The Principles of Classical Dance

By Joan Lawson

O.E.D. Classicism: following or follower of classical style

Classical: standard of using Ancient Greek authors and artists

Style: the manner of writing, speaking or doing as opposed to the matter expressed or done.

Classicism in the arts of painting and sculpture signifies an ideal human body. Each work must show a strict sense of balance and formal design, which is serene and generalized rather than individual. In ancient art, the human body is portrayed in its most harmonious form, no matter from what angle it is viewed.Thus the lines and angles of the head, body, arms and legs must be suitably related and to the central line of balance in order to display a perfectly balanced pose.

Classical style in dance is the vocabulary of movement that conforms to rules established by long practice.The steps and poses from simple folk dances were refined by courtiers and later by dancing-masters who concentrated on how to behave and display oneself to the best advantage in aristocratic society.When professional dancers employed this technique more attention was paid to the look and correct detail of each movement as part of the display.And these movements must show each dancer’s body as a perfect balanced whole.

The choreographer is like a writer, but instead of selecting words appropriate to the meaning and structure of a sentence, he selects steps and poses from the dance vocabulary, phrasing them so they are appropriate to each other, to the line of dance and to the music.The performers ‘who speak his words’ must interpret them in the proper style in order to communicate that line of dance to the audience.

The Principles of Classical Dance, by Joan Lawson, Alfred A. Knopf; 1st American ed edition (1980) 

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