New directions in ancient pantomime
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (GB) |
| ISBN-13 | 9780199232536 |
| Open Library | OL18357503W |
| Total publications | 17 |
| Coverage period | 2008 - 2008 |
| Language | EN |
| Cited by | 38 |
| h-index | 1 |
| i10-index | 1 |
"The study discusses all the key ancient sources for pantomime, and includes an appendix of selected source texts with translations keyed to the essays. It also prints a newly updated English translation of Jacob of Sarugh's Homilies on the Spectacles of the Theatre, one of the most important, though neglected, pieces of evidence for pantomime."--Jacket.
‘Mime’ and ‘Pantomime’
The Pantomime Dancer and his Libretto
The poets Statius and Lucan are both said to have written pantomimes, and this chapter considers the relationship of pantomime art to poetic texts. The chapter underlines the importance of the enunciated narrative to the performance. The chapter considers a wide range of evidence about the libretti of pantomime, from disparaging comments on the quality of the words composed specifically for the pantomime dancer, to the alleged small fragments emb…
The Symbolism of Costume in Ancient Pantomime
This chapter explores the symbolism of costume in ancient pantomime dance and the way in which it operates and is manipulated in the performance in order to communicate with the audience. The chapter re‐evaluates the ancient evidence for the costumes (including masks) of pantomime from the perspective of theatrical semiotics, thus attempting to unlock the costume's potential to further understanding of both the performance and the aesthetics of t…
Inside the Mask
This chapter explores the art form of pantomime through the perspective of the performer and attempts to get ‘behind the mask’ and discover the dancers themselves as living, breathing, embodied beings with their own perspective. The chapter reconstructs the experience of the pantomime dancer through examining the ancient evidence for the dance and the training undertaken by its performers; particular attention is given to the demands that this pe…
Ancient Pantomime and the Rise of Ballet
It was ancient pantomime's destiny to play a seminal role in the emergence of classical ballet, and subsequently, in the twentieth century, of avant‐garde Tanztheater. It is well known that the founding fathers of opera in the Florentine Camerata looked to ancient myth, and above all what they believed to have been the all‐sung form taken by ancient theatrical tragic performances, as the model for their new medium. But considerably less exposure …
Is the ‘Barcelona Alcestis’ a Latin Pantomime Libretto?
There is a possibility that one pantomime libretto based on a canonical tragedy does in fact survive. The candidate is a Latin hexameter poem, preserved only in a Barcelona papyrus, on the theme of Alcestis' death, familiar to the ancient world above all from Euripides' Alcestis. The metre of the poem is shared by the Aeneid, which is known to have been performed by pantomime dancers, and the theme, the death of Alcestis, is known from other sour…
Virgil on the Popular Stage
This chapter looks at the sources that assert that three sequences from the Aeneid were performed in pantomime—those dealing with Dido, Turnus, and the katabasis to the Underworld (tales dealing with love, death, violence, and vivid spectacle): Macrobius, for example, says that the love story of Dido and Aeneas is kept alive by the incessant gestures and songs of the actors; whilst Augustine suggests that the majority of his readers would be fami…
Pantomime Performance and Figured Scenes on Roman Sarcophagi
This chapter explores the relationship between pantomime dance and funerary iconography in Roman society. The similarities between the art form of pantomime and sarcophagus art are identified in their shared activities of: interpreting well‐known subject‐matter from mythology to their viewers, inspiring reflection on the human condition through a visual display, and engaging with the human body in a fundamental way. The discussion opens with a cr…
Roman Pantomime Libretti and their Greek Themes
This chapter concentrates on the themes chosen for the earlier pantomimes performed in Rome at the time of Augustus' public endorsement of the medium. It suggests that the literary sources can be usefully supplemented by thinking about two aspects of Augustus' relationship with pantomime that have hitherto received little attention. The first is the particular myths and symbols that Augustan propaganda utilised in Public Relations activities, suc…
The Metamorphosis of Pantomime
This chapter examines the value of the description of the ‘Judgement of Paris' pantomime in book 10 of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, as evidence for pantomime. The performance, which takes place in the theatre at Corinth, involves the characters Paris, Juno, Minerva and Venus all dressed in beautiful costumes. The chapter attempts to offer a solution to the notorious ‘problem’ of the elements in this description which do not conform to the accepted vi…
Introduction
In a broad contextualization of ancient pantomime within cultural history, the reasons for the importance of research into ancient pantomime are explored: it represents a lost aesthetic of profound and widespread influence in ancient imperial culture; it played, quantitatively speaking, a more important role in educating the majority of inhabitants of the Roman empire in mythology than, for example, recitations of poetry; it was the main medium i…
Pantomime Actresses in Latin Inscriptions
A discussion of the evidence that, even before the Byzantine period, there were also female pantomime dancers on the Roman scene. Despite the terminological confusion created by the variety of terms used to describe dancers in the ancient sources, certain unarguable instances of references to female pantomime performers may not be explained away. The chapter reviews the evidence from inscriptions, especially at Pompeii, and argues that a crucial …
Seneca and Pantomime
The Influence of Pantomime on Seneca's Tragedies
In the development of the study of the affinity between parts of Senecan tragedy and what we know about the texts (libretti) danced in pantomime, the author of this chapter (a trained dancer herself) looks at three features in the dramas that have often been criticised: their loose dramatic structure, running commentaries on another participant's actions, and lengthy narrative set‐pieces. In close readings of key texts from several plays, includi…
Lucian's On Dancing and the Models for a Discourse on Pantomime
This chapter examines Lucian's On Dancing, one of the few surviving examples of a discourse offering a sustained treatment of pantomime dancing. The chapter aims to show that the use of rhetorical categories in descriptions of pantomime suggests a relationship of fundamental affinity between rhetoric and pantomime, rather than a straightforward opposition or hierarchy. The discussion looks at the terms used in the dialogue to describe the visual …
Et mea sunt populo saltata poemata saepe (Tristia 2.519)
The strong visual appeal of Ovid's Metamorphoses has long invited comparison with the pleasures of pantomime, most influentially in a publication by Galinsky. In the study of Ovid's references from exile to his poetry being ‘danced in the crowded theatres’, this chapter argues in detail that the obvious text for pantomime realisation is the Metamorphoses, rather than the Heroides (as has occasionally been claimed); through close attention to the …
New Directions in Ancient Pantomime
Co-edited volume of essays on ancient balletic interpretations of playscripts
New Directions in Ancient Pantomime
Co-edited volume of essays on ancient balletic interpretations of playscripts
‘Mime’ and ‘Pantomime’
The Pantomime Dancer and his Libretto
The poets Statius and Lucan are both said to have written pantomimes, and this chapter considers the relationship of pantomime art to poetic texts. The chapter underlines the importance of the enunciated narrative to the performance. The chapter considers a wide range of evidence about the libretti of pantomime, from disparaging comments on the quality of the words composed specifically for the pantomime dancer, to the alleged small fragments emb…
The Symbolism of Costume in Ancient Pantomime
This chapter explores the symbolism of costume in ancient pantomime dance and the way in which it operates and is manipulated in the performance in order to communicate with the audience. The chapter re‐evaluates the ancient evidence for the costumes (including masks) of pantomime from the perspective of theatrical semiotics, thus attempting to unlock the costume's potential to further understanding of both the performance and the aesthetics of t…
Inside the Mask
This chapter explores the art form of pantomime through the perspective of the performer and attempts to get ‘behind the mask’ and discover the dancers themselves as living, breathing, embodied beings with their own perspective. The chapter reconstructs the experience of the pantomime dancer through examining the ancient evidence for the dance and the training undertaken by its performers; particular attention is given to the demands that this pe…
Ancient Pantomime and the Rise of Ballet
It was ancient pantomime's destiny to play a seminal role in the emergence of classical ballet, and subsequently, in the twentieth century, of avant‐garde Tanztheater. It is well known that the founding fathers of opera in the Florentine Camerata looked to ancient myth, and above all what they believed to have been the all‐sung form taken by ancient theatrical tragic performances, as the model for their new medium. But considerably less exposure …
Is the ‘Barcelona Alcestis’ a Latin Pantomime Libretto?
There is a possibility that one pantomime libretto based on a canonical tragedy does in fact survive. The candidate is a Latin hexameter poem, preserved only in a Barcelona papyrus, on the theme of Alcestis' death, familiar to the ancient world above all from Euripides' Alcestis. The metre of the poem is shared by the Aeneid, which is known to have been performed by pantomime dancers, and the theme, the death of Alcestis, is known from other sour…
Virgil on the Popular Stage
This chapter looks at the sources that assert that three sequences from the Aeneid were performed in pantomime—those dealing with Dido, Turnus, and the katabasis to the Underworld (tales dealing with love, death, violence, and vivid spectacle): Macrobius, for example, says that the love story of Dido and Aeneas is kept alive by the incessant gestures and songs of the actors; whilst Augustine suggests that the majority of his readers would be fami…
Pantomime Performance and Figured Scenes on Roman Sarcophagi
This chapter explores the relationship between pantomime dance and funerary iconography in Roman society. The similarities between the art form of pantomime and sarcophagus art are identified in their shared activities of: interpreting well‐known subject‐matter from mythology to their viewers, inspiring reflection on the human condition through a visual display, and engaging with the human body in a fundamental way. The discussion opens with a cr…
Roman Pantomime Libretti and their Greek Themes
This chapter concentrates on the themes chosen for the earlier pantomimes performed in Rome at the time of Augustus' public endorsement of the medium. It suggests that the literary sources can be usefully supplemented by thinking about two aspects of Augustus' relationship with pantomime that have hitherto received little attention. The first is the particular myths and symbols that Augustan propaganda utilised in Public Relations activities, suc…
The Metamorphosis of Pantomime
This chapter examines the value of the description of the ‘Judgement of Paris' pantomime in book 10 of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, as evidence for pantomime. The performance, which takes place in the theatre at Corinth, involves the characters Paris, Juno, Minerva and Venus all dressed in beautiful costumes. The chapter attempts to offer a solution to the notorious ‘problem’ of the elements in this description which do not conform to the accepted vi…
Introduction
In a broad contextualization of ancient pantomime within cultural history, the reasons for the importance of research into ancient pantomime are explored: it represents a lost aesthetic of profound and widespread influence in ancient imperial culture; it played, quantitatively speaking, a more important role in educating the majority of inhabitants of the Roman empire in mythology than, for example, recitations of poetry; it was the main medium i…
Pantomime Actresses in Latin Inscriptions
A discussion of the evidence that, even before the Byzantine period, there were also female pantomime dancers on the Roman scene. Despite the terminological confusion created by the variety of terms used to describe dancers in the ancient sources, certain unarguable instances of references to female pantomime performers may not be explained away. The chapter reviews the evidence from inscriptions, especially at Pompeii, and argues that a crucial …
Seneca and Pantomime
The Influence of Pantomime on Seneca's Tragedies
In the development of the study of the affinity between parts of Senecan tragedy and what we know about the texts (libretti) danced in pantomime, the author of this chapter (a trained dancer herself) looks at three features in the dramas that have often been criticised: their loose dramatic structure, running commentaries on another participant's actions, and lengthy narrative set‐pieces. In close readings of key texts from several plays, includi…
Lucian's On Dancing and the Models for a Discourse on Pantomime
This chapter examines Lucian's On Dancing, one of the few surviving examples of a discourse offering a sustained treatment of pantomime dancing. The chapter aims to show that the use of rhetorical categories in descriptions of pantomime suggests a relationship of fundamental affinity between rhetoric and pantomime, rather than a straightforward opposition or hierarchy. The discussion looks at the terms used in the dialogue to describe the visual …
Et mea sunt populo saltata poemata saepe (Tristia 2.519)
The strong visual appeal of Ovid's Metamorphoses has long invited comparison with the pleasures of pantomime, most influentially in a publication by Galinsky. In the study of Ovid's references from exile to his poetry being ‘danced in the crowded theatres’, this chapter argues in detail that the obvious text for pantomime realisation is the Metamorphoses, rather than the Heroides (as has occasionally been claimed); through close attention to the …
New Directions in Ancient Pantomime
Co-edited volume of essays on ancient balletic interpretations of playscripts