Women in dance
Cave paintings, Egyptian frescos, Indian statuettes, ancient Greek and Roman art and records of court traditions in China and Japan all testify to the important role women played in ritual and religious dancing from the start.
In Ancient Egypt, women performed ritual dances for religious ceremonies such as funerals, as illustrated by frescos on the pharaohs' tombs.
[2] In the Indian subcontinent too, there is early evidence of dancing women, most notably a bronze statuette from Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley dating from around 2500 BC.
[9] In Ancient Rome, female singers and dancers performed in the annual celebrations of Isis which included mystery plays representing the resurrection of Osiris.
[16] In the early 1900s, modern dance was first introduced to China by Nellie Yu Roung Ling, daughter of a Qing-dynasty diplomat to France.
[17] She developed a series of dance styles combining Eastern aesthetic with Western technique during her time in the Qing imperial court.
One of the early masters was Domenico da Piacenza (c. 1400–1470) who compiled a manual of dance: De arte saltandi et choreas ducendi.
The king not only had the rules of dance written down but established the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661, which developed into today's Paris Opera Ballet.
[5] Many of the early ballets were created by the Italian-French composer Jean Baptiste Lully and the French choreographer Pierre Beauchamp, often assisted by Molière.
In particular, her personal interpretation of the steps in Caprice served as an example for other soloists while she transformed the Caractères into a sequence illustrating different types of lover, both male and female.
[30][31] Camargo proved to be a tremendous success, not only as a result of her dazzling footwork (especially her entrechat à quatre), but because she introduced slightly shorter skirts and new hair styles.
She believed music, steps, decor and costumes should all contribute to a graceful, expressive performance combining pantomime with dance in what became known as ballet d'action.
Discarding the usual attire of a ballerina, she chose to wear a simple muslin tunic and allow her hair to fall freely over her shoulders.
[30] During the second half of the 18th century, the dominating star of the Paris Opera was Marie-Madeleine Guimard who may not have had the technique of Sallé but was nevertheless recognized for her sensuous movements, her numerous suitors and her exotic attire.
The Italian-Swedish Marie Taglioni (1804–1884) not only excelled at the Paris Opera when she danced La Sylphide in 1832 but extended her fame to Saint Petersburg's Mariinsky Ballet as well as to the stages of Berlin, Milan and London until her retirement in 1847.
It was she who developed ballet's en pointe (dancing on the tips of the toes) while introducing new fashions in dress and hair styling which became popular throughout Europe.
The Austrian Fanny Elssler (1810–1884) gained fame and fortune by dancing the flirtatious Spanish cachucha in Le Diable boiteux, performing not only in Austria, Germany, France, England and Russia but also in the United States.
Nevertheless, in 1845 she refused to dance with her rivals Marie Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Lucile Grahn in Jules Perrot's Pas de Quatre.
[37][38] Presented at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, the Pas de Quatre caused a sensation, bringing together the four greatest ballerinas of the day.
In addition to Marie Taglioni, Italy's Grisi (1819–1899) had become famous both in Paris and Saint Petersburg for her Giselle, while Cerrito from Naples had become the star of La Scala in Milan.
Grahn (1819–1907), a Dane trained by Bournonville, was based in Paris but had also danced in London, Saint Petersburg and Milan before settling in Germany.
[39] Pierina Legnani (1863–1930) from Milan followed as similar path, also dancing at the Mariinsky from 1892 where she originated famous roles in Petipa's ballets including Cinderella, Swan Lake and Raymonda, gaining the title of prima ballerina assoluta.
[43] One of the early stars was Anna Pavlova (1881–1931) who gained fame by dancing The Dying Swan choreographed by Mikhail Fokine before joining the Ballets Russes in 1909.
[56] Angelita Vargas (born 1946) is considered to be one of the greatest stars of Andalusian flamenco dancing, touring Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia.
[58] Inspired by Greek art, Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) from San Francisco paved the way to the modern free dance style believing it was more important to express the essence of life through movement rather than to follow the precepts of classical ballet.
[67] One of her students, Dore Hoyer (1911–1967), who was also an associate of Mary Wigman, developed her own programmes before the Second World War in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.
[71] Women started to sing and dance in the cabarets of Paris in the 1890s, emphasizing the female body by introducing seductive movements highlighting their breasts and hips.
