A ballet blanc ( French: [balɛ blɑ̃] , "white ballet") is a scene in which the ballerina and the female corps de ballet all wear white dresses or tutus . Typical in the Romantic style of ballet from the nineteenth century, ballets blancs are usually populated by ghosts, dryads, naiads, enchanted maidens, fairies, and other supernatural creatures and spirits.
26-404: Les Sylphides ( French: [le silfid] ) is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc to piano music by Frédéric Chopin , selected and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov . The ballet, described as a "romantic reverie", is frequently cited as the first ballet to be simply about mood and dance. Les Sylphides has no plot but instead consists of several white-clad sylphs dancing in
52-454: A binary encoding form of a subset of general S-expression Canonical XML , a normal form of XML, intended to allow relatively simple comparison of pairs of XML documents MAC address (formerly canonical number), a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the physical network segment Canonicalization , a process for converting data to canonical form Chemistry [ edit ] Canonical form , any of
78-465: A different musical composition. Also, Chopiniana was originally a compilation of dramatic or character dances set to Chopin's piano music. The Glazunov suite upon which this original version was based had only four Chopin pieces; Fokine wanted to use a waltz as an addition to the suite and was able to get Glazunov to orchestrate this to create his ballet, also called Chopiniana . The newly orchestrated waltz would be Fokine's inspiration to re-choreograph
104-518: A particular type of Huffman code with unique properties which allow it to be described in a very compact manner Canonical link element , an HTML element that helps webmasters prevent duplicate content issues by specifying the “canonical” or “preferred” version Canonical model , a design pattern used to communicate between different data formats Canonical name record (CNAME record), a type of Domain Name System record Canonical S-expressions ,
130-631: A set of ordinances and regulations governing a Christian church or community Canonical texts or biblical canon , the texts accepted as part of the Bible Canonical gospel , the four gospels accepted as part of the New Testament Canonical criticism , a way of interpreting the Bible that focuses on the text of the biblical canon itself as a finished product Businesses [ edit ] Canonical Ltd. , software company that develops
156-402: A set of representations of the resonance structure of a molecule each of which contributes to the real structure Religion [ edit ] Canonical coronation , an institutional act of the pope to legally crown images venerated by the faithful through a papal bull Canonical hours , the divisions of the day in terms of periods of fixed prayer at regular intervals. Canonical law ,
182-473: A standard member of each element of a set partition Differential geometry [ edit ] Canonical one-form , a special 1-form defined on the cotangent bundle T * M of a manifold M Canonical symplectic form , the exterior derivative of this form Canonical vector field , the corresponding special vector field defined on the tangent bundle TM of a manifold M Physics [ edit ] Canonical ensemble , in statistical mechanics,
208-515: A type of algebraic structure Canonical coordinates , sets of coordinates that can be used to describe a physical system at any given point in time Canonical map , a morphism that is uniquely defined by its main property Canonical polyhedron , a polyhedron whose edges are all tangent to a common sphere, whose center is the average of its vertices Canonical ring , a graded ring associated to an algebraic variety Canonical injection , in set theory Canonical representative, in set theory
234-472: A way that they become Fourier transform duals Canonical transformation , in Hamiltonian mechanics Grand canonical ensemble , a probability distribution of microscopic states for an open system, which is being maintained in thermodynamic equilibrium Microcanonical ensemble , a theoretical tool used to analyze an isolated thermodynamic system Computing [ edit ] Canonical Huffman code ,
260-484: Is a statistical ensemble representing a probability distribution of microscopic states of the system Canonical quantum gravity , an attempt to quantize the canonical formulation of general relativity Canonical stress–energy tensor , a conserved current associated with translations through space and time Canonical theory , a unified molecular theory of physics, chemistry, and biology Canonical conjugate variables , pairs of variables mathematically defined in such
286-405: Is the most famous, as its soloists were Tamara Karsavina , Vaslav Nijinsky (as the poet, dreamer, or young man), Anna Pavlova , and Alexandra Baldina. The long white tutu that Pavlova originally danced in, and that the entire female corps de ballet adopted soon after, was designed by Léon Bakst and inspired by a lithograph of Marie Taglioni dressed as a sylph . The London premiere, in
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#1732859426359312-571: The New York State Theater , Lincoln Center . The original cast included Karin von Aroldingen , Susan Hendl , Kay Mazzo , and Peter Martins . A number of musicians have orchestrated the Chopin pieces for major ballet companies, including Maurice Ravel , Benjamin Britten , Alexander Gretchaninov , Roy Douglas , and Gordon Jacob . The Ravel orchestration has been lost. The Britten orchestration
338-431: The standard , rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, canonical example is often used to mean ' archetype '. Science and technology [ edit ] Canonical form , a natural unique representation of an object, or a preferred notation for some object Mathematics [ edit ] Canonical basis – Basis of
364-739: The Ubuntu operating system See also [ edit ] [REDACTED] Look up canonical , canonic , canonicals , or canon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Canon (disambiguation) Text corpus Archetype , in behavior, modern psychological theory, and literary analysis Official § Adjective All pages with titles beginning with canonical Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Canonical&oldid=1168686903 " Categories : English words Authority Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
390-651: The ballet into its nearly-final form, selecting different Chopin pieces to go with it and getting these orchestrated by the Maryinsky répétiteur Maurice Keller. When Fokine's ballet premiered in Paris as part of Diaghilev's "Saison Russe" in 1909, Diaghilev commissioned re-orchestrations of all the dances, except for the Glazunov-orchestrated Waltz, by Anatoly Lyadov , Sergei Taneyev , Nikolai Tcherepnin and Igor Stravinsky . This version, now titled Les Sylphides ,
416-820: The first season of the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, was at the Royal Opera House . With more sylph-like elusiveness, the North American premiere might be dated by an unauthorized version in the Winter Garden , New York, on 14 June 1911 (featuring Baldina alone from the Diaghilev cast). However, its authorized premiere on that continent, by Diaghilev Ballets Russes, was at the Century Theater , New York City, 20 January 1916, with Lydia Lopokova (who also featured in
442-480: The hero, Robert, with dancing, gambling, drink, and love making. Choreographed by Filippo Taglioni and first presented in Paris in November 1831, it starred his daughter, Marie Taglioni as Helena, the abbess of the ruined convent of Saint Rosalia. Costumes in modern productions are usually white dresses with black sashes and headpieces. The next year, 1832, Marie Taglioni appeared in the title role of La Sylphide ,
468-513: The lakeside scenes of Swan Lake and the Kingdom of the Shades scene of La Bayadère sometimes wear short, classical tutus rather than the traditional calf-length or ankle-length ballet dresses, but the visually stunning effect of the ballet blanc is undiminished. In 1908, Michel Fokine revived the genre in a ballet set to the music of Frédéric Chopin that he entitled Chopiniana . When a revised version
494-489: The moonlight with the "poet" or "young man" dressed in white tights and a black tunic. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine , with Chopin's music orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov . Glazunov had already set some of the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana , Op. 46. In that form, it was introduced to the public in December 1893, conducted by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov . Identifying
520-655: The premiere of the fuller ballet poses a challenge. One might say that it premiered in 1907 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg as Rêverie Romantique: Ballet sur la musique de Chopin . However, this also formed the basis of a ballet, Chopiniana , which took different forms, even in Fokine's hands. As Les Sylphides , what we consider the work was premiered by Sergei Diaghilev 's Ballets Russes on 2 June 1909 at Théâtre du Châtelet , Paris. The Diaghilev premiere
546-727: The recognized dress for dancers of the academic school. The skirt of the Romantic tutu is either mid-calf or ankle length in design. Despite the introduction of Romantic elements of otherworldly spirits, the dancing in La Sylphide was of the purely classical school. Ghosts, shades, shadows, spirits, and other elemental beings dominated ballet stages for decades after La Sylphide . Famous ballets blancs were staged in act 2 of Giselle (1842), in acts 2 and 4 of Swan Lake (1877/1895), in act 3 of La Bayadère (1877), and in act 1 of The Nutcracker (1892). In modern productions, dancers in
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#1732859426359572-416: The story of a wood nymph (a sylphide) who tempts a Scottish farmer, James, to abandon his rural sweetheart and follow her into the woods, in pursuit of ethereal beauty. Dance historians consider this work, as the first fully-fledged ballet blanc , to be the beginning of the Romantic movement in ballet. The name of the genre is derived from the white costume designed by Eugène Lami for Taglioni, which became
598-497: The unauthorized production five years earlier). Nijinsky danced it with that company at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 April 1916, where it was paired with a similar work to a piano suite (by Robert Schumann ), Papillons , also choreographed by Fokine. Fokine also set the ballet for several other companies, and he and his wife, Vera Fokina, danced its leading roles themselves for some years. Chopiniana , staged by Fokine, had
624-700: Was considered lost but a score thought to be his was found in 2013 in the archives of the American Ballet Theatre . Roy Douglas's version has been recorded a number of times, and has largely supplanted the earlier versions. It was written in 1936, to replace what Douglas called "very bad orchestrations of Chopin's music". Ballet blanc A precursor of the genre was Ballet of the Nuns , an episode in act 3 of Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le Diable . The ghosts of cloistered nuns who, in life, were unfaithful to their vows are summoned from their graves to tempt
650-589: Was first staged at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 2 June 1909. The canonical version of the ballet Les Sylphides includes: The New York City Ballet (NYCB) produced its own staging of the standard version, omitting the Polonaise in A major (and leaving the Prelude in A major in its original position), under the original title, Chopiniana . The NYCB premiere was staged by Alexandra Danilova and took place 20 January 1972, at
676-477: Was presented in Paris in 1909 by the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev , it was given the more Romantic title of Les Sylphides . It has remained a popular staple of the ballet repertory for the past century and more. canonical Standard or referential form The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean 'according to the canon ' –
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