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Pearson 1 Aubrey Pearson Professor Edwin Austin Dance 477 13 April 2014

The Ballet Technique within The Moiseyev Folk Dance Ensemble The Moiseyev Folk Dance Ensemble of Russia is widely known for bringing folk dance into a theatrical light. Igor Moiseyev, the founder and director of the company, had a passion for taking the ideas of traditional folk dances and bringing it to the stage, enriching and reawakening cultural dances to the publics eye. The task of our company is to create classic patterns of the folk dance, and while casting off all the artificial and alien elements, to achieve a high degree of artistry in the performance of folk dances, to develop a number of old dances, and to influence the further shaping of the folk dance (Chudnovsky 18-19). Completely intrigued by the folk dance world, he devoted his life to such research and portraying the spirit of folk dance on the stage throughout his career. Because of the background of his early years, he was not only fascinated by folk dance but was knowledgeable in the art of classical ballet, which influenced the prominent characteristics of his company. Not only did he bring the world of folk dance to a performance setting but he creatively combined it with the classical ballet world, blending these cultures to create a beautiful and unique compilation on the stage. His goal was to preserve the basic pattern of the folk dance, its main national form and flavor, and at the same time give it a new interpretation (Chudnovsky 25) and he believed combining the two dance cultures would complete that purpose, ultimately creating the theatrical folk dance genre. While these two dance cultures may have very little in common, when Moiseyev combined them into a single concert

Pearson 2 the meticulous technique and performance quality of classical ballet enhanced his folk dances while the impactful emotion naturally present in folk dance enriched the ballet technique. As a result, Moiseyevs Dance Ensemble featured the best qualities of both the folk dance culture and classical ballet culture through dances of varying nationalities, influencing both dance genres for the better. Many critics, however, refute this statement. They claim that since ballet technique is largely prominent in Moiseyevs performances, his company is developing into a ballet company rather than remaining in the folk dance genre, emphasizing the technique rather than the raw emotion and meaning behind the movement. They argue that since ballet technique was not originally part of the folk dances performed by the common people, the addition of it subtracts from their genuineness. After the company performed in New York in 1986, New York Times published an article commenting on its masterful dancing, but also noted on how Russian dance experts worry that over the years Moiseyevs company lost and sacrificed some robust, forthright folk dance spirit that has animated its work (Barringer). By transforming from a folk dance ensemble into some sort of ballet company, the review continues, Moiseyev is losing its unique flavor (Barringer). With the incomparable amount of ballet companies to folk companies throughout the world, the review commented on how the company is wavering from its original distinctive qualities. Other reviews of his performances have similar critiques. Anna Kisselgoff, another writer of the New York Times reviewed their performance in 1986 as well. Kisselgoff praised Moiseyevs choreographic creativity and virtuosity that was both breathtaking and path breaking for the time of the formation of the company along with the brilliant technique seen from each dancer. But on the negative side, she found that the superb technique took over motivating

Pearson 3 impulse (Kisselgoff). Did the dancers know or remember the true purpose of the dance as their predecessors did? Did they care what the dance expressed emotionally? With the dancers seemingly more on assignment rather than on a cultural journey, the review found the cost of a certain raw vigor not worth the exceptional technique. Moiseyevs company has undergone strong critiques toward its motives and ethics ever since its establishment. Even at the start, there was frequent talk against the formation of such a company. People of Russia of that time believed a sharp line of distinction should remain between classical ballet and other forms of dance and Moiseyevs combination went against all ethics. Melding two such polar opposite forms of dance seemed unproductive. Judgments were also directed toward Igor Moiseyevs decision to leave the Bolshoi to create his own company. As the greatest ballet company in Russia at that time, people wondered if he thought himself arrogant enough to think he could create a company better than the Bolshoi (Chudnovsky 16). Because of his unique outlook, he received many opinionated criticisms toward his career choice, but Moiseyev remained strong in his pursuits and became very successful because of it. One strong belief he held to was that a professional company never exactly duplicates a dance of the common people. It is not their inability to duplicate the movement, costumes, and significance behind the movement, but rather, a professional group has different motives behind their actions. While the common people dance for their own enjoyment with no distinction between performers and audience, professional dance companies perform to please their audiences. The audience has high expectations for the show, hoping to see a deep investment and dramatic scenes on the stage (Chudnovsky 26). Stressing the difference between the dance of the common people and of a professional company became one of the aesthetic principles Moiseyev heavily depended on. He wondered why audiences would come to see simple dances that any

Pearson 4 common person could perform on their own. While anyone can go out on the streets to experience folk dancing, he emphasized how the intricate ballet technique of his dancers added something even more to the performance rather than taking away from it as some critics claimed. In his defense he stated, Whatever the narrow-minded experts might say, a stage dance is not a copy or a photograph of the original. The stage calls for a scenic dance form. What my company seeks in the dance is a beauty of movement and form that people will understand today (Ilupina 6). Moiseyev was very big into travelling throughout his life. He travelled from country to country studying their customs and traditional dances. Taking his vast knowledge of the cultures he then translated them into his choreography and dancers, who all had previous extensive ballet training either from his Folk Dance School or at the Bolshoi Ballet School (Ilupina 5). This revolutionary outlook on creating a folk company with its foundation in ballet was a result of Moiseyevs extensive ballet background in his early life. Born in 1906 in Kiev, Igor entered the private dance school of Vera Mosolava at age 14 under the insistence of his father. Immediately recognizing his talent, the school sent him to the Bolshoi Theater dance school after only 3 months. Having sent very few of their students to the Bolshoi Theater dance school that quickly, the private school knew he was destined for greatness. The Bolshoi Theater saw his talent as well and immediately after graduating from the choreographic school at age 18, he danced leading roles for the company, but he knew that his true passion was in teaching and choreographing. Therefore, at the age of 24, he branched out and became the theaters youngest ballet master where he taught and choreographed and had success with every dance he presented. Because of his choreographic success, he was asked to be a member of the panel of judges at the first festival of the U.S.S.R. folk dances. He was put in charge of following dance festivals from then on, enjoying every minute of colorful costumes, the enchanting spirit, and overwhelming

Pearson 5 joy presented on the stage. By way of these festivals, he was further and further convinced that folk dance was where his concentration should lie, writing that folk art had revealed his true calling to him (Chudnovsky 15). Through the many years of studying the art of ballet in his early years, it is evident he was enthralled with that specific style but after experiencing other forms of dance he was curious what could unfold if they were combined. This curiosity led him to forming his company, the State Ensemble of U.S.S.R. Folk Dance Company, eventually changing its name to The Moiseyev Folk Dance Ensemble. At this time in history, many people were breaking from the norm in the field of dance as Moiseyev was. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the Russians clung to aristocratic traditions, which was strictly classical ballet. The ballet companies catered to the tastes of their aristocratic public who, in fact, were the only people who could afford to see the performances, making dance a very exclusive art. To help the audience escape the gloom of the day, the ballets often revolved around light entertainment plots, such as fairy tales, fantasy, and enchantments, while completely avoiding actual emotions and feelings (Chudnovsky 8). The performances would remove the viewers from their current environment and bring them to a world full of fairies and trolls. This culture of classical ballet did not sit well for upcoming choreographers and dancers of the time who wanted to expand the horizons of dance and reach out of the confined box of ballet technique. Around the beginning of the 20th century, Michel Fokine paved a pathway for future choreographers in Russia. After being a lead with the Imperial Russian Ballet for quite a few years, Fokine realized he wanted to break from the traditions of classical ballet. He disliked how choreography and costumes clashed with the music and that the meaningless steps only existed to highlight external qualities, such as what the body was capable of, instead of inner feelings.

Pearson 6 He proposed the removal of pointe shoes to allow the women to dance freely in bare feet with the upper body similarly loose and natural (Krauss). He proposed these philosophies to the Imperial Ballet but was immediately rejected with no support for his radical ideas. Another notable and influential dancer of the time was Anna Pavlova of Russia. Her exploration of dance did not challenge the traditional way of technique or choreography as other choreographers did, but she was determined to change the exclusive feeling of ballet. She toured for 12 years around the world to spread the love of dance to everyone, especially to the common people who never had the opportunity to experience such an art previously. She was responsible for spreading ballet to every continent (Fisher). Around the same time but in the United States, Isadora Duncan believed that dance should be filled with personal expression instead of a vocabulary of steps like classical ballet. Therefore, in contrast to the ballet vocabulary, she emphasized natural movement with soaring arms, skips, and a swaying upper body. Her students were told to find their own movement preferences within their dancing rather than solely copying her own movement as classical technique often requires (Krauss). As these examples illustrate, people around the world were revolutionizing the dance culture with their own preferred movement styles, adding more emotion to the movement, and spreading the dance culture to various parts of the world around the time of Moiseyev. Even though these people had their own distinctive views and critiques of the classical ballet world they had one thing in common. They all believed that change was necessary. Moiseyev believed the same thing and he fashioned his own way to participate in this revolution as talked about previously, by adding qualities of classical ballet to folk dance and influencing both ballet and folk dance in a positive way. Similar to Michel Fokine, Moiseyev received lots of rejection and critique for his radical ideas. He had to stay confident in his purpose if he hoped to make a

Pearson 7 memorable effect. Moiseyev also had similar goals to Pavlova, who wanted to end the exclusiveness of dance. He placed folk dance on the stage to spread the knowledge of it to the public around the world. Finally, as Isadora Duncan eventually disregarded the ballet vocabulary through her personal experiences with ballet, Moiseyev also disregarded several elements of classical ballet he found disagreeable through his extensive experience with the art. As stated earlier, he had a vast life involvement in the ballet culture while growing up, proficient in every role within it, starting off as a dancer who took direction from his teachers, eventually becoming a technique teacher himself, and then ultimately choreographing ballets for the company. Through his vast experience in the ballet culture, he developed some of his own critiques of classical ballet, shaping his thoughts on how he thought ballet could be modified, and putting his ideas into action through the creation of his company. Moiseyev loved the technical mastery and high professional standards of classical ballet, with pointed toes, strong upper bodies, grace, and straight legs, which was familiar to him at a young age. These qualities are especially seen in his company. But he found several things in the ballet culture less than effective. First, he disagreed with the ever-present solo work that overpowered and ultimately choked the corps de ballet, leaving them only in the background. Everything lied on the shoulders of the principal dancer while the corps just waved their hands (Barringer). He felt the corps only offered decoration to the stage instead of bringing additional meaning to the dance, which is what specifically caught his eye while watching folk dance. To counteract this disagreeable quality of classical ballets, his company took quite the opposite approach. In his company, he said 95% of my dancers are soloists. The principal dancer in one dance will just be part of the background in another (Barringer). The company is known for their spectacular group work and formations, with occasional soloists coming in and out of the

Pearson 8 group. He knew how important group work was in traditional folk dance and was determined to keep that at the forefront of his company. Another quality he found displeasing in the classical ballet culture was the lack of emotion revealed on the stage due to the countless restrictions and limiting rules of the art. With the majority of the classical ballets focused solely on fairy tales and enchantments, Moiseyev did not see real nor raw emotion that would be very evident in the people they were trying to portray. He said classical ballet lives according to narrow rules, so strict and strained that it has become isolated even from its own people (Barringer). Speaking of his company he said, We take quite the opposite route. We strive to be closer to life, closer to the people. We dont live according to the theatrical tradition. We live in the peoples tradition (Barringer). Through his company, he hoped to uncover the raw emotion of the people, adding feelings to the ballet technique that he believed were not represented previously. The classical ballet culture has specific stereotypes connected to it, including the ones noticed by Igor Moiseyev. Because of his personal emic, he viewed the classical ballet culture in that way. After seeing the Moiseyev Companys path breaking success, with large and enthusiastic audiences developing wherever they toured, other folk dance companies began emerging. His concept of bringing folk dance to a performance setting was a revolutionary idea in the 1930s. Before the Moiseyev company came into existence only spontaneous and sporadic efforts were made to capture the essence of the folk dance (Chudnovsky 19), so this trend changed the folk dancing world. Depending on the directors preference of philosophy, some companies chose to follow after Moiseyevs footsteps and include a strong base in ballet while others agreed with the

Pearson 9 critics of Moiseyev and tried to keep the dancing as close to the original as possible. This battle between reality and performance still continues today. To acquire specific insight into whether a particular folk dance ensemble incorporates ballet technique into their performances or not, I interviewed two members of the Brigham Young University International Folk Dance Ensemble. This ensemble performs locally and has also toured across the US, through Asia, and also Europe. The first person I interviewed, Tanner Pearson, is no longer on the ensemble but was a member for several years. While he was a member the ensemble experienced a change of directors, allowing him to the see the difference of focus between the two. When I asked him about the prevalence of ballet technique emphasis between the directors he responded saying that his first director focused more on the folk dance feeling, the feel of the country, and why the people of that country danced. He made sure we knew the culture and the background of every dance while the new director the next year was more ballet technique based. She did not teach the culture as much as how to perform the steps correctly (Pearson). Even from the same school, different philosophies and focuses of a director transform a company. With the new director, Pearson noticed that the amount of ballet technique they did as a warm up before rehearsal increased. They began warm up by doing barre work, including plis, tendus, dgags, fondus, and grand battements. Then going across the floor they worked on balletic turns, jumps, and holding their arms in the correct ballet positions. All of this helped build strength and muscle memory that translated to their performances. The other person I interviewed was Brian Francis, a current member of BYUs Folk Dance Ensemble. He also commented on the extensive amount of ballet technique they do for their warm up each day. Specifically in their Irish and Ukranian dances, the ballet technique worked wonders for the

Pearson 10 company. Technique improved across the board (Francis). The aesthetic in Irish dances are turned out feet and pointed toes so with the help of constant ballet technique warm up, Francis found it easier to keep the feet turned out because of the built muscle memory. For Ukranian, Francis remembered a time when a Ukranian choreographer, Luba Grekov, came and taught them a dance for their upcoming show. He commented on how she was very persistent with how important ballet technique was and mentioned it several times a day in their rehearsals. Even from across the world, this choreographer knew how much ballet technique would influence the company. Both Pearson and Francis agreed that by incorporating more ballet technique into their warm up and therefore, into their dances, it enhanced the companys performances by building a strong core, developing good upper-body posturing, and increasing body awareness into the dancers. It allowed the team to create a better framework for the dances. We learned the dance steps and then the technique pieced it all together (Pearson). These comments from Pearson and Francis illustrated how ballet technique is still alive in the world of folk dance today. Ballet technique does more than just add a graceful element to a folk dance show. Directors of companies around the world find it valuable enough to incorporate it into their companies. The technique gives a certain performance quality and it strengthens the dancers enough to perform any step that is required. Moiseyev saw these benefits and introduced them into his own company, setting a ground-breaking tradition for future companies. Without forgetting the true meaning behind the movement, the ballet technique enhanced his companys dancing while the folk dance spirit and emotion gave more life to the ballet technique.

Pearson 11 Works Cited Barringer, Felicity. "Moiseyev's Dancers Edge Closer to Ballet." New York Times [New York City] 31 August 1986, n. pag. Print. Chudnovsky, M. Dancing to Fame. Moscow: 1959. 1-100. Print. Fisher, Jennifer. "The Swan Brand: Reframing the Legacy of Anna Pavlova." Dance Research Journal. (2012): n. page. Print. Francis, Brian. Telephone Interview. 02 Apr 2014. Ilupina, Anna, and Yelena Lutskaya. Moiseyev's Dance Company. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1966. Print. Jacobs, Laura A. "On Dance: From the USSR to the NYCB."New Leader [New York] 6 Februrary 1989, 22. Print. Kisselgoff, Anna. "Dance: Russian Troupe, The Moiseyev Company." New York Times [New York City] 04 September 1986, n. pag. Print. Kraus, Richard, Sarah Chapman Hilsendager, and Brenda Dixon. History of the Dance in Art and Education. 2. Print. Pearson, Tanner. Telephone Interview. 02 Apr 2014.

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