Brief introduction of modern ballet and detailed explanation of its representative works

At the beginning of the 20th century, when classical ballet reached its peak in Russia, a group of elites were dissatisfied with the conservative status quo. They can't realize all kinds of ideals of ballet's restart in their own country, so they can only enter Paris with Russian ballet agent Sergei Dyagilev in the name of "Russian ballet" and open up a new era of "modern ballet" for the whole ballet history with a large number of fresh, unique and creative new works.

The 20th century is an era of awakening, and it is also an era of explosion, common sense explosion and information explosion. As far as dance is concerned, it is an era when works explode. In the original "drama ballet", two new dance varieties, symphonic ballet and psychological ballet, were born.

Wei Wei tidied up the era of modern ballet, in which masters came forth in large numbers and masterpieces emerged one after another. I divide it into early, middle and late stages according to the difference of masculinity and characteristics between the Spring and Autumn Period and generations.

Early stage:

Tears Spring is a four-act ballet, which belongs to the early masterpiece of modern ballet in the former Soviet Union. On September 28th, 1934, the ballet of Leningrad Kirov Theatre premiered. Screenwriter N volkov, composer B Asafyev, director R zakharov, set designer V Huo Da Sevic, Polish princess Maria played by G ulanova, and Maria's fiance Wa. The literal translation of this question is called the Fountain of saraj in Bakhti. 196 1 was translated into Chinese when it was staged in China. The script is adapted from a long poem of the same name and another short poem by Russian poet A Pushkin, and the genre is determined as "a romantic dance poem" all the way, striving to convey the high unity of "musicality" and "narrative" in the original work. In order to make the relationship between characters and drama conflicts in ballet more obvious, the screenwriter added the first scene and handed over the identity of the first heroine Maria to the Polish princess. At the same time, she joined her fiance Vaclav, so that before the tragedy of Tatar snipers, a sweet love duet was placed for them, and when the tragedy occurred, they were executed together with the invaders, conveying the tragic characteristics of "killing beauty in public for people to see" with the dance image of the trinity of vision, hearing and kinesthetic. The clue of the ballet is that King Geely of Tatar attacked the Polish kingdom in the middle of the night, robbed Princess Maria who was about to get married and returned to the palace in saraj, Bakhti province.

Faced with Maria's stunning beauty and weak and kind endowment, he became a prisoner after years of unconquerable, and his heart experienced a gradual change of suffering. He tried to propose marriage and was repeatedly rejected, but he still patiently looked forward to his career. Unexpectedly, his whimsy ignited the jealousy in his favorite Zalma. After extreme threats and confusion, she ended Maria's innocent life with a dagger and was pushed down the valley by Gillette's soldiers. In order to carve the eternal love for Maria, express their grief and express their kindness, Gillette built a "tears" spring that flowed day and night, leaving a legend that "beauty is omnipotent" and "love is supreme" for future generations. The script of this ballet was once praised as "a typical realistic ballet script" by the former Soviet Union. As far as the director is concerned, it is not only a successful virginity work directed by zakharov Banner, but also the first successful work of the former Soviet Union's "Drama Ballet" adapting excellent literary themes and using stanislavski's drama performance system to create realistic ballet, which has accumulated valuable experience for the later ballet Romeo and Juliet. The great success of "Tears Springs" is attributed to the great ballet dancer ulanova, because he portrays "Maria", a feminine figure similar to the heroine. On her deathbed, Maria became a legend in the whole ballet history of the former Soviet Union because of her: at the moment when she was stabbed in the back, there was only a slight spasm, and then she lifted her shoulder blades and urged her arms to slide up along the stone pillars gradually, using all her strength to delay the erection of her body, which implied her perseverance; When she was freed from this painful spasm, she turned her face to Zalema, Gillette and every ugly audience, in order to reveal that extraordinary calm and emerge Pushkin's original liberation of "separating this desolate world".

The Flame of Paris is a ballet with four acts and five scenes, which belongs to the early masterpiece of modern ballet in the former Soviet Union. It premiered in the theater on10.7, and was written by N. volkov and V. Dunmaotriev, and composed by B. Asafyev. Jerome is played by V. Chabukiani, Jenny is played by O. Jordan, Therese is played by N. Anisimova, Depoilly de is played by N. Kinska, and mistral is played by K. sergeyev. As a ballet with a general theme, the theme of Flame in Paris is1the boiling weather when the rebellious people in Marseilles marched into Paris under the leadership of the leader Sharp Pope after the French flood in 792. The duet in the fourth act is often performed at the party as a small boutique program, while the condensed version of the whole play (1953) is made into a film, which together with Swan Lake and Tears of Bakhti saraj constitutes a complete film art film named the ballet trilogy. This ballet 1933 was put on the stage by the ballet of Moscow University Theatre.

Death of a Swan is a female solo dance, which belongs to the early masterpiece of Russian modern ballet and the most vital classic in the whole ballet history. It premiered in a charity performance in St. Petersburg Noble Concert Hall on February 22nd, with music by C.C. Saint-Sang, choreographer by M. Fujin, costume designer by L. Baxter and performance by A. Its creation was inspired by the famous song Swan by French composer Saint-Sang. Accompanied by the piano, the violin gradually played a high-low sound pattern, which seemed to arouse the ripples of the lake, and then led to an innocent and noble swan-she turned her back on the ugly audience, silently appeared on a series of tiptoe steps, and gradually rubbed her arms with her breath, making the sweet melody of her arms and forearms run through her wrists and fingers, and finally released her fingertips into the air, thus becoming the main lyricist of her works. The slender and tall neck not only truly represents the elegance of ballet art, but also positively implies the survival desire of income and expenditure and even the whole animal kingdom. Finally, her center of gravity began to sink, and her uncontrolled hovering and lifting assimilated some helplessness, but until she finally fell to the ground, she was still vomiting. The beauty and solemnity of life. Although this woman's solo dance lasted only 4 minutes and 6 seconds, it showed pavlova's delicate and lyrical performance style, condensed the fleeting beauty unique to ballet, and implied such a beautiful and melodious theme as "Although she is dead, she always leaves an impression on unsightly audiences".

Firebird is a ballet with two acts, which belongs to the early masterpiece of modern Russian ballet. It premiered at the Paris Opera House on June 25th, 2000. It was written and directed by ballets russes Dyagilev, composed by M. Fujin, I. Stravinsky, directed by G. Pierne, designed by A. Golovin, designed by L. Baxter and Golovin, and designed by T. Firebird. It is a one-act modern ballet based on the Russian folklore Prince Ivan. The basic plot is that Prince Ivan Chalevich captured a magical paradise firebird. In exchange for freedom, the firebird gave him a magical feather, and promised the prince that as long as she said hello to the feather in an emergency, she would join him and eliminate the disaster for him. Soon, the prince rescued the beautiful woman, Xia Le Wei Fu Na, from the great demon Kaschi, and was saved by the firebird. Finally, he finished the play, and all's well that ends well. Firebird's success was first attributed to Dia Gilev's insight. He decided to choose the fledgling Stravinsky when the composer who was originally entrusted could not submit the manuscript. The composer consciously used discordant interval relations and uneven rhythm patterns such as 7/4 beat and syncopation in his creation, which vividly captured and reproduced the original mystery and tension of the Russian nation. From the director's point of view, the single-act structure of the work and the blending style of dance and drama show that ballet has surpassed the "classical" era and entered the "modern" era. Among them, Errenzhuan-the theme of love and Aba mode, is aimed at the old concept of Errenzhuan in classical ballet, grasping the clues of plot growth and the needs of people's sense of smell and painting, and carefully designing the theme of "rival in love" and ABC mode, thus choreographing three connected dance fragments of "pursuit", "persistence" and "release", ensuring the mutual reflection and gripping of dance and drama.

Sacrifice of Spring is a two-act ballet, which belongs to the early masterpiece of modern Russian ballet. It was premiered by Dyagilev of ballets russes at the Champs Elysé es Theatre on May 29th, 2003. I Stravinsky and N ilych wrote lyrics, Stravinsky composed music, P Montt directed it, V Nijinsky directed it, M rehearsed it, and M pirk played "The Girl Sacrificing Spring". The lead dancer was a 300-year-old woman who declared war on the elderly in the Spring and Autumn Period, and a large number of groups. The positioning of the original script-"There are many pictures of Russian infidels in the second act" is famous as it is no longer the narrative tradition of classical ballet, and there will be no personality contradiction and drama conflict between the characters, thus drawing a clear line with romantic classical ballet such as Swan Lake before the end of 19. The whole drama is divided into two acts, focusing on the theme of completing the original worship of "harmony between man and nature" through process dance. The first scene is a "big sacrifice", which shows that all the left-behind people gather outdoors and complete the annual reproductive reverence ceremony with various dances. The second act is "Sacrifice of Spring", which shows that the whole tribe elects a most beautiful and pure virgin every year-a girl dedicated to spring, and then she dances to the sky and finally marries the hero of the sun god for ostentation and extravagance. The work caused a great uproar in the theater when it premiered, and had to be kept in order by a large number of police, and then it was only performed in Paris and London for six times. The first reason is that Stravinsky's music is shocking all the way, and the rough and unpleasant dissonance seems to indicate that the end of the world is coming; Nijinsky's choreography, on the other hand, used all the anti-ballet movements on the anklets, clumsily downward, which not only made the conservative and ugly "ballet capital" Paris free from restraint, but also made the avant-garde and ugly audience here ecstatic. The publication of Sacrifice of Spring heralds a new century of aesthetic pluralism. Therefore, since the premiere of 19 13, it has always attracted talented choreographers from all over the world, becoming the most vital work in the whole ballet history, with more than 100 well-known versions and 20 with world influence.

Sacrifice to Spring is a ballet with four performances, and it is also an early masterpiece of modern Russian ballet. It was premiered by Dia Gilev ballets russes at the Paris Lyric Theatre on June 3rd, 1923. The lyrics and composers are: I Stravinsky, Instruction E Ansermet, Director B Ni Kinska, Set and Costume Design N Goncharova, and the bride is F Du. This work has no traditional significance? Hey? Drama, but the abstract action art of ballet, reproduces the traditional Russian marriage customs and etiquette. The first act of the play is: bless the bride, the second act is: bless the groom, the third act is: the bride leaves home, and the fourth act is the wedding celebration. The protagonists are the bride, groom, Waco, mother of the bride, father of the bride, father of the groom, mother of the groom, bridesmaid and best man. The primary characteristics of this version of Kinska are: in the overall spirit and tone, through the color contrast of clothing and scenery and the intense bickering process, the colorful and royal style of Russian classical ballet has been changed, and ballet, an aristocratic art, has returned to the simplicity, dignity and local love of Russian countryside; In terms of time and space and strength, through the process, the purpose of various force targets is condensed into the direction of action, which changes the aesthetic feeling and lightness of Russian classical ballet lines, and makes the natural texture of ballet movements fall back to the secular mode of Russian people, which not only increases the difficulty of action transformation, but also highlights the sense of ritual and tragedy of Russian marriage customs. In the triple correspondence of chorus singing, percussion performance and dance movement generation, the strength, vibration and impact of the trinity of vision, hearing and kinesthetic are enough to prove the rationality of the concept of "form has its content" in modern dance; In terms of the function of clothing and dance beauty, through the process, the clothing and wooden wall rooms that look like daily life are carefully designed, creating some real and concrete features for the relatively abstract dance movement arrangement.

Apollo is a two-part ballet, which belongs to the early masterpiece of modern Russian ballet. June 1928 premiered by Dia Gilev ballets russes at the Paris Sarah Vernalte Theatre. It was originally named the mentor of Apollo Muse, and was simplified to its present name in June 1957. It was composed by Stravinsky and choreographed by G. balanchine. Apollo was played by S Li Fa, the dancing muse Tessicoury was played by A Nikitina as the profile of simonov, the ode muse Polonia was played by L Chernicheva, and the epic muse Kalliope was played by F Dubrovska. The plot of this work has been greatly diluted: Apollo, the sun god, will be born by Zeus and Leto tomorrow. In the process of teaching with three muses, he took over the comprehensive art education and * * * education, then began to mature, and finally died at the foot of Olympus. In this work, balanchine boldly broke the stylized speech of academic ballet, abandoned all kinds of decorative movements, properly accepted the angular and distorted features of modern dance vocabulary, and created unprecedented new movements in classical ballet, such as four people walking together, the muse sitting up and down with his toes wrapped, Apollo sitting on the ground supporting the dance muse to stretch his hind legs, Apollo opening his palm and doing radial movements, etc. , with a clear and witty action texture. At the end of the dance, the dance embodied by these four people can be described as the most unforgettable classic in ballet in the 20th century. When Apollo stretched out his arms and appeared steadily with a bow and arrow, the three muses took him as the support point and began to tilt their center of gravity forward, and after his death, they stretched out their hind legs at a compass angle step by step, which not only hinted at the need of life for sunshine, but also hinted at women's desire for men, thus constructing a radiant image of the sun god. Moreover, in the simplest way, it reflects the four-in-one western classical ideal of poetry, music, dance and drama in ancient Greek civilization, and even reveals the male individualism in balanchine's blood and even in his bones! Because of this, balanchine has always had a soft spot for this work, and at the same time, he has been constantly entering the market to strengthen the overall trend of "simplicity"-finally, he not only lost the headdress of the muse, but also briefly described the costumes of the four characters, and also deleted the scenery of Mount Olympus and the platform used to symbolize it later? This reflects his firm belief in the power implied in the action itself. In the history of ballet growth, the symbol of Apollo marks the birth of "neoclassical ballet", because ballet bid farewell to the deadlock of "dramatic ballet" dominating the world and entered a new scale of "symphonic ballet", which enriched the ballet in the 20th century.

Mid-term stage:

The ballet Romeo and Juliet consists of prologue, three acts, 13 scenes and an ending. It belongs to the mid-term masterpiece of modern ballet in the former Soviet Union and is the most famous work in Shakespeare's ballet competition. It premiered in June 1940, 1 1 at the Kirov Theatre Ballet in Leningrad. Screenwriters S prokofiev and L Lavrovski, composer prokofiev, choreographer Lavrovski, choreographer P Williams, Juliet played by G ulanova, Romeo played by K sergeyev, Tibolt played by R Gerbec, and Mercutio played by A Lopov. Ballet strictly follows the creative path of socialist realism, and is as faithful as possible to the clues and spirit of Shakespeare's original tragedy, revealing the eternal theme of "love is supreme" and the fundamental reason of "peace between people". The play is large in scale, numerous in characters, full of suspense and pleasing to the ear. The first clue of the plot is that Montaigne and Capulet have been feuding for a long time, but I didn't expect that Romeo, the son of your Mongolian, and Juliet of Caesar were privately married for life because of love at first sight. However, due to the deep resentment between the two masters, despite all kinds of efforts, the two young people could not break through many obstacles and get married openly. Finally, they had to go to the underworld to tie the knot again. Faced with the cost of blood and life, the two masters finally shook hands. Its great charm lies not only in the power that Shakespeare's tragedy shocked Liu He to make people cry, but also in the fact that the choreographer dared to break the duet of classical ballet from the plot clues, blindly flaunted the ABA model of stylized technology, and created a trilogy of duet with scene blending, emotional dance interaction and step by step. The first duet is the fourth scene of the first act at the moment, and its originality lies in that although the two cannot fight between the two masters. The second paragraph presents the fifth scene of the first act at the moment, namely the famous balcony couple dance, which is a classic dance performed by ballet companies from all over the world. The typical situation shifted to the moment when two lovers met for the first time, and the intensity, amplitude, difficulty and speed of the dance movements naturally entered an eternal climax from small to large, from slow to urgent; The third paragraph takes place in the first scene of the third act, and it is called "two people in the bedroom". The typical situation is Romeo and Juliet, where will you go? The arrangement of the movements is ups and downs, sad and beautiful, the logic of the movements is smooth and coherent, and then the silent words indicate the final outcome of this love tragedy. As an extreme of the tension in the whole dance drama, these intimate, warm and delicate duets are very different from the extremes of blood swords and gnashing teeth that have repeatedly erupted in the square, which ensures that Shakespeare's tragedy of "speaking with words" can also be enriched in the ballet competition of "speaking without words".

Serenade is a four-movement symphony ballet, which belongs to the mid-term masterpiece of modern American ballet. On June 1934, students from American Ballet School premiered at FM Wahlberg Manor in White plain, New York, with P.I. Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky as the music and G. balanchine as the director. On February 8th, 65438, it premiered at the Affri Memorial Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut, and added the scenery designed by G Longchang and the costumes designed by J luke. 1 935 March1premiered by American Ballet at Adelphi Theatre in new york; After 1936, the scenery was discarded, and during 1964, Mrs. B. Kalinska was invited to design the clothes. As a symphonic ballet without plot, the problem of the work is taken from Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's orchestral Serenade C, which is choreographed and performed in four movements: sonata, waltz, Russian theme and elegy. Although the ending movement has a romantic and sentimental atmosphere, especially the girl who was abandoned by teenagers twice finally fell to the ground and died, and then was held high by three teenagers. In the director's own words, "Serenade" actually didn't tell any story with its whole life. If it's not beautiful, you have to say that it's a story. It's just music and dance telling their own stories. It's simple, but a group of dancers are singing beautiful dreams in the bright moonlight. For the unattractive audience, visually, 28 dancers dance in light blue veils on a blue background; It is auditory, and the composer's third and fourth movements are reversed in turn; In kinesthetic sense, it shows a female dancer who is late and then rushes to her very prominent position to dance, while another female dancer accidentally falls to the ground. These two unexpected * * * were originally balanchine's habitual mentality of letting modern artists go with the flow, and moved the real affairs presented in the rehearsal to the work truthfully, but inadvertently added color to this ballet that is not dramatic. In addition, the performance scale of seventeen, nine or six female dancers with different numbers, the unexpected arrival of male dancers and so on. , has always been a beautiful talk in the international dance world, because all this is not balanchine's satisfactory pursuit, but is naturally determined according to the number and gender of dancers who join the rehearsal every day.

Exquisite and Exquisite is a two-stage ballet, which belongs to the mid-term masterpiece of modern British ballet. 1on April 25th, 966, it was premiered by the British Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. The music was played by E Sadie, the orchestration was played by C Debussy, Roland Manuel and J Ranchbailey, the choreographer was played by f·a· Heaton, and the costume designer was played by A Heaton. It was the first of two trio dances. It first appeared on1March 24th, 965, and was performed by V Roland, A Doyle and R Meade. Then the first three-person dance "Earth" was put in front of it, and was performed by A Sibly, G Parkinson and B Shaw. This work consists of two dance pieces. The first paragraph is called "The Moon", and its coming out opportunity comes from a fund-raising party of the Royal Ballet in 1965. As the chief director of the group at that time, Heaton had to create a "not too long work". Coincidentally, American astronauts landed on the moon at this time, realizing the dream of mankind since ancient times. When the movement came, he couldn't help but have a boiling passion, which was even more like a dream: a group of dreamy and realistic dance images stood out among the three ballerinas with outstanding premise, harsh standard and feeling, and extremely "sculptural beauty", which finally sublimated the unique line beauty of ballet and various organic changes of human movements into this point. At the same time, Heaton has always had a soft spot for the music of French composer E Sadie, and finally found a good opportunity to use it: the dim and tinkling music in his piano music "Naked Song and Dance" portrayed the distant and ethereal image of the moon just right, clear and transparent. The success of "The Moon" prompted Heaton to create another dance part called "The Earth", and the music was composed by J Ranchberry, a famous British composer and conductor, for another piece of Sadie's "Mystery". Heaton's "extreme sensitivity to music" has always enjoyed a high reputation in the international ballet circle, and it has been fully displayed in this work, which not only gives people smooth aesthetic enjoyment, but also makes great contributions to English humor and lyricism, thus making the Royal Ballet gradually enter the ranks of "one of the six first-class classical ballet companies in the world".

Lilac Garden is a one-act play, which belongs to the mid-term masterpiece of modern British ballet and the pioneering work of psychological ballet. It was premiered by Lambert Ballet at London's Macquarie Theatre on 10/936 65438+265438, composed by A. Tudor and H. Stevenson, composed by E. Xiao Song and directed by Tudor. The outline of the ballet is: out of snobbery or for some other reason, the heroine Caroline reluctantly bid farewell to true love and intends to marry someone else; Besides, at her farewell party, she met an ex-lover who was a complete stranger to her fiance. The bright moon in the sky, pale and helpless, vast sea of people, running back and forth; Affectionate, hard to part with, the tie, go their separate ways-although both men and women want to have a last kiss with their persistent old love before this strange circle of separation, sorrow and joy, overlapping and overlapping, they can't do it, and finally they can only leave awkwardly, leaving poor Caroline fainted in the arms of her fiance who doesn't really love her. The work bid farewell to all pantomime gestures used in traditional ballet, and only through precise and delicate action design, spatial changes between the four protagonists and suppressed stage air, they were trapped in the red tape of the upper class, and the situation of boiling blood and mixed feelings was vividly interpreted. The music used in the work is the famous violin and band song "Poetry" by French composer Xiao Song, which was praised by dance critics as the pioneering work of "Psychological Ballet" on the opening night.

Later period:

Spartak is also a magnificent ballet with four acts and nine scenes, which belongs to the late masterpiece of modern ballet in the former Soviet Union. Performed by the Ballet of Moscow Grand Theatre at the theatre on April 9th 1968. The composer is A. Khachaturian, the director is Y. Grigolo, and the set and costume designer is S. Virsaladze. Spartak was played by Vasiliev. Ballet is mainly adapted from the historical novel of the same name by the ancient Greek writer Plutarch. It describes a true and tragic story that happened during the decline of the Roman Empire in 73 BC, but it also adds and deletes some typical characters and situations. The first clue is that many thracian slaves died in the arena to satisfy the bloody hobbies of the nobles; In order to eliminate all kinds of inhuman treatment and gain personal freedom, they fought bloody battles under the leadership of Spartak, the leader of slave militia, and started this vast and magnificent just war with the Roman legion headed by crassus. Although the three armed forces were eventually wiped out because they were outnumbered, their spirit of fighting for freedom was forever engraved, praised, admired and moved by future generations ... The success of Grigolo's version lies in his smooth connection with the two-year-old tradition of "drama ballet" and "symphony ballet" in the former Soviet Union.

First of all, take "Spartak's Solo" as an example. There are nine solos in every scene. As far as the relationship between dance and emotion is concerned, the choreographer tries his best to design a dance for emotion, which ensures that the problem figure Spartak can have excellent dance fragments to complement each other in every restless place, and has difficult skills to vent his monologue, create a heroic image and highlight the impact and appeal of masculinity. The duet between the hero and heroine Spartak and Jiya also achieved every scene; Through the process, the director expressed the love between men and women in Where Are You Going, and created a plump and pleasing positive image for the slave owner Spartak. In the dance part, acrobatics and skillful movements are used for reference to a great extent, which not only implies the harmony between the hero and heroine, but also greatly enriches the original lifting skills of the classical ballet duet. In the creation of group dance, the play is at its peak, such as the dance of 40 slave men in the first act, which fully implies the determination of many slaves to rise up under the call of Spartak, smash chains and run for freedom, and fight to the death for thorough adjustment and release; The scale and arrogance of this large-scale male group dance can make outstanding contributions to completely changing the stagnation of yin and yang on the ballet stage and moving forward in vain.

Today, people have a conventional sense of familiarity, which is based on the influence of modern artistic thoughts on ballet in the early 20th century. Prior to this, works that followed the original program norms and heroic characteristics of ballet, whether ballet or small works, can be said to be classical ballet; However, many modern ballet works are different from the past in theme selection, or have refined action words in daily life, or other sister dances borrow dance vocabulary and implied techniques, forming a heroic style different from classical ballet, which is called "contemporary ballet" and "modern ballet". For example, The Red women soldiers, which belongs to the theme change, describes the story of China in the past 30 years, so it is labeled as "Modern Ballet", which means to weave the ballet of modern life. The change of theme will inevitably bring about the change of form. "Red women soldiers" has been accepted as the dance material of China people. Depending on the content of the play, it's a big break. According to the modern aesthetic concept, the action combination is deformed.

Ballet works that have greatly changed the original traditional ballet form include symphonic ballet (such as serenade and concerto), works that accept modern dance choreography style, skills and movements (such as), and works that collect costume changes to make them more exquisite and exquisite, so that they only wear dance training clothes on stage.

Masterpieces: Firebird, Sacrifice of Spring, Dancer of the Times.