Not very long ago when people mentioned ballet, they thought of Russian
ballet. In fact ballet came to Russia relatively late. It brought
traditions from many other countries, mainly from France and Italy.
Actually Tsar Nicholas I was ready to spend great sums of money on the
dance companies, so ballet got recognition in the capital at St.
Petersburg and in Moscow.
The Russian ballet dates back to 1847. It was the year when
Marius Petipa, a young French dancer, arrived in St. Petersburg. He
found there a well-trained company, which consisted mainly of the
employees of the Imperial household. They were not spoilt by the
attention and glamour, because they were the Tsar's servants. The Tsar
wanted to see choreographies that had been seen in the times of the Sun
King. That is there was combination of romantic stories with a luxury
and pomp.
Under leadership of Petipa the Russian ballet became extremely
popular in the world. Within thirty years Petipa created over forty
full-length ballets, arranged dances for thirty-five operas and recast
seventeen ballet productions by other European masters.
Petipa's version of Giselle we still can see today. In the
Russian ballet of the nineteenth century everything was in harmony: the
music, which was written mainly by Ludwig Minkus, the staging, the
scenery, the costumes and choreography.
At the beginning of the twentieth century ballet was still
important in the cultural life of Russia, but gradually the romantic
haze was cleared away. The world changed and it was taken a different
view. The problems of love, hate, good, evil, were expressed in more
complex ways.
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