 --> 00:21:54.560 Here again, no one knows how the Spanish gypsies danced in the 15th century, and even if we did, native dancers are rarely theatrical enough for the stage. 74 00:21:55.020 --> 00:22:00.840 So you see in these movements the flavor of the Spanish gypsy dances, but they are not authentic. 75 00:22:00.840 --> 00:22:10.840 We use the round hand movements that the Moors brought from Africa to Spain, and which have now become typical flamenco. 76 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:15.680 We use this position, which we call the Spanish S. 77 00:22:16.420 --> 00:22:22.760 In classical ballet, the arms, when they're in fifth position, make a soft frame for the face. 78 00:22:22.760 --> 00:22:33.600 But in gypsy dancing, the arms are back of the head, the head is down, the elbows are bent, and the wrists come together in a fierce style. 79 00:22:34.220 --> 00:22:39.920 The dancing is very fierce, and the hands are in exotic positions, almost like flowers. 80 00:22:40.360 --> 00:22:43.740 And the dancing is very staccato and rough. 81 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:54.200 Actually, this is another example of operatic ballet style, and you will see them costumed. You have to imagine costumed in wild gypsy rags. 82 00:24:13.740 --> 00:24:23.000 Some people ask me where ideas for ballets come from. Of course the idea is important because the conception dictates the style. 83 00:24:23.800 --> 00:24:33.160 In France, it is the custom for such great writers as Annouya and Giraudon, Camus and Sartre to write scenarios, or what they call their ballet livraies. 84 00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:43.120 In fact, Giselle, the most famous of all the 19th century ballets, was written by the French poet, Talefield Gaultier, after a poem by Heine. 85 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:47.340 Most of the choreographers in this country invent their own ideas. 86 00:24:47.760 --> 00:24:58.620 You might get an idea from listening to a piece of music, or maybe if you read a story that gives you an idea, then you can have the music especially written for the story. 87 00:24:59.320 --> 00:25:10.260 Sometimes I base my ideas, my dances, on poems. The poetry of E.E. Cummings has such a wonderful rhythm to it that you can use it in place of music. 88 00:25:11.140 --> 00:25:19.860 Anyone lived in a pretty hot town, with up so floating, many bells down. Spring, summer, autumn, winter, he sang his ditton, he danced his did. 89 00:25:19.860 --> 00:25:29.420 Women and men, both little and small, cared for anyone, not at all. They sewed their isn't, they reaped their sayings. Sun, moon, stars, rain. 90 00:25:30.380 --> 00:25:37.860 Another poem by E.E. Cummings, which I think would make a wonderful ballet, and a very interesting one, is the Cambridge Ladies. 91 00:25:37.860 --> 00:25:45.240 The Cambridge Ladies, who live in furnished souls, are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds. 92 00:25:45.580 --> 00:25:51.480 Also, with the Church's Protestant blessings, daughters, unscented, shapeless, spirited. 93 00:25:51.980 --> 00:25:58.440 They believe in Christ and Longfellow, both dead, are invariably interested in so many things. 94 00:25:58.440 --> 00:26:05.440 At the present writing, one still finds delighted fingers knitting for the, is it poles? Perhaps. 95 00:26:06.280 --> 00:26:11.200 While permanent faces, coyly bandy scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D. 96 00:26:12.040 --> 00:26:23.140 The Cambridge Ladies do not care above Cambridge if sometimes in its box of sky, lavender and cornelous, the moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy. 97 00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:33.960 Or if you want a comedy, the cow is in the hammock, the kitten is in the lake, the baby is in the garbage can. What difference does it make? 98 00:26:35.560 --> 00:26:46.080 Sometimes one line suffices. Tonight the moon by languorous memories obssessed, lies pensive and awake, a sleepless beauty. 99 00:26:46.600 --> 00:26:51.420 This is a poem by Baudelaire from The Flowers of Evil and translated by George Dillon. 100 00:26:51.420 --> 00:26:59.980 So you see how many ideas there are. Many choreographers think that the simpler the idea, the better the ballet. 101 00:27:00.620 --> 00:27:10.700 I personally challenge the idea of exciting and very complicated stories, but sometimes the Viennese Waltz is best. 102 00:29:21.420 --> 00:29:27.560 The Viennese Waltz is a collection of seven steps of two. That is, a classical dance performed by a man or a woman. 103 00:29:28.140 --> 00:29:38.860 You'll see how from awkward beginnings we finally arrive at complicated choreographies in which the human body is completely idealized. 104 00:30:14.120 --> 00:30:15.520 The Viennese Waltz