BALLET FOLCLÓRICO MERCEDES BAPTISTA: ENTRE BRASILIDADE E NEGRITUDE NO RIO DE JANEIRO DAS DÉCADAS DE 1950 E 1960 / Mercedes Baptista Folk Ballet: between Brazilianess and Blackness in Rio de Janeiro during the 1950’s and 1960’s

Abordagem histórico-crítica sobre a emergência de uma dança negra cênica no Rio de Janeiro, nas décadas de 1950 e 1960, consolidada pela bailarina e coreógrafa Mercedes Baptista mediante a articulação das técnicas do balé clássico, das danças modernas e de consistente pesquisa acerca das danças afro-brasileiras e dos pés de dança do candomblé. Levando em conta as possibilidades de abertura e transformação dos códigos próprios do que hoje é uma das vertentes de maior peso do que se entende por danças afro, que permitiram a criação de novas poéticas e metodologias, o texto aponta para a existência de uma estética negra que se construiu no campo das artes cênicas no contexto da diáspora negra.Palavras-chave: Mercedes Baptista; História da dança; Danças negras. AbstractThis text takes a historical and critical approach to the emergence of Black concert dance in Rio de Janeiro between the 1950s and 1960s. This movement found its consolidation through the ballet dancer and choreographer Mercedes Baptista’s articulations between classical ballet, modern dances, as well as her consistent research regarding secular and religious Afro-Brazilian dances. By considering the possibilities of openings and transformations within the codes of Danças Afro that allow for the creation of new poetics and methodologies, the text also seeks to base the existence of a Black aesthetics in the performance arts within the context of the black diaspora.Keywords: Mercedes Baptista; Dance history; Black dance.

The influence of world knowledge on projectivity

The change of state verb `stop' is known to trigger a pre-state presupposition of the form `X used to V'.However, confronted with a question such as `Did David stop dancing ballet?', listeners do not necessarily understand that David used to dance ballet. Several factors seem to converge in influencing listeners' understanding of presuppositions in these so-called embedding environments, of which questions are an example. One of these factors was found to be at-issueness, the extent to which content is judged to be under debate. Another factor that was claimed to influence the processing of presuppositions was world knowledge in form of prior probabilities of events. Following this argumentation, listeners who find that it is unlikely that David dances ballet when processing `Did David stop dancing ballet?', are claimed to less likely understand that David used to dance ballet and stopped doing so.This thesis investigated the influence of listeners' prior beliefs on their processing of presuppositions, and more specifically, in what way the understanding of presuppositions triggered by `stop' is influenced by gender stereotypes (i.e. the belief that a ballet dancer is more likely a woman than a man). Whereas the influence of at-issueness could be replicated, no evidence was found that listener's gender stereotypes affect their understanding of presuppositions. Instead, the results are in line with the hypothesis that listeners revise their prior beliefs when they are confronted with utterances that contradict their beliefs.

Weaving Apollo

This chapter, written by a former New York City Ballet dancer turned choreographer, critically examines the influence of George Balanchine’s Apollo on women’s authorship. Much has been written about the grip of patriarchal culture on ballet culture, as male leaders continue to dominate female muses and outmoded representations of gender persist. Balanchine famously granted his ballerinas interpretive range, while limiting their ability to choreograph. “Ballet is woman,” he declared, but women do not make the ballets. This chapter shifts the critical lens to the ways that a repertory, specifically an iconic ballet, can infiltrate a company’s consciousness—in this case, through a male god of classical Greek antiquity, reimagined through Igor Stravinsky’s score and Balanchine’s choreography, spanning nine decades of interpretation. Drawing on the project Incarnations, and a collaboration with Yvonne Rainer, the chapter argues for more complex choreographic strategies in contemporary work, as one way to disrupt and dismantle the inherited male creator/female muse paradigm embedded within neoclassical ballet.

Specifics of Formation of Professional Skills of Musical Theater Artists in College

Every year in Russia there is a growing number of people who want to devote themselves to stage professions. Pop and academic singer, actor of musical and dramatic theater, ballet dancer – here is an incomplete list of specialties that can be obtained in educational institutions of culture and art. The main task of these educational institutions is the professional formation of future stage masters, the formation of competencies that allow students to carry out further acting activities. The basis for the preparation of the future artist is the formation of stage skills, since this complex concept includes the internal (psychological) and external (physical) data of the actor, the possession of the art of reincarnation in the process of creating a stage image, the possession of stage freedom. The professional training of a musical theater artist in college becomes a multifaceted process, where the combination of vocals, dance, acting is aimed at solving the dramatic problems of a musical performance. The purpose of the article is to theoretically justify and identify empirically the specifics of the formation of professional skills of musical theater artists in college.

GREAT AND BEAUTIFUL WOMAN OF THE EAST

This article analyzes the activities of two of the greatest women of the East, Tamara Khanum and Rosa Karimova, their life and work, heroic and selfless work during the Second World War. The article also highlights their difficult life path, provides information about how Tamara Khanum was called “Eastern Isadora Duncan”, how the Queen of Great Britain personally presented the outstanding artist with a high award for her contribution to art. And also, about Roziya Karimova – an Uzbek ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, art critic, connoisseur and founder of the theory of Uzbek dance.

3-in-1: bilateral subcutaneous leg abscesses and liver abscess from Klebsiella pneumoniae

Hypervirulent strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae are known to cause liver abscesses and other metastatic infections. Being Asian and having diabetes are known host risk factors. Here we present an unusual case of a Filipino ballet dancer–choreographer with diabetes presenting with bilateral leg pains initially thought to be cellulitis, but was eventually diagnosed as bilateral subcutaneous leg abscesses. He also had a liver abscess, thankfully asymptomatic, which was only discovered on imaging. The occurrence of three distant abscesses in one patient, hence ‘3-in-1,’ makes this case worth reporting. Bilateral subcutaneous leg abscesses as the presenting manifestation of this infection have not been reported yet. We hypothesise that his occupation which makes use of frequent contractions of leg muscles led to increased blood flow and preferentially directed blood-borne bacteria to localise in both legs. We have also characterised the pathogen with regards to its hypermucoviscous phenotype, capsular type, virulence genes and phylogeny.

The Spirit of Vaslav Nijinsky

The Spirit of Vaslav Nijinsky is a short comic created in 2016, telling the story of the famed ballet star who, in 1919, suffered a mental breakdown that resulted in a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Before his breakdown, Vaslav Nijinsky was known as ‘The God of Dance’, and regarded as the greatest male ballet star of his generation. His success as a ballet dancer paired with the details of his later life often associates him with the stereotype of a genius artist succumbing to madness. The nature of live art means the majority of Nijinsky’s work no longer survives intact, with only snippets of static documentation and ephemera left in the wake of performances hinting at his genius. However, in the lead up to his diagnosis, Nijinsky left two concrete bodies of work that are now regarded as important in the field of mental health history. First are a series of abstract drawings, and second are a collection of notebooks now known as The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky. Both are fascinating documents on the subject of mental illness and served as the main inspiration for the narrative of the comic. The story of Nijinsky’s life and career has become the stuff of legend because of his enigmatic quality as a historical figure. This article explores the ephemera and historical documentation associated with this fascinating yet intangible artist, and how they inspired the content, process and aesthetic of The Spirit of Vaslav Nijinsky.

Pirouette Vertical Ground Reaction Force of Ballet Dancers and Non-Dancers

BACKGROUND: Different amounts of force are needed to produce an effective turn for the pirouette, especially vertical force. AIM: To examine the vertical force produced by the supporting leg during the execution of a pirouette en dehors of ballet dancer and non-dancer participants. METHOD: The participants included five ballet dancers who composed the ballet dancer group and eight girls without previous experience of dance training who composed the non-dancer group. The participants were invited to execute the pirouette en dehors on a force platform with each leg as the supporting leg. Two-way analyses of variance were used to test vertical reaction forces between the two groups over the preferred and non-preferred leg. RESULTS: Among the three vertical forces measured in the present study, the maximum vertical peak for the initial impulse was significantly higher for the ballet dancers compared to the non-dancer girls. The minimum vertical force and maximum vertical peak for the final impulse were similar between both groups. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the initial vertical force may be critical to the pirouette en dehors, determining proficient execution of this movement in ballet dancers.

Mélisande and the silence of music

Through detailed discussion of specific moments in the opera, this chapter explores how Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande exemplifies the central aesthetic idea of ‘saying nothing’. The muteness of Mélisande is an idea that joins the work of Maeterlinck and Debussy to a wider aesthetic movement. It is key to the aesthetics that Mallarmé sets out in relation to the figure of the ballet dancer, whose ‘veils’ make visible a kind of nothing that appears only in her speechless movements. This muteness of art offers a critical and embodied reflection on a key category of wordlessness and the unsayable that preoccupies philosophy from Bergson, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger through to Jankélévitch, Derrida, and Nancy.