Dance Criticism Lecture

12th March 2013

Marius Petipa
Born 1818, trained by his father Jean-Antoine Petipa.
Worked in Belgium,US and Spain among other places. In Spain he choreographed for
the first time. Had to leave in a hurry as he had an affair with another mans wife,
however he'd been there for about four years, learning all about Spanish dance.
Loved Spain and Spanish dance.
Went to St Petersburg in 1847 as a principal dancer at the Mariinsky Ballet. In 1848,
the new ballet master was June Perrot (Giselle). Ten years later the ballet master was
Arthur St. Leon (Coppelia). This meant that Petipa had a long apprenticeship.
His original ballets had been choreographed for his wife Maria Surovshikova, but his
most important ballet ever made was his first full length ballet made in 1862 - La Fille
du Pharaon (The daughter of the Pharoah). This happened with St. Leon went to Paris
for a while and he was allowed to choreograph. Made it in six weeks, as he wanted to
make it before St. Leon came back and had the chance to change it or not allow it.
Determined to get in on stage, and under his long apprenticeship had been working
out a grand synthesis of all his ideas about the staging of ballets. As consequence,
the ballet was a huge success. Came to be known as under the style the ballet a
grand spectacte. (Big, spectacular, full of visual interest, on an ambitious scale). His
style that he choreographed in thereafter.
1870 Petipa became the undisputed ballet master of the Mariinsky Ballet.
In 1869 he choreographed Don Quixote, the ballet that clinched his job as ballet
master. A Ballet with a SPANISH theme, something he knew all about. Made over 50
full legnth ballets but the ones still in the repetoire and infact the core of it are; 1877
La Bayadere, 1890 The Sleeping Beauty, 1895 Swan Lake, 1898 Raymonda. He also
reworked many older ballets; Le Corsaire, Giselle, Coppelia, Paquita, Nutcracker (Lev
Ivanov).
He created the Imperial Style.
- A grand synthesis of all his ideas
Petipa did not invent the ballet a grande spectacte, it was known under a different
name; Feerie (fairy). Grand processions, huge costumes, fountains on stage, mystical
etc. The Imperial style was more than this, He bought together all of these different
elements.
For example in Petipa ballets:
- all dancers wear rose pointe shoes
- ballerinas wore jewels on stage (tiaras, earings, necklaces)
- tutu shape changed from the bell shaped Romantic tutu into more like the style we
know today, shorter and to the knees. Dancer Mathilde Kchessinskaya was the first
dancer to wear the very short one that stuck out only to the sides as she had very
short legs and this elongated them. This needed to happen because of the increasing
amount of Virtuoso steps coming into the repetoire (mens did not change as their
dancing did not become more virtuoso until the 20 century, not under Petipa).
Petipa based everything on the structure of the ballet. Always included processions,
different variations, He decided the structure of a grand pas de deux:

adage\adagio
male variation
female variation
coda
After this came a ballabile, and an apotheosis (tableau).
Corps de ballet
(Fonteyn, M. The Magic of Dance, BBC Publications, 1980)
"He divided his corps de ballet into groups that wheeled and circled, criss-crossed
and formed lines and chains in a gloriously inevitable flow that settled into a
harmonious picture on the last chord of the music. (...) he frequently introduced
children in lines and patterns that intertwined with the adults and he contrasted
lying, kneeling, half-lunge and full-pointe positions whenever the dancers came to
rest to create a pyramid".
Always playing with heights on stage, children adults etc. Loved props - wands, cups,
capes, torches, garlands, he gave people things to wave, ribbons etc. He used items
like "rocks" for dancers to stand on to vary height on stage even more.
Examples:
Don Quixote 1869, capes, fans, gold cups, daggers etc
La Bayadere 1877, ostrich feather fans, tree fans, grand set, small fans, procession,
canapy, stools for the dancers to sit on, a dressed stage with props and bodies.
Makes a picture.
How he moves people is very natural, looks totally inevitable. Always themes steps.

Petipa's Formulae
ballet a grande spectacle
the imperial style
grtand pas de deux structure
centrality of the ballerina
partnering - elevating the ballerina
balliabile
solo femle variations
apotheosis
corps de ballet work
topicality- suprising his aristocratic audiences
national dances
exotic locations
Paquita
original choreographer - Mazilier, set in spain
Grand pas - wedding celebration, added onto the end. choreography was so good it's
now performed as a act one ballet, minus the children dancing a polonaise.
National Dances
Spanish Dance
Arabian

Mirlitons
Chinese
Russian
Indian - Bayadere
Egyptian - Daughter of the Pharoah

Petipa's Sleeping Beauty

Fairy Variations: Candine - fairy of purity (cleansing mime), Miettes Qui Tombant fairy of generosity (falling breadcrumbs mime), Canari Qui Chante - fairy of
eloquence (hands over the face, song mime), Violenta - fairy of temperament (finger
variation).
All of his female variations were to enhance the femeninity and all for males were to
enhance the masculinity.