The Dancing Maiden at Dojo Temple - Essay Example

Dance Essays Kabuki – The Dancing Maiden at Dojo Temple Cultural influences give us insight into a people and we may know them best through their artforms as it is more likely to tell the truth of a culture, rather than just hearing people speak. In this first section of this dance essay, a Kabuki dance of a Noh play, The Dancing Maiden at Dojo Temple, is observed and reviewed. Kabuki dance is very stylized and has existed in the Japanese culture for many centuries (Dojoji web). The story centers around a young girl who mistakenly thinks she will be the wife of a priest named Anchin. However, after the girl’s advances to the priest, he runs away to his temple and she chases after him but is stopped by a river. In her rage, she becomes a serpent and destroys the temple bell and Anchin, who was hiding under it. The video shows the dance that the Shirabyoshi dancer gives to dedicate the bell. It should be noted that all earlier Kabuki dancers in previous centuries, were men (web). In this video of the Dancing Maiden, the dancer, wearing flat white face makeup, provides much of the expression of the stylized “ranbyoshi” step dance through the swaying of the body while keeping the body torso upright. The hands have very expressive movements and the head is tilted one way or another during the dance. The dancer uses the hands in more flat-hand movements, sometimes indicating a sort of despair when clasping the hands together in a plea (web). The hands are the main “speaking” part of the body, including the use of long costume sleeves in precisely choreographed movements. The dancer starts out with a red outfit on, which early on in the dance, is discarded to show a green floral kimono with a black cummerbund that helps hold the back and waist in a more rigid posture. Moving through the music, the dancer lies down in an enticing manner, slowly moving the hips in an erotic manner, then rises up from the floor again. Footsteps are always small and mincing and the legs are never opened up in any manner (web). There are no large movements or jumps. Every movement is very contained and structured. Props, such as flat red platters and later, a banner, provide extra touches to the hands, arms and head tilts in the dance. There are several interspersions of other dancers coming on and dancing while the lead dancer goes off to fetch a new prop. The dancers all use the inflections in the Japanese music, played by an orchestra sitting at the back of the stage. Brief History of Early Ballet In the second part of this essay, the history of the development of dance and ballet began in the 1500s at the Italian courts during the Renaissance Age. These were entertainment shows put on at the court for the royal families and their guests and were better known as court dances. The nobility would also, if they chose to do so, would join in the dances which usually took place at lavish court events, such as weddings and large dinners. Catherine de Medici was one of the great proponents of dance entertainment and when she became the wife of King Henry II of France, the art of the court ballet was brought along with her. During the Golden Age, under Louis XIV, the ballet became very important and was standardized to a more professional venue, with training for the dancers, schools opened along with the hiring of dance masters. Louis XIV was well known as having participated in many of these dance performances, including the role of the Sun King. The ballet became a popular venue for most of high society to attend at the theater and ballet was also incorporated with operas (Pittsburgh web). The ballet later travelled to Russia and Jean Georges Noverre, a 17th-century ballet master/director, was instrumental in moving ballet into its own theater venue and the first story ballets (ballet d’action) were created at this time. Ballets from the 1800s that are still performed today are the Sleeping Beauty (PNB web), Giselle (Ballet Encyclopedia web), LaSylphide (web), and host of other smaller ballets. Marius Petipa and Peter Ilyich Tchaikowsky, as choreographer and music composer respectively, were two prominent figures of this time period, along with Jean Coralli (choreographer) and Adolphe Adam (composer) for Giselle, and Filippo Taglioni (choreographer) and Jean Schneizhoeffer (composer) for La Sylphide. This was known as the Romantic Period in the arts, and for the ballet, it was represented as romantic ballet stories, usually with white tulle calf-length dresses and the advent of the pointe shoe for female dancers. Lev Ivanov was also a well-known choreographer during this time. In the early part of the twentieth century, ballet came west with Sergei Diaghilev, impresario, and Michel Fokine, who was choreographing ballets that stepped beyond the white romantic ballets, but still told stories. George Balanchine, one of the later Diaghilev dancers, turned to neo-classical choreographing at the Ballet Russes with Diaghilev, and later became the founder of the New York City Ballet. Most of the works from this early time period are still being performed today, such as Prodigal Son by Balanchine (NYCB web), Firebird by Fokine and and Parade, by Leonide Massine. Contemporary Dance: Merce Cunningham and Michel Fokine Merce Cunningham, who passed away in 2009, was a former dancer with legendary Martha Graham, who was an early founder of modern dance in America. He later started his own company to show better his unique style of dance which was less about the personal self or experience and more about utilizing time and space within movement (Copeland, and Cohen 347). Cunningham’s direction was to free the body from the constriction of or dependence on music. While both were performed at the same time, neither the choreography nor the music ‘acknowledged’ each other during the same time and space, as would be seen in a classical ballet, for example. His view was to be negate the ego and, while aware of the world, still be detached from it (310). In fact, Cunningham’s work is totally opposite from the classical dance. Michel Fokine, choreographer in the 1900s, was based in the classical ballet but was also moving past the traditional white ballets to create more dynamic choreography and using avant garde composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, who tended towards more harsh, discordant music than what was normally heard in ballet, like Tchaikowky’s Sleeping Beauty, for example. Choreography was therefore, as equally discordant, more abrupt and dark, rather than the light wafting steps of the white ballets. Firebird, along with some of his other ballets, was a transition work from the white romantic ballets, to those ballets that were harsher in movement, along with the music played (228). Both choreographers within the sphere of their choreographic arena, were changers of what had been in place before – Cunningham breaking away from the classic modern dance as proposed by Martha Graham, and Fokine’s move from the Petipa style of technical correctness, to a more vivacious, almost stark way of moving within the classical dance movement. Fokine still remained within the story telling mode, however, considering it still important to utilize the whole body in telling the story with the music (259). This era represented the beginning of moving away from the old ‘constricted’ methods of dance. Both choreographers above, while different in their approach of dance technique, still embraced the idea of experimenting with a new and different way of expressing through dance. Resources Ballet Encyclopedia. La Sylphide. Ballet Encyclopedia Online. 2014. Web. < http://www.the-ballet.com/sylphide.php>. Copeland, Roger, and Marshall Cohen, eds. What is Dance? New York: Oxford University Press. 1983. Print. Dojoji. The Maiden at Dojo Temple. Video. Musume Dojoji. Missthuytrin’s Channel Online. 2011. Web. . NYCB. George Balanchine. New York City Ballet (NYCB) Online. 2014. Web. < http://www.nycballet.com/explore/our-history/george-balanchine.aspx>. Pittsburgh Ballet. A Brief History of Ballet. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Online. 2014. Web. < http://www.pbt.org/community-engagement/brief-history-ballet>. PNB. The Sleeping Beauty. Pacific Northwest Ballet Online. 2014. Web. . Read More