Ballet master

A ballet master (English Ballet Master, French maître de ballet, Spanish Maestro de ballet ), formerly also dancing master, is an employee at the theater or at a ballet company, which for the skill of the dancers in the company and the quality of execution of the dances ( choreography ) is responsible. Ballet master ballet classes and daily exercise usually prepare them for current or upcoming pieces.

History

The Dancing Master is originally a dance teacher and was since the modern era, as the dance for the education of the nobility was of major significance a kind of etiquette you teacher for sons and daughters, as the tutor. Therefore, the phrase " dance to his fiddle " comes from: The Dancing Master violin was the most important tools of a dancing master.

Because the ceremonial of the court and the court theaters were separate until about 1700 hardly the dance master for the arrangement of social events, or contra dances at the ball were just as responsible as for the dances on the stage, which were incorporated with the majority in operas and plays. This dual function of the ballet master as a dance teacher of the high aristocracy and as a choreographer at the theater holds in some cases until the 20th century, as in the person of Carl Godlewskis at the Vienna Court Opera.

The dancing master by the end of the 18th century were responsible for the compilation of music and often even the composer of ballet music. Also this tradition held in the entertainment theater for a long time, such as in Charlie Chaplin or Grock who composed their own music.

There were numerous traveling dance masters who were in great demand as a counselor of noble and wealthy bourgeois families and also responsible for the dissemination of the latest social dances and fashions were as for the development of ballet repertoire since the 18th century. This dance master also wrote treatises and other dance manuals that could be selling well. The most prominent among them is Jean -Georges Noverre. Jean also Dauberval Filippo Taglioni or were still traveling dancing master. The dancing master arranger given dance steps in that time has to be a choreographer, the greater artistic freedom.

A traveler had a higher social position than a propelled. In the traveling dance and ballet masters that demarcation was not always clear. Also the traveling theaters led dance master for the arrangement of the dances and tableaux vivants with. The dance training was the basis for all the performing arts. There was no clear demarcation between actors, singers and dancers, and thus only a few specialized ballet troops.

A professionalization of ballet dance happened in the 19th century. Thus, the dancing-master could finally become " Ballet Master " and will rise by a teacher of social etiquette to an artistic director, who barely had to deal with amateurs or dance little advanced actors and singers. This high degree of specialization of the professional dancers, however, was counteracted by currents emanating about François Delsarte and later culminated in modern dance and dance theater.

Since the end of the 19th century, the position of the First ballet master was also referred to as the main choreographer who in turn was a kind of director. His duties were, among others, to develop dances, select pieces, to make arrangements with the composer and, of course, to train the dancers.

After 1900, the term second ballet master was rather used to describe the rector or director of a ballet company. Since the term ballet master still attached the function of the dancing-master, independent ballet companies today often have a ballet director.

Presence

Today, the ballet master at the theater is often subordinated to a ballet director. He manages the daily training, the gas- animal border choreographer is in new productions to the side, takes over the evening director and may also lead the samples at revivals. Its function is the same in many of the assistant directors in theater and opera.

Ballet master need extensive experience as a dancer. Bigger houses often employ several ballet master.

Famous ballet master

• Gottfried Taubert (1679-1749): Dance Master in Gdansk and Leipzig. He published in 1717 the authoritative treatise on Baroque dance righteous in German dancing master, which also includes several dances by Raoul Auger Feuillet and Louis - Pécour next to the first German translation of Feuillet notation.
• Jean Dauberval (1742-1806): French ballet master. Today he is considered the father of the comic ballet.
• Filippo Taglioni (1777-1871): 1803 ballet master in Stockholm.
• Jean Coralli (1779-1854): ballet master at the Paris Opera.
• August Bournonville (1805-1879): 1828-1879 ballet master of the Royal Danish Ballet and the choreographer of Denmark to this day productive.
• Jules Perrot (1810-1892): 1850-1859 ballet master at the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg. Before Perrot went to Russia, he worked in his home country, France.
• Marius Petipa (1818-1910): was by Arthur Saint- Léon ballet master of the Imperial Theatre in Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
• Arthur Saint- Léon (1821-1870): French ballet master and 1859-1869 successor of Jules Perrot in the Kirov Ballet.
• Carl Godlewski (1862-1949), German -Austrian ballet master and choreographer at the Vienna Opera.
• Tatjana Gsovsky (1901-1993), Russian- German ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet master at the Berlin State Opera, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Frankfurt Opera.
• Frederick Ashton (1904-1988): 1963 ballet master, choreographer and director with the Royal Ballet.
• George Balanchine (1904-1983): 1949-1982 ballet master and director at the New York City Ballet.
• Alice Kaluza ( * 1920 ) is a German dancer, choreographer and ballet master at the Staatsoper Berlin
• Rudolf Nureyev Chametowitsch (1938-1993): 1983-1992 ballet master with the Ballet de l' Opéra de Paris. Previously, he was a famous dancer.
• Anthony Dowell (* 1943): 1980 ballet master, choreographer and director with the Royal Ballet.