Guest sarez Posted May 7, 2002 Report Share Posted May 7, 2002 Yesterday I received my new Pointe magazine, complete with a poster. In the poster, Paloma Hererra is demonstrating the first four Checetti and Vaganova arabesques. Comparing them, there is one thing I noticed- there's a really big difference in the height of the arabesques, all of the Checetti ones are around 90 degrees, and all of the Vaganova ones are much higher. Was this done because of the difference in the syallbi, or artistic interpretation? Link to comment
Administrators Victoria Leigh Posted May 7, 2002 Administrators Report Share Posted May 7, 2002 Good question, Sarabeth (And it's Cecchetti, by the way ;) ) Even in the Gail Grant book, and in other books, the Cecchetti arabesques are shown much lower than the Russian or the French school. Seems to be the way they were originally shown in the syllabus, although I am not an expert on this. Major Mel will have more info for you when he comes, as he is much more of a syllabus expert than I am Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted May 7, 2002 Report Share Posted May 7, 2002 As originally specified, the Cecchetti arabesque was rather lower than we expect arabesques to be today, and were originally much more allongé. Just check out a photo of Pavlova demonstrating a 1st arabesque with "Il Maestro"! This disparity in heights is only slightly surprising, given that the Cecchetti system started to be "laid down" some forty years ahead of Vaganova, but what a forty years those were! Since their beginnings, both the Cecchetti and Vaganova schools have undergone some revision, updating, and extension of their original designs to account for improving techniques and technologies available to the teacher and the student. Nothing stands absolutely still in ballet, unless you're in the corps of "Les Sylphides"!;) Link to comment
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