A ballet company is a type of dance troupe that performs classical ballet , neoclassical ballet , and/or contemporary ballet in the European tradition, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-round basis, except in the United States, where contracts for part of the year (typically thirty or forty weeks) are normally offered. A company generally has a home theatre where it stages the majority of its performances, but many companies also tour in their home country or internationally.
21-415: A ballet master (also balletmaster , ballet mistress , premier maître de ballet or premier maître de ballet en chef ) is an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company. In modern times, ballet masters are generally charged with teaching the daily company ballet class and rehearsing the dancers for both new and established ballets in
42-399: A music director , generally a conductor by profession, though this is often a part-time position. The music director has a lower status in ballet than they have in opera, where they are the head of the company. Freelance conductors are hired to conduct specific productions as and when required. Large companies have their own orchestra , which is often shared with an opera company resident in
63-748: A former inmate of the Orphanage, soloist of the Court Stage at St. Petersburg and choreographer of the Petrovsky Theatre in Moscow. Petersburg's choreographers Ivan Valberg, A. August, and others after them, borrowed and developed Balashov's methods. And in 1812-14 Russian folk dances were successfully shown by Charles Didelot and his colleagues in a "Russian Divertissement" at King's Theatre in London. Folk traditions have been incorporated into what
84-629: A gender-neutral hierarchy. Some companies (mainly in Russia and countries strongly influenced by Russian ballet ) employ specialist character dancers : unlike ballerinas female character dancers do not dance en pointe . The largest ballet company in the world is the Bolshoi Ballet of Moscow, which employs over 240 dancers, as of 2010. The largest companies in Western Europe and North America employ around one hundred. Many companies have
105-422: A loss at the box office and depend on external financial support of one kind or another. In Europe, most of this support comes in the form of government subsidies, though private donations are usually solicited as well. In North America, private donations are the main source of external funding. Many ballet companies have an associated school which trains dancers. Traditionally the school would provide almost all of
126-526: A permanent staff of craftsmen and craftswomen such as prop makers and costume makers, and technical staff such as lighting technicians and stage managers. Smaller companies hire freelancers for these roles as and when required. Some companies also have physiotherapists , masseurs , and physical trainers on the staff. The term " ballet " is sometimes used to refer to dance styles in any culture's classical tradition, mainly about classical styles of dance performed in parts of Asia. Classical Ramayana Hindu ballet
147-516: A separate skill within the graded examinations syllabus of the Royal Academy of Dance , Statni Konzervator Praha. Most performing companies or schools elsewhere are not familiar with the history or technique of this style. Therefore, the term character dance is often used in misleading ways that have no bearing to the original definition in ballet terminology. Yuri Slonimsky writes in his book The Bolshoi Ballet (Second edition 1960, p.8) on
168-684: Is Vaganova Ballet Academy . Outside of Russia and the former republics of the late Soviet Union, there is little training in the art of character dance. However, it is still widely taught in the United Kingdom and Australia and in Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary) where it is integral to the training of students at the Royal Ballet School and the Australian Ballet School . It is also taught as
189-403: Is a specific subdivision of classical dance . It is the stylized representation of a traditional folk or national dance, mostly from European countries, and uses movements and music which have been adapted for the theater. Character dance is integral to much of the classical ballet repertoire. A good example of character dance within ballet is the series of national dances which take place at
210-425: Is known as ballet for centuries but it was not until Aleksandr Shirayev , Assistant to Marius Petipa , that character dance became a unique and codified art-form that takes its rightful place as an integral part of classical ballet. Character dances are usually performed in shoes or boots, with a suede sole and a small heel. Men typically wear black character shoes and women typically wear a flesh coloured shoe with
231-1087: Is often performed in Indonesia . The Royal Ballet of Cambodia is an example of a ballet company in the Eastern tradition. The companies listed below are ballet companies that perform according to the European tradition, although some international companies also perform contemporary ballets that merge Western and Eastern themes and dance techniques. Algeria Egypt Tunisia South Africa Armenia Azerbaijan China Hong Kong Indonesia Iran Israel Japan Kazakhstan Mongolia Philippines Singapore South Korea Taiwan Thailand Uzbekistan Austria Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Greece Germany Hungary Ireland Italy Kosovo Latvia Lithuania Moldova Monaco Netherlands Character dance Character dance
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#1732791241335252-412: The beginning of Act II of Swan Lake . The ballet Don Quixote also features many character variations based on traditional Spanish dances. Popular character dance adaptations for ballet also include the national dances of Hungary , Russia, Poland, Italy and Spain: csárdás , mazurka , tarantella , flamenco , etc. One of the best known schools that incorporate character dance to teaching syllabus
273-472: The company's dancers, something which helped to create clear distinctions in style between companies, but 21st-century ballet has open hiring practices, and many ballet companies have a very international staff. The head of a ballet company is called the artistic director . He or she is usually a retired dancer, and often they choreograph some of the company's productions themselves. In a large company, they will have one or more assistants. Day-to-day coaching of
294-427: The company's repertoire. The artistic director of a ballet company, whether a male or female, may also be called its ballet master. Historic use of gender marking in job titles in ballet (and live theatre) is being supplanted by gender-neutral language job titles regardless of an employee's gender (e.g. ballet master in lieu of ballet mistress , wig master as an alternative to wig mistress ). Especially during
315-441: The corps de ballet and may be unpaid. Some companies further subdivide these grades, and the terminology used varies from company to company. In the 19th century and early to mid-20th century the top female dancer was often recognized as the prima ballerina , but this practice has ceased. Male and female dancers were historically split into separate hierarchies (for more information see ballerina ). Today, many companies choose to use
336-624: The dancers is the responsibility of one or more ballet masters and ballet mistresses . Some companies also employ répétiteurs and dance notators . There is often a resident choreographer . All but the smallest companies divide their dancers into at least three grades. The most common names for the two higher grades in English are principal and soloist and the junior dancers form the corps de ballet . Some companies (especially in North America) have trainees or apprentices, who rank below
357-452: The early centuries of ballet troupes and ballet companies from the 18th century until the early 20th century, the position of first ballet master, referred to traditionally as the premier maître de ballet en chef or more simply as the maître de ballet , was the undisputed head of the company who acted as chief choreographer and artistic director . His duties included creating ballets, dances in operas, commissioning music, and presiding over
378-428: The head of a company being referred to as the artistic director. In recent years, companies have quietly begun to change the title's name given its hierarchical and dominating connotations. They have switched the name of the position to various titles such as Principal Teacher, Artistic Manager, and other such titles to avoid the politically charged word "master." Ballet company Ballet companies routinely make
399-530: The history of character dance: ....The Moscow theater thrived because at the beginning it was free from Court tutelage...another important factor was the popularity of various fairs and festivals among the Moscovites. It was here, at the turn of the 19th century that a new genre came into being-one inspired by the national comic opera-dance scenes suggested by folk festivals, games,Yule-tide, Shrovetide Festivals, etc. These dances were created by Vasily Balashov,
420-482: The same theatre or opera house. Smaller companies hire a local orchestra on a contract basis for each season of performances, or hire a scratch orchestra for specific performances, e.g. when they are on tour. During company classes and rehearsals, music is provided by one or more staff or freelance pianists. All but the smallest companies have a separate administrative staff that deals with marketing, accounts, personnel issues, logistics and so on. Larger companies employ
441-432: The teaching of the dancers and style desired. It was this head ballet master who had the responsibility of the artistic directorship of a particular group of dancers or of a theatre. Since the early 20th century, primarily after the disbandment of the original Ballets Russes , the title has been used more to describe the master teachers/assistant directors of a ballet company, (previously known as second ballet master), with
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