Ballet's Magic Kingdom : Selected Writings on Dance in Russia, 1911-1925

by Akim Volynsky; Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction and Notes by StanleyJ. Rabinowitz

• ISBN13: 9780300164497
• ISBN10: 0300164491
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2010-05-25
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Akim Volynsky was a Russian literary critic, journalist, and art historian who became Saint Petersburg's liveliest and most prolific ballet critic in the early part of the twentieth century. This book, the first English edition of his provocative and influential writings, provides a striking look at life inside the world of Russian ballet at a crucial era in its history. Stanley J. Rabinowitz selects and translates forty of Volynsky's articlesvivid, eyewitness accounts that sparkle with details about the careers and personalities of such dance luminaries as Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Fokine, Tamara Karsavina, and George Balanchine, at that time a young dancer in the Maryinsky company whose keen musical sense and creative interpretive power Volynsky was one of the first to recognize. Rabinowitz also translates Volynsky's magnum opus,The Book of Exaltations,an elaborate meditation on classical dance technique that is at once a primer and an ideological treatise. Throughout his writings, Rabinowitz argues in his critical introduction, which sets Volynsky's life and work against the backdrop of the principal intellectual currents of his time, Volynsky emphasizes the spiritual and ethereal qualities of ballet.

Author Biography

Stanley J. Rabinowitz is Henry Steele Commager Professor and professor of Russian, Amherst College, and director of the Amherst Center for Russian Culture. He lives in Amherst, MA.

Table of Contents

Illustrations follow page	p. 86
Acknowledgments	p. xi
A Note on the Text	p. xv
Introduction: Akim Volynsky and His Writings on Dance	p. xvii
Reviews and Articles
Dance as a Solemn Ritual (1911)	p. 3
Coppélia (1911)	p. 9
Tamara Karsavina: The Trial of Damis; The Nutcracker (1911)	p. 12
Mathilda Kshesinskaya: Swan Lake (1911)	p. 16
Schumann, Ballet, and Fokine (1912)	p. 20
Eunice and Chopiniana (1912)	p. 24
Errors of Creation: On Papillons and Islamey (1912)	p. 26
The Little Dove: Harlequinade (1912)	p. 29
The Russian Dance: Die Puppenfee (1912)	p. 32
Raymonda (1912)	p. 33
Coppélia (1912)	p. 35
Vaganova's Variation (1912)	p. 37
The Tsar Maiden: A New Production of The Little Humpbacked Horse (1912)	p. 39
A Circle of Immovable Stars: Alexander Gorsky and Mikhail Fokine (1913)	p. 43
Isadora Duncan: The Last Word (1913)	p. 45
Anna Pavlova (1913)	p. 46
Pavlova's Farewell Performance: La Bayadere (1913)	p. 48
A Kaleidoscope of Attire: Still More on Konstantin Korovin (1914)	p. 51
Elegy (1915)	p. 53
Mikhail Fokine: Some Lines Toward a Polemic (1915)	p. 58
La Jota Aragonese(1916)	p. 60
My Miniatures: Swan Lake (1920)	p. 62
Marius Petipa's La Bayadere (1922)	p. 64
The End of the Season: Lida Ivanova (1922)	p. 69
Two Schools of Classical Dance: Sleeping Beauty (1922)	p. 70
Stravinsky's Ballets (1922)	p. 74
The Birth of Apollo (1923)	p. 77
What Will Ballet Live By? (1923)	p. 84
A Wretched Housepainter: The Nutcracker (1923)	p. 87
The Weeping Spirit (1923)	p. 90
The Innovator: Mikhail Fokine (1923)	p. 95
Don Quixote (1923)	p. 98
Classical Attire (1923)	p. 102
Naked, Barefoot, and Beltless (1923)	p. 104
Swan Lake: The Swan in Music (1923)	p. 107
Sleeping Beauty (1923)	p. 110
Swan Lake: The Swan in Motion (1924)	p. 115
Lida Ivanova (1924)	p. 119
Adrienne Lecouvreur (1924)	p. 121
Tamara Karsavina (1924)	p. 124
The Book of Exaltations: The ABCs of Classical Dance(1925)
Principles of Classical Dance	p. 131
Choreography
Ballet
Verticality
The Toes
Turnout Exposing the Essence
Croisé and Effacé
Elevation
The Nature of Classical Dance
The Arms
Music
Features and Forms	p. 160
Positions
Plié
Battements
Rond de Jambe
The Exercise's Finale
In the Center	p. 171
Coupé
Gliding Movements
Fouetté
Straight and Crooked Lines
Attitude and Arabesque
Pirouette
En Tournant
The Clock's
Chimes Postscript
Allegro	p. 199
Leap, Jump, Flight
Earth and Sky
Beats Sissonne (Sisol)
Entrechat
The Line Upward
Technique
Pas de Basque
Summa summarum
A Bird's-Eye View	p. 219
Male Dancing: A Synthesis
Acrobatism
The Ballet Master
Myth and Fairy Tale
The Soul's Reserves
The Ballet Libretto
The Danseur
The Corps de Ballet
Mime
Vis medicatrix (Strength, the Healer)
Glossary of Names	p. 263
Index	p. 273
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