User:Ee1013/sandbox

Notable Choreographers of Dream Ballets

Agnes de Mille

Agnes de Mille had roots in the theater community with her father, William de Mille a Broadway playwright and a Hollywood screenwriter. Her uncle was Cecil B. DeMille, famous for his success as a Hollywood film director. Her family pressured her to pursue a playwriting career for herself, but she wanted to become a ballet dancer.1 This didn't pan out as she would have liked, in spite of great efforts. She ended up attending UCLA for English and graduated with honors. However, she returned to the stage after moving to New York. She used solo dance recitals as a way to perform, refine her choreographic style, and garnered the interest of fellow theater makers. Agnes de Mille continued on this venture in London for an additional 5 years. In 1940 she helped found American Ballet Theatre back in the United States and choreographed some of their early work. Her big breakthrough, however, came when she choreographed and danced the lead role for "Rodeo" for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1942. She soon became an in-demand Broadway choreographer after that, working on musicals for stage and film for the next thirty years.

1. EPSTEIN, DANIEL MARK. “DANCE: American Dryad: Agnes De Mille.” The American Scholar, vol. 63, no. 4, 1994, pp. 591–600. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41212129.
2. http://www.agnesdemilledances.com/biography.html

External Links

Dance to the Piper, by Agnes de Mille

Musicals featuring dream ballets

Title of Musical	Title of dream ballet	Original Choreographer	Year
Oklahoma!	"Dream Ballet"	Agnes de Mille	1943
Carousel	"Billy Goes on a Journey"	Agnes de Mille	1945
Brigadoon	"Ballet"	Agnes de Mille	1947
Guys and Dolls	"Crapshooters Ballet"	Michael Kidd	1950
Wonderful Town	"Ballet at the Village Vortex"	Donald Saddler	1953
West Side Story	"Dance at the Gym"	Jerome Robbins	1957
The Wiz	"Tornado"	George Faison	1974
Cats	"The Jellicle Ball"	Gillian Lynne	1981
The Wild Party	"Jackie's Last Dance"	Mark Dendy	2000
Thoroughly Modern Millie	"The Nuttycracker Suite"	Rob Ashford	2002
An American in Paris	"An American in Paris"	Christopher Wheeldon	2015

Elements of a dream ballet

A dream ballet is a moment in a musical, where the dialogue stops and the plot continues through movement. The difference between a dream ballet and a dance break is that a dream ballet is a dedicated dance number, whereas dance breaks usually occur in the middle of songs. For example, the dance break in the middle of "Too Darn Hot" from Kiss Me, Kate! would not be considered a dream ballet because it's in the middle of a song with words. Also it is there with the express purpose of dancing, not to move the plot forward.

Dream ballet in Film

A moment from An American in Paris '(1951) dream ballet.

After Oklahoma debuted onstage, some movie musicals began to incorporate dream ballets into their creations. One notable example is An American in Paris (1951). Directed by Vincente Minnelli and choreographed by both Minnelli and Gene Kelly, the last twenty minutes of the movie is a dream ballet where Kelly's character Jerry Mulligan examines his relationship with Lise Bouvier, played by Leslie Caron. The dream ballet is supposed to stylistically move from painter to painter as Jerry thinks about his relationship in terms of different painters from Paris.

Another Vincente Minnelli film to feature a dream ballet is The Band Wagon (1953) starring classic film dancers Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. Based on the musical of the same name, the dream ballet number "Dancing in the Dark" featured choreography by Michael Kidd. In 1954, Stanley Donen directed Seven Brides for Seven Brothers which featured a "Barn Dance" where the seven sisters are fought over by the seven brothers and their rivals. As he was popular at this time, the choreography was by Michael Kidd. Oklahoma! debuted as a film in 1955, keeping Agnes DeMille's choreography for the dream ballet intact. Since then other films have used the conceit of a dream ballet including the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) which has an unexpected dream ballet number choreographed by Wesley Fata and performed by Tim Robbins and Pamela Everett. (imdb)

Spring Wikipedia Article

Bibliography

Anderson, Jack. Ballet and Modern Dance: A Concise History. Princeton Book Company. 1992. Heightstown, NJ.

Degen, John. "Musical Theatre Since World War II". The Cambridge History of American Theatre, vol 3, pp.419-465.

Dox, Donnalee. “Constructions of Rape: Two American Musicals.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 17, no. 3, 1996, pp. 210–238. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3346888.

Jackson, Arthur. The best musicals from Show boat to A chorus line : Broadway, off Broadway, London. Crown. 1977. New York.

McMillin, Scott. The musical as drama : A study of the principles and conventions behind musical shows from Kern to Sondheim. Princeton University Press. 2006. Princeton, NJ.

Mordden, Ethan. Open a new window : The Broadway musical in the 1960s (1st Palgrave ed., Golden age of the Broadway musical). Palgrave for St. Martin's Press. 2001. New York.

Nagrin, Daniel. “Choreography for the Theatre, Musical Comedy and Opera.” Choreography And The Specific Image. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001. Pittsburgh, Pa., pp. 139–157. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wrbfq.19.

Schlundt, C., Ramirez, Alexander, & New York Public Library. Dance in the musical theater : Jerome Robbins and his peers, 1934-1965. Garland Pub. 1989. New York.

Stempel, Larry. “The Musical Play Expands.” American Music, vol. 10, no. 2, 1992, pp. 136–169. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3051722.

Theodore, Lee. Loney, Glenn. “Broadway Dancin'.” Performing Arts Journal, vol. 4, no. 1/2, 1979, pp. 129–141. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4623769.

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67241/An-American-in-Paris/notes.html

Feedback on prelim bib

Ee1013, these look like promising sources for an article on the dream ballet, and overall you've got a strong grasp of MLA style. Remember that book titles and journal titles are always italicized. Remember also that MLA has some rules for how to list page numbers -- for example, you should write: 129-41 (not 129-141). I think that MLA specifies that you include the DOI number for electronic articles instead of the URL of the database from whence you retrieved the article, but if you can't find the DOI, you can include the URL. Remember that "press" is abbreviated to "P" and "university" to "U" -- MLA is usually about brevity. Delete any spaces before colons in book and article titles, and I think in some of your citations you should be using commas instead of periods (i.e. McMillin -- I don't think you need to include the city of publication either, by the way). Let me know if you have Qs, and I look forward to seeing your writing plan. Amy E Hughes (talk) 21:03, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Feedback on Dream Ballet (toby)

Hey Emily - great job so far! I love dream ballets, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with. A few thoughts (caveat, I am sure most of these things you're going to be doing, just reacting to what I see on the ground): I'd love to see more of a 'structure' in place for the article - different headings for different sections. I also can see above here on your sandbox that you've got plenty of sources -- I'd love to see them cited in the body of the article, in the future. One section I'd love to see is some kind of non-exhaustive list of places where dream ballets occur in theatre -- in my mind I can think of a dozen, but then when I actually try to come up with that list, I have a hard time doing it! Please make me a list so I can reference it in the future! Otherwise, this is a good start, and I look forward to the rest. Tobymsinger (talk) 17:02, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Fall Wikipedia Article

Ancient History

The history of stage fighting and mock combat can be traced to antiquity, with Aristotle quoted as noting that tragedy is conflict between people or indeed it may be traced to the origins of the human species and primate display behaviour. Display of martial aptitude is a natural occurrence in warrior societies, and ritualized forms of mock combat often evolve into war dances. Whether it is the struggle between the men and women of Aristophanes' Lysistrata in Ancient Greece or Ancient Egypt where Herodotus in his Histories talks about a religious festival in which they beat each other with staves but no one dies, staged combat has always existed. As it doesn't make sense to sacrifice citizens in rituals, many ancient civilizations turned to symbolic gestures of combat through dancing or bringing a weapon to someone's throat or neck without actually touching them to symbolize death or violence.

Post-classical history

Fights staged for entertainment may also be in earnest for the combatants, as was the case with the Roman gladiators, and any public duel, such as the judicial duel of the European Middle Ages. The medieval tournament and joust are a classical examples of competitive ritualised mock combat. The joust from the time of Maximilian Ideveloped into a sport with enormous cost involved for each knight and correspondingly high prestige attached, comparable to contemporary Formula One races, while at the same time minimizing the danger of injury with highly specialized equipment.

In the Late Middle Ages, staged fencing bouts, with or without choreography, became popular with fencing schools. Some German fechtbuch ("combat manuals", literally 'fight' or 'fence book') have sections dedicated to flamboyant techniques to be employed in such Klopffechten ("knockabout fighting"), which would be impractical in serious combat, and the Late Medieval German masters distinguish mock fights (fechten zu schimpf, 'rant fighting') and real combat (fechten zu ernst, 'earnest fighting').

The history of European theatrical combat has its roots in medieval theatre, and becomes tangible in Elizabethan drama. Richard Tarleton, who was a member of both William Shakespeare's acting company and of the London Masters of Defence weapons guild, was among the first fight directors in the modern sense.^{[citation needed]}

The Islamic ritual drama of Ta'ziyeh which is believed to have started in the nineteenth century features mock battles and

Actual Bibliography for Stage Combat

Herodotus. Histories. Book II. Ln. 63.

Proposed Bibliography for Stage Combat

Anglo, Sydney. “The Barriers: From Combat to Dance (Almost).” Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research, vol. 25, no. 2, 2007, pp. 91–106. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40004131.

Corrsin, Stephen D. “The Historiography of European Linked Sword Dancing.” Dance Research Journal, vol. 25, no. 1, 1993, pp. 1–12. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1478186. 1400s-1700s

Friedenreich, Kenneth. “‘You Talks Brave and Bold’: The Origins of an Elizabethan Stage Device.” Comparative Drama, vol. 8, no. 3, 1974, pp. 239–253. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41152452.

Goth, Maik. “‘Killing, Hewing, Stabbing, Dagger-Drawing, Fighting, Butchery’: Skin Penetration in Renaissance Tragedy and Its Bearing on Dramatic Theory.” Comparative Drama, vol. 46, no. 2, 2012, pp. 139–162. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23237102.

Leiter, Samuel L. “The Depiction of Violence on the Kabuki Stage.” Educational Theatre Journal, vol. 21, no. 2, 1969, pp. 147–155. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3205630.

Pettitt, Thomas. “English Folk Drama in the Eighteenth Century: A Defense of the ‘Revesby Sword Play.’” Comparative Drama, vol. 15, no. 1, 1981, pp. 3–29. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41152926. 1700’s

Scott-Warren, Jason. “When Theaters Were Bear-Gardens; Or, What's at Stake in the Comedy of Humors.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 54, no. 1, 2003, pp. 63–82. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3844120.

Soens, Adolph L. “Tybalt's Spanish Fencing in Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 2, 1969, pp. 121–127. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2868996.

Tian, Min. “Stage Directions in the Performance of Yuan Drama.” Comparative Drama, vol. 39, no. 3/4, 2005, pp. 397–443. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41154289.

Wright, Louis B. “Stage Duelling in the Elizabethan Theatre.” The Modern Language Review, vol. 22, no. 3, 1927, pp. 265–275. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3714638.

Feedback on initial bibliography

Ee1013, your bibliography demonstrates that you have a good grasp of MLA style! Note that you only list the name of an electronic database once, in italics: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_electronic_sources.html -- you've listed JSTOR twice in your citations of articles that you found in that database. Also, note that for sources like those, it is best to include the DOI number (if you can find it) and also the date you accessed it, e.g. "Accessed 8 Feb. 2009." I'm looking forward to seeing this project unfold! Let me know if I can help in any way! Amy E Hughes (talk) 21:06, 27 October 2018 (UTC)

Modern History[edit source]

Modern History[edit source]

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, stylized stage combat has been a staple feature of traditional performing arts for centuries, such as in Japanese Kabuki theater (as tachimawari "fighting scenes"), Chinese Beijing Opera and Indian theater.

Fencing masters in Europe began to research and experiment with historical fencing techniques, with weapons such as the two-handed sword, rapier and smallsword, and to instruct actors in their use. Notable amongst these were George Dubois, a Parisian fight director and martial artist who created performance fencing styles based on gladiatorial combat as well as Renaissance rapier and dagger fencing. Egerton Castle and Captain Alfred Hutton of London were also involved both in reviving antique fencing systems and in teaching these styles to actors.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scenes of swordplay in touring theatrical productions throughout Europe, the British Commonwealth and the USA were typically created by combining several widely known, generic routines known as "standard combats", identified by names such as the "Round Eights" and the "Glasgow Tens".

Cinematic fencing has its roots in the 1920s, with the movies of Douglas Fairbanks. One of the more celebrated fight directors who emerged in this time was Paddy Crean who revolutionized stage combat, specifically sword play, for the silver screen and theater. Paddy created the flamboyant style of sword play that can be seen in Errol Flynn movies, among others. He promoted the use of safety above all things and then focused on story of the fight. B. H. Barry and J. Allen Suddeth, students of Paddy Crean, are two fight masters who have continued developing Paddy's legacy. Barry helped found the Society of British Fight Directors and then came to the United States to give fight direction a more specific shape. J. Allen Suddeth founded the National Fight Directors Training Program in the United States and wrote "Fight Direction for the Theater" (1996). Martial arts movies emerge as a distinct genre from the 1940s, popularized by Bruce Lee and Sonny Chiba from the 1960s.

Informal guilds of fight choreographers began to take shape in the 1970s with the establishment of The Society of British Fight Directors, 1969 to 1996. Training was established in the United States with the formation of the Society of American Fight Directors in 1977.

Following this, further academies and associations worldwide have been established to uphold the craft, training and quality of work in the art-form of stage combat nationally and internationally, including: The British Academy Of Stage & Screen Combat (BASSC) and Fight Directors Canada (FDC) in 1993; the Society of Australian Fight Directors Inc. (SADDi) in 1994; the Nordic Stage Fight Society (NSFS) and the New Zealand Stage Combat Society in 1995; the British Academy of Dramatic Combat (BADC) in 1996; Art of Combat in 1997; Stage Combat Deutschland in 2004; and the Australian Stage Combat Association (ASCA) in 2010; The British Guild of Stage Combat in 2015. As of 2005, East 15 Acting School, London offered a B.A. (Hons) Degree in Acting & Stage Combat.

Techniques

The combat phase of a play rehearsal is referred to as a fight rehearsal. Choreography is typically learned step by step, and practiced at first very slowly before increasing to a speed that is both dramatically convincing and safe for the performers and their audience. Even stage combat is risky, and it is preferable for actors to have as much training and experience as possible. A "fight call" or a brief rehearsal before the show is performed each time, set aside for the actors to "mark" through the fight to increase their muscle memory. A show which involves fight choreography will typically be trained and supervised by a professional fight choreographer and may also include a fight captain, who runs fight calls and ensures that actors are remaining safe throughout the duration of the show.

The fighting styles in movies set in the Medieval or Renaissance period may be unrealistic and historically inaccurate. Most fight choreographers use a mix between Asian martial arts and sports fencing to re-enact fight scenes. This generally due to the look of the fighting asked for by the director. If the director wants the story to flow a certain way, then the fight director will choreograph the fights to fit that style and tell the story.

Unarmed combat play list

Fool For Love (1983) - by Sam Shepard

Blasted (1995) - by Sarah Kane

The Lonesome West (1997) - by Martin McDonagh

Superior Donuts (2008) - by Tracy Letts

Various Weaponry Styles

For stage combat, all edges should be dulled and points blunted so that there is no risk of severe injury if someone is accidentally stabbed. In addition, weapons that are used, and not just for show, should be certified as combat-ready, thereby preventing any accidents involving blades accidentally breaking off.

Quarterstaff - Used in shows that are performed in large playing spaces due to the large size of the weapon. Most popular quarterstaff fight is that between Robin Hood and Little John in the tale of Robin Hood from the 17th century ballad. Modern quarterstaff choreography has also integrated the techniques of the bō staff from the Japanese martial art Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū which originated around 1447. Examples of this style can be seen in the famous Kabuki play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura written in 1748.

Broadsword - A large sword commonly used in the early Middle Ages in Europe. It was notable for its large hilt which allowed it to be wielded with both hands due to its size and weight. Used for slashing rather than stabbing, this weapon is used in plays set in this period like Shakespeare's Macbeth and is also seen in fantasy epics like Lord of the Rings.

Rapier - First school instructing on the correct use of the rapier in England was started in 1576 by Rocco Bonetti from Italy. (Weapons in the Theatre pg 5). Bonetti took over the lease from playwright John Lyly to open his school in Blackfriars. (Craig Turner, Tony Soper Methods and Practice of Elizabethan Swordplay, Southern University Press, Carbondale, IL 1990. pg 15.) The rapier has the advantage of the thrust over the slash which means it could be a much smaller and lighter weapon than the broadsword. It is popular in Shakespeare plays like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet where duels are performed and can be used in combination with a dagger.

Smallsword - The smallsword came into fashion in England and France in the late seventeenth century. (Weapons in the Theatre pg 123-124) It was used as a thrusting weapon and so sword movements were kept minimal to find the opening that a thrust could land. Most men of the period carried smallswords as fashion accessories so most were elegantly ornamented. An example of a smallsword duel can be seen in Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton written in 1985, based on the 1782 novel of the same name.

Knife - There are many styles of knives from the Bowie knife to a switchblade. Knife fights tend to have quick sharp movements. A example of this can be seen in West Side Story's fight between Riff and Bernardo. Often in plays however, it is one actor with a knife against someone who is unarmed like in Act I of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, written in 1875.

Sword and shield - The shields used in stage combat are commonly round and are strong enough that they can be used as a defensive and offensive weapon. An important element in using a shield is to hold the shield arm in an upper diagonal so the fist is higher than the elbow so the top of the shield does not move when struck, and the danger being hit in the face with the shield or the weapon using to strike it can be avoided. Sword and shields can be found in battle scenes like in Shakespeare's War of the Roses plays.

The shield in this painting is the size and shape commonly used in stage combat.

Unarmed - This consists of hand to hand combat without weapon. Elements of unarmed combat include slaps, punches, kicks, grabs, chokes, falls, rolls, grappling, among others. Many fight directors rely on combinations of messy street fighting and martial arts such as aikido and Brazilian ju-jitsu to create fights of this nature. Generally more common in modern contemporary plays, after swords have gone out of style but also seen in older plays such as Shakespeare's Othello when Othello strangles Desdemona.

Found Objects - Found objects are objects that are not traditionally weapons but can be used so in the context of the scene. A classic example of this is breaking a bottle over someone's head. As with all stage combat, the objects are rigged so as not to actually pose any danger to the recipients. In the case of bottles or plates, sugar glass molds are used.

Japanese weapons - Other weapons like a katana, a Japanese style sword that is curved on one side, and nunchucks can also be used onstage. These require more detailed study of Japanese martial arts. Stage combat versions of nunchucks can be purchased that are foam instead of wood, thereby reducing the danger to the actors.

Melee weapons - These can include spears, axes, maces, flails, and more.