Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ (French: [balɛ]) is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology. It has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training. Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art.
Ballet may also refer to a ballet dance work, which consists of the choreography and music for a ballet production. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a two-act ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a music score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists. Many classical ballets are performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, though there are exceptions to this. Most notably, American choreographer George Balanchine is known for his plotless neoclassical ballets which are often performed in simple leotards and tights without scenery.
Ballet is a 1995 American documentary film directed by Frederick Wiseman. It portrays rehearsals, choreography, performances, business transactions, and other day-to-day life of the American Ballet Theatre. Much of the footage dates from the 1992 season. It also includes scenes from the company's European tour, namely in Greece and Copenhagen.
Appearances are made by Susan Jaffe, Julie Kent, Julio Bocca, Angel Corella, Amanda McKerrow, Alessandra Ferri and others. Various ballet masters and choreographers also appear, including Kevin McKenzie, ABT's artistic director, Ulysses Dove, Irina Kolpakova, Natalia Makarova and Agnes de Mille. Business transactions by then-director Jane Hermann are also included.
The film is currently released to the public by Wiseman's distribution company, Zipporah Films
Ballet as a music form progressed from simply a complement to dance, to a concrete compositional form that often had as much value as the dance that went along with it. The dance form, originating in France during the 17th century, began as a theatrical dance. It was not until the 19th century that ballet gained status as a “classical” form. In ballet, the terms ‘classical’ and ‘romantic’ are chronologically reversed from musical usage. Thus, the 19th century classical period in ballet coincided with the 19th century Romantic era in Music. Ballet music composers from the 17th–19th centuries, including the likes of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, were predominantly in France and Russia. Yet with the increased international notoriety seen in Tchaikovsky’s lifetime, ballet music composition and ballet in general spread across the western world.
Until about the second half of the 19th century the role of music in ballet was secondary, with the main emphasis on dance, while music was simply a compilation of danceable tunes. Writing "ballet music" used to be a job for musical craftsmen, rather than for masters. For example, critics of the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky mentioned his writing of ballet music as something demeaning.
Frankfurt am Main (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁaŋkfʊɐ̯t am ˈmaɪ̯n]) is the largest city in the German state of Hessen and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2014 population of 717,624 within its administrative boundaries. The urban area called Frankfurt Rhein-Main has a population of 2,221,910. The city is at the centre of the larger Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region which has a population of 5,500,000 and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region. Since the enlargement of the European Union in 2013, the geographic centre of the EU is about 40 km (25 mi) to the east.
Frankfurt is a centre for commerce, culture, education, tourism and web traffic. Messe Frankfurt is one of the world's largest trade fairs at 578,000 square metres and ten exhibition halls. Major trade fairs include the Frankfurt Motor Show, the world's largest motor show, and the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest book fair.
Frankfurt is home to many cultural and educational institutions, including the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University and Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, many museums (e.g. Städel, Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Goethe House) and two major botanical gardens: the Palmengarten, which is Germany's largest, and the Botanical Garden of Goethe University.
The Bezirk Frankfurt, also Bezirk Frankfurt (Oder), was a district (Bezirk) of East Germany. The administrative seat and the main town was Frankfurt (Oder).
The district was established, with the other 13, on July 25, 1952, substituting the old German states. After October 3, 1990, it was disestablished due to the German reunification, becoming again part of the state of Brandenburg.
The Bezirk Frankfurt bordered with East Berlin and the Bezirke of Neubrandenburg, Potsdam and Cottbus. It bordered also with Poland.
The Bezirk was divided into 12 Kreise: 3 urban districts (Stadtkreise) and 9 rural districts (Landkreise):
The Frankfurt Region was a government region in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg between 1815 and 1945. Its administrative capital was Frankfurt (Oder). Today its western part is in the State of Brandenburg while the eastern part, following frontier changes agreed by the Soviet Union in 1945, is part of Poland.
It was created in 1815, when Prussia reorganised its internal administration. It comprised the mostly rural eastern part of Brandenburg, including the New March and Lower Lusatia. From 1871 Prussia itself was part of the newly founded German Empire.
In 1938 the districts of Arnswalde and Friedeberg were disentangled from the Frankfurt Region and merged into the new government region called Frontier of Posen-West Prussia, which was incorporated into the Province of Pomerania. At the same time the districts of Meseritz and Schwerin (Warthe), were transferred out of what had previously been defined as the Province of Posen-West Prussia, now becoming part of the Frankfurt Region.