Imperial Classical Ballet

Mariinsky Ballet:
The Mariinsky Ballet was founded in the 1740s, following the formation of the first Russian dance school
in 1738.
The Imperial Theatre School as it was originally known, was established on 4 May 1738, at the Winter
Palace in Saint Petersburg. It would become the predecessor of today's Vaganova Ballet Academy. The
school's founder director was the French ballet master and teacher Jean-Baptiste Landé and the purpose
of creating the school was to train young dancers to form the first Russian ballet company. The first group
of students included twelve boys and twelve girls, who later went on to form what would become the
predecessor of today's Mariinsky Ballet.
Very little information exists from the formative years of the ballet company, however it is known that both
the school and the ballet company were linked by name, becoming the Imperial Ballet School and
Imperial Russian Ballet, names that continued to be used until the abolition of Imperial rule. In the late
18th and early 19th centuries, the Imperial Russian Ballet soon rose to prominence and would employ
some of the most influential and famous names in ballet history including Charles Didelot, Marie
Taglioni, Christian Johansson, Enrico Cecchetti, Jules Perrot, Fanny Cerrito and Carlotta Grisi.

As the Imperial Russian Ballet, the employer is maximum well-known for premiering severa ballets via
way of means of the famend choreographer Marius Petipa. He created lots of his maximum well-known
works for the duration of his time as a ballet grasp and director of the employer withinside the mid to past
due 1800s. A variety of his ballets now shape the idea of the conventional classical ballet repertoire,
achieved via way of means of ballet businesses across the world, and frequently keeping tons of Petipa's
choreography. These ballets consist of the unique productions of The Nutcracker, The Sleeping
Beauty, Don Quixote, La Bayadère and Raymonda; and famous revivals of older ballets,
including Coppélia, Giselle and Le Corsaire. Petipa's revival of the ballet Swan Lake, is possibly his
maximum well-known paintings for the employer. Originally choreographed via way of means of Julius
Reisinger for the Bolshoi Theatre in 1877, Swan Lake changed into first of all a essential and industrial
failure. Petipa sought to restore the ballet with the blessing of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, however the
composer died earlier than the brand new ballet changed into created. Petipa therefore labored together
along with his brother Modest Tchaikovsky, who extensively revised the tale and rewrote the libretto to the
model now usually achieved. The manufacturing changed into choreographed via way of means of Petipa
and his collaborator Lev Ivanov. Premiering on the Mariinsky Theatre in 1895, the
Petipa/Ivanov/Tchaikovsky manufacturing of Swan Lake changed into a prime fulfillment and is now taken
into consideration the maximum well-known ballet of all time. Nearly all next productions of Swan Lake,
are primarily based totally in this 1895 manufacturing.

Following the Russian Revolution, the Soviet authorities determined that the ballet college and employer
had been undesirable symbols of the tsarist regime and went on to shut them each. The ballet employer
changed into the primary to be re-established, turning into called the Soviet Ballet, with the college re-
commencing later because the Leningrad State Choreographic School, each ultimate of their preceding
locations.

Following the assassination of the Bolshevik revolutionary Sergey Kirov in 1934, the then Soviet

Ballet changed into renamed the Kirov Ballet,[1] a call which remains now and again incorrectly used.
After the stop of communist rule, each the ballet employer and opera employer on the Mariinsky Theatre
had been connected to the theatre via way of means of call, turning into the Mariinsky Ballet and
Mariinsky Opera and each businesses are run via way of means of the theatre itself.

Despite later call adjustments and pressures of the Russian revolution, the prevailing day Mariinsky
Ballet remains connected to the college, that's now called
 Notable dancers of Imperial Ballet:

Altynai Asylmuratova

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Vakhtang Chabukiani

Petra Conti

Natalia Dudinskaya

Ilya Gaft

Pavel Gerdt

Tamara Karsavina

Maria Khoreva

Ballet companies
The first ballet company was the Imperial School of Ballet in St. Petersburg in the 1740s. Sergey Diaghilev, (1872-192
founded the ballet company Ballets Russes in the 1909. Diaghilev intervened in every aspect of ballet - direction, produc
ballet company in Paris.[9] A protégé of Diaghilev, George Balanchine, founded the New York City Ballet in 1948. Today, th
the Bolshoi company are two world-renowned Russian ballet companies that tour the world.

Ballets Russes
By the early 1900s the Russian ballet went beyond its borders and infiltrated Paris. It had become its own force and was di
society. In 1903 Ivan Clustine, a Russian dancer and choreographer who had started his career at the Bolshoi Theatre, wa
hiring promoted a frenzy of questions about his nationality and choreographic agenda: “His hiring was thought a direct attem
thought as much, maintaining, not without despondency, that inspiration too often came from the north: ‘A revolution! A me
although acknowledging his nationality with pride, harbored none of the revolutionary intentions that some thought an inevit
The Parisians, while denying adoption of the backwards Russian troupe, had distinct Russian influence in their theater. “De
post-1909 ballets, along with its institutional conventions and balletic policy, appeared to betray a Russian influence.” [8] The
While their style was not only being accepted in Paris, but implemented in Paris theaters, the Ballets Russes were still cons
Ballets Russes, at base, became a metaphor for invasion, an eternal force that could engulf and control, could penetrate th
embracing of Russian ballet in the Paris society became a point of contention and French nationalism collided with Russian
the Paris theaters under the title “cultural politics” including “the delimitation of boundaries, the preservation of identity and
Russia was incapable of simply bringing Russian culture to the West, but created a paranoia of intentions wherever they w
France through the arts was a testimony to their political allegiances. “French critics acknowledged a shared choreographic
century, only to return, decades later, under the guise of the Ballets Russes. The company, then, moored in a history that in
programme of exchange. The Ballets Russes were a testament to Franco-Russian cooperation, goodwill and support; they
strengthening of the alliance).”[7] However, the relationship made a negative turn when duplicity amongst the alliance arose.
banks, “the Russians no longer interested in supporting French culture and colonial politics.” This duplicity gave fuel for the
the arts. The Parisian press spoke of the Ballets Russes in terms of both “enchantement’, ‘bouleversement’ and ‘fantaisie’.
company’s Parisian presence in terms of ‘assaut’ (onslaught) and ‘conquete’ (conquest).” [7] The dual-faceted relationship ca
One French journalist, Maurice Lefevre, called on his fellow Parisians to see the reality of the Russian invasion as though it
ask whether our guests are not about to become our masters.” [7] To imply that Russia was about to take over France throug
suggest the fears were real among those in Paris.