The Russian Imperial Ballet moves in

by Gwen Herat

After the Romantic movement, especially in Italy, many choreographers were eager to move on and not rest upon the aegis of Romanticism and it was under this atmosphere that the Russian Imperial ballet moved in. This was the time that dancers and choreographers were entering one of the most important era of change.

From barre to pointe work... the strenuous and disciplined training emerging from the Imperial Ballet Theatre, are the results we see today.

To appreciate ballet in Russia one has to turn the clock on France's Romanticism back to about a hundred years or over. In the 17th century dancers and their kind were a common sight in the courts of the Tsars and the rich and influential. Unlike in Italy and France, the male dancer dominated because the dancers were closer to the land and held such exuberance and vigour. The female dancers had to take the second place.

Even today the male dancer is the important of the two; not until one of their great sons in the 20th century changed course for them. It was Rudolf Nureyev who was to blaze the trail as the finest of the century, after defecting to the West in 1962. He placed the male dancer centre stage and pushed the ballerina to where she should be. Russia was not happy about it.

From 1672 to 1725 Russia was stirring towards a cultural movement which the then Peter the Great was determined to achieve but he had the obstacles because he was bent more on military supremacy and toured Europe in search of it. It was then that he realised that alone was not enough but Russia also should be able to lift herself culturally. In this process he was enamoured by Western ballet and its grace and the music that went with it. He realised the difference in the crude folk dancing though energetic as against the graceful movements of ballet.

Passionate

Peter was so possessive and passionate about this art that he brought many such dancers from European countries to begin his dream. And in 1734 a French dancer, Jean-Baptist Lande who was also a ballet master, arrived in St. Petersburg. He took up the post of ballet master in an orphanage for poor children. At this time ballet was thriving in the West especially in Paris and Dresden. Lande continued to inspire ballet so much that he caught the eye of Empress Anne. So, one year after his arrival in St. Petersburg the Empress called on him to form the Academy of Dancing which led to the establishment of the Imperial Theatre School at the Winter Palace. It has 12 boys and 12 girls. Lane became the first director and he worked tirelessly that resulted in the birth of the Russian Imperial Ballet.

Russia received a further stimulus when Catherine the Great ascended the throne. She invited the controversial Italian dancer / choreographer / composer, Gasparo Angiolini to succeed Hilherding van Wewen claiming that the latter's practice of revealing the stories behind ballets is not necessary. Any ballet should be self-explanatory by movements alone and it has been proved right to this day around the world wherever ballet is performed.

With the arrival with yet another dancer, Charles Le Picq who took up the position of ballet master at St. Petersburg along with his wife Gertrude who went on to become the 'prima ballerina' of the company. La Picq who was Noverre's star pupil, introduced many of Noverre's ballets ensuring that without fail Russia maintained the traditions of the French ballet.

Orphanage

All this was a great jump from Lande's poor orphanage training to what was to come that made Russian so supreme in her ballet, second only to English ballet. At St. Petersburg the news of a iconic French dancer and choreographer, Charles Louis Didelot was exploding and mesmerising his audiences after doing the same in London and Paris reached the ears of Paul 1, Emperor of Russia who immediately asked him to take over St. Petersburg which he did from 1801 to 1811. He was the star who created 13 ballets with some of the graduates from the Imperial Theatre School.

Rudolf Nureyev and Patricia Nuanne is the perfect combination for the ‘fish-dive.’ Nureyev was the greatest dancer that Russia's ever produced and went on to make the world his stage.

However, Didelot found an ever-growing difficult period because the directors who came under his wings were not well disposed towards him as head of the Imperial Ballet Theatre. It was the scheming underhand malice of Prince Gagarin that frustrated him to quit before he was dismissed all due to mounting jealousy of ballet's enormous powers he held. Dejected and heartbroken without it because ballet had been his life, Didelot died in 1836 in Kiev.

Stimulus

At a time when it was low and to provide a useful stimulus, Marie Taglioni arrived in St. Petersburg to dance La Sylphide and other works. She was followed by yet another icon called Marius Petipa. He came from a theatrical background whence his father had been a ballet master and his mother a premier dancer. He uplifted the standard of Russian ballet and in 1845 became the Professor of Dancing at the Imperial Theatre School. Thus was the beginning of the momentum in Russian ballet whose perfect excellence we see in their dancer and who maintain the great traditions set before them to go into the future with the same aplomb. Russian ballet has her own syllabus whereas the rest of the world follow the one set by the Royal Ballet.

Russian ballet is foremost not only in mounting the glassics but many of Shakespeare plays. It played a great role in promoting their great composers, some who especially scored for ballet.