The choreographer is the director of dance numbers in concerts, ballet performances, choreographic scenes in musical and drama performances, the head of a dance ensemble or troupe of dancers. This is the person who invents and implements the images of characters, their movements, plastic, selects musical material, and also determines what kind of light, make-up, costumes, and scenery should be.
Choreographer
How much the emotional impact will have a dance number, a choreographic scene in a musical and drama theater, or the entire ballet performance completely depends on how beautifully and accurately the movements and interactions of the dancers and dancers are organized, on the expressiveness and originality of their movements, on how their dances are combined with musical material, with stage lighting, with costumes and make-up - all this together creates a single image of the whole action. And the choreographer is just the person who is its creator. He must know all the rules and subtleties of the art of ballet, its history, in order to create such dances that it will be interesting to watch the audience and perform dancers. The director must possess knowledge, have the experience and abilities of the organizer, have a rich imagination, imagination, be original in his ideas, have talent, be musical, understand music, have a sense of rhythm, be able to express emotions with the help of plastic - these are the components that make up art choreographer. If all this is in the arsenal of the leader, then his statement will be successful with the public and critics.
The word "choreographer" in translation into Russian means "master of dance." This profession is complex, and it requires a lot of work and effort, both physical and moral. The director should show all the performers of their party, explain what emotions they should express in plastic and facial expressions. The complexity of this work is that the script of the dance cannot be written on paper, the choreographer must keep it in his head and show the artists to learn their part. The dancers get to know the role directly at rehearsals, while drama and musical theater actors have the opportunity to receive textual and musical material in advance. The choreographer must disclose to the performer the content of his role, showing him what to dance and how. And the more expressively the director demonstrates his thought to the artist, the faster and easier his plan will be understood and assimilated.
The task of the choreographer is also to build a dance or the whole performance in such a way as to maintain and increase audience interest. Dance movements themselves are just mechanical exercises, a set of poses that will not say anything to the viewer, they will only demonstrate the flexibility of the performer’s body, and they will only speak if the director fills them with thought and feeling and helps the artist to invest in them also his soul. In many respects, the success of the performance and the duration of its “life” on the stage will depend on it. The very first performer of all the dances is the choreographer himself, because he needs to first demonstrate to the performers of their part.
Choreographers of the past and present
Famous choreographers of Russia and the world of the 19th and 20th centuries:
- Marius Petipa, who made a huge and invaluable contribution to Russian ballet;
- Jose Mendes - was the director in many famous theaters of the world, including the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow;
- Filippo Taglioni;
- Jules Joseph Perrault - one of the brightest representatives of the "romantic ballet";
- Gaetano Joya - representative of the Italian choreodrama;
- George Balanchine - laid the foundation for American ballet, as well as modern ballet neoclassicism, believed that the plot should be expressed exclusively with the help of the bodies of dancers, and the scenery and magnificent costumes are superfluous;
- Mikhail Baryshnikov - made a great contribution to world ballet art;
- Maurice Bejart - one of the brightest choreographers of the 20th century;
- Maris Liepa;
- Pierre Lacotte - engaged in the restoration of ancient choreography;
- Igor Moiseev - the creator of Russia's first professional ensemble in the folk genre;
- Vaclav Nizhinsky - was an innovator in choreographic art;
- Rudolf Nuriev;
- Alexey Ratmansky.
Modern choreographers of the world:
- Jerome Belle - representative of the school of modern ballet;
- Nacho Duato ;
- Jiri Kilian ;
- Angelin Preljocage - a bright representative of the new French dance.
Russian choreographers of the 21st century:
- Boris Eifman - creator of his own theater;
- Alla Sigalova;
- Lyudmila Semenyaka;
- Maya Plisetskaya;
- Gedeminas Taranda;
- Evgeny Panfilov is the creator of his ballet troupe, an enthusiast in the genre of free dance.
All these Russian choreographers are very famous not only in our country, but also abroad.
Marius Petipa
French and Russian choreographer who left a huge legacy. Since 1847 he joined the choreographer at the Mariinsky Theater of St. Petersburg and at the Bolshoi Theater of Moscow, at the invitation of the Russian emperor. In 1894, he became a subject of the Russian Empire. He directed a huge number of ballets, such as Giselle, Esmeralda, Corsair, Daughter of the Pharaoh, Don Quixote, La Bayadere, Midsummer Night's Dream, Daughter of the Snows, Robert the Devil "And many others other
Roland Petit
There are famous choreographers who are considered classics of ballet of the 20th century. Among them, one of the brightest figures is Roland Petit. In 1945, he created his own ballet troupe in Paris, which was called the "Champs Elysees Ballet". A year later, he staged the famous play "Youth and Death" to the music of I.S. Bach, who entered the classics of world art. In 1948, Roland Petit founded a new ballet troupe called The Ballet of Paris. In the 50s he was a dance director for several films. In 1965, he staged the legendary ballet Notre Dame de Paris in Paris, in which he himself played the role of the hunchback Quasimodo, in 2003 he performed this production in Russia at the Bolshoi Theater, where Nikolai Tsiskaridze danced the ugly bell ringer.
Gedeminas Taranda
Another world-famous choreographer is Gedeminas Taranda. After graduating from the choreographic school in Voronezh, he was a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater of Moscow. In 1994, he founded his "Imperial Russian Ballet", which gave him world fame. Since 2012, he has been a leader and co-founder of the Foundation for Promoting Creative Education, president of the Grand Pa Ballet Festival. Gedeminas Taranda has the title of Honored Artist of Russia.
Boris Eifman
Bright, modern, original, choreographer is B. Eifman. He is the founder of his own ballet theater. He has various titles and awards in the field of art. His first productions in 1960 were: “Life Towards” to the music of the composer DB Kabalevsky, as well as "Icarus" to the music of V. Arzumanov and A. Chernov. The ballet “The Firebird” brought fame to Boris Eifman as choreographer to the music of the composer I.F. Stravinsky. He has been managing his own theater since 1977. The performances of Boris Eifman are always original, they are innovative, they combine together academic, pointless, as well as modern rock choreography. Every year the troupe goes on tour in America. The theater’s repertoire includes classical ballets, children's ballets , as well as rock ballets.