Silent drama to silent dream

The first three decades of the nineteenth century experienced exceptionally rapid change within the art of ballet. Experimentation in technique was lending the art a new excitement. Dancers were becoming ever more proficient at the athletic part of technique; they could jump higher, turn faster, lift their legs to ever greater heights.1 Developments in acting skills and in the power of ballets to create a convincing illusion brought a new zenith of expression. But change, no matter how positive, inevitably brings problems to someone, in this case to no one more profoundly than the critic, whose job it was to explain, describe, and analyze new approaches. It was his task to match innovative practice and traditional ideas, but unfortunately, new ideas rarely agreed with old aesthetics. The traditional approaches to ballet appreciation and the ways in which criticism responded to changes in ballet in the 1830s and 1840s can be seen through an examination of two writers: the first, known only as C., exemplifies traditional responses to ballet; the second, Theophile Gautier (1810-72), became the most famous exponent of the new school of criticism which arose in the 1830s. There is some evidence that C. may have been Charles Nodier (1780-1844), now best known as the author of a series of supernatural short stories (of which Trilby, 1822, was the most famous) and the friend of Romantic authors such as Victor Hugo

Art · Art history · Ballet · Criticism · Dance · Drama · Dream · Literature · Performance art · Visual arts · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Psychology

• Adolf Sonnenfeld’s Pan Twardowski

  Open Access•Małgorzata Lisecka•Literatura Ludowa•2023

  Add to list

• Auguste Vestris and the Expansion of Technique

  Open Access•J Chapman, John V Chapman•Dance Research Journal•1987

  Add to list