Marius Petipa: The French Master of Russian Ballet

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Marius Petipa was an unlikely artistic revolutionary. A middling dancer, he bounced around European cultural centres until he finally washed up in St. Petersburg in 1847 at age 29 – hired, sight unseen, by the Imperial Ballet as a principal dancer. A skilled socialite, he curried favor with the right people and within a decade staged his first ballet: the massive epic The Pharaoh’s Daughter.

Petipa became successful, but it would be decades before he emerged as the groundbreaking choreographer whose style transformed ballet and spread from Russia to the rest of the world. Indeed, his contributions dominated the form for generations. It is no coincidence that for his final performance, Rudolf Nureyev chose a Petipa ballet.

MARIUS PETIPA: THE FRENCH MASTER OF RUSSIAN BALLET traces Petipa’s career from his early, crowd-pleasing choreography to the works that would become his masterpieces: Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. Their stunning choreography and Tchaikovsky’s music elevated ballet for the first time to one of the world’s great art forms.

More than a biography, the film explores the social and political contexts of Petipa’s work and his ongoing influence on ballet today.

Director Denis Sneguirev takes us to Paris, New York, Berlin, Milan, and Moscow, where we meet some of ballet’s top choreographers, dancers, and conductors – including Nacho Duato, Alexei Ratmansky, and Nicoletta Mani. Some wrestle with ways to adapt Petipa’s work for contemporary tastes, while others face the challenge of re-learning basic techniques in order to revive works as close to the original style as possible.

The film features stunning performance and rehearsal footage, along with intriguing period artwork and colorized photography. Once celebrated, Petipa’s name has been largely forgotten outside of ballet. MARIUS PETIPA makes a significant contribution in re-introducing us to the life and work of this central figure.

“Gives valuable insight for dance students and scholars to understand how we might frame Petipa in a contemporary, discerning way. Spends time exploring how his ballets have been preserved, changed or reinterpreted; gazes at Petipa’s life and work through the social and political contexts in which he created and opens the door to questions about how and why those works resonate with contemporary audiences.” —Lauren Warnecke, Arts Intercept

“A quick and enlightening dive into ballet history, and the dancing is worth rewinding for." —Amy Brandt, Point Magazine

“More relevant than ever, Marius Petipa, who has been gaining renewed interest, remains a bedrock and a driving force.” —Rosita Boisseau, Le Monde

“A very good compilation, full of visual interest.” —Rodney Edgecombe, Ph.D., University of Cape Town

“Gasp-worthy; a film full of classical delights. Petipa is a name to reckon with: either to cherish, or rebel against.” —Dance International

“Entertaining and insightful... this film is as much about the intersection of art and geopolitics, and the value of perseverance, as it is about 19th-century ballet.” —The Washington Post

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Main credits

Sneguirev, Denis, 1976- (filmmaker)
Goupil, Sophie (film producer)
Legrand, Xavier, 1979- (narrator)

Other credits

Image, Mathias Rozpendowski [and 3 others]; montage, Marie Marchand.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

; "Marius Petipa: The French Master of Russian Ballet"; Icarus Films; Russia; France; dance; ballet; Tsar; Sleeping Beauty; Swan Lake; classical music; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; ; "Marius Petipa: The French Master of Russian Ballet"; Icarus Films

WEBVTT

00:01:36.845 --> 00:01:38.990
Sorry, sorry.

00:01:38.990 --> 00:01:40.220
Alban I\'m very very sorry.

00:01:40.220 --> 00:01:43.250
It\'s too heavy, yeah it\'s like, yeah.

00:01:43.250 --> 00:01:46.280
He can\'t keep all the time, like he started to first.

00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:49.423
If you just quick look at him, maybe that might help.

00:01:53.700 --> 00:01:55.057
Don\'t let him die here.

00:24:11.290 --> 00:24:15.020
Tchaikovsky was the first real symphony composer

00:24:15.020 --> 00:24:18.470
who wrote for ballet at that time.

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And if you look at the score, the craftsmanship

00:24:21.660 --> 00:24:25.653
of composition concerning form, harmony, instrumentation,

00:24:26.590 --> 00:24:29.770
melodic invention, it\'s on a completely different level

00:24:29.770 --> 00:24:33.103
than anything that I know that was being composed before.

00:24:41.010 --> 00:24:42.940
This is for me a real big difference,

00:24:42.940 --> 00:24:45.810
one notices when you take Tchaikovsky ballet

00:24:45.810 --> 00:24:49.710
and compare them with the others before him.

00:24:49.710 --> 00:24:53.240
That the instrumentation is not just there

00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:54.970
because he had to instrument it,

00:24:54.970 --> 00:24:56.280
because the orchestra had to play.

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Every little thing has a meaning.

00:25:00.850 --> 00:25:05.460
So for example when a cello solo is being used for Desire,

00:25:05.460 --> 00:25:09.010
you know, for him it\'s immediately,

00:25:09.010 --> 00:25:12.143
gives you association of loneliness.

00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:19.910
It\'s like it\'s giving it a new interpretation,

00:25:19.910 --> 00:25:21.600
a subconscious maybe.

00:25:21.600 --> 00:25:23.403
So Tchaikovsky put the orchestra,

00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:25.920
probably the dancers won\'t like to hear it,

00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:29.810
but on the level of importance of the dancing.

00:26:57.833 --> 00:26:59.820
I think every big composer

00:26:59.820 --> 00:27:01.610
searches for these opportunities

00:27:01.610 --> 00:27:04.430
to work in a decided form.

00:27:04.430 --> 00:27:07.470
And then the invention of these people comes to new heights.

00:29:50.203 --> 00:29:52.090
When I arrive in Berlin I said,

00:29:52.090 --> 00:29:55.250
well I think that classical ballet can be boring sometimes

00:29:55.250 --> 00:29:59.070
and very long and nowadays it\'s better

00:29:59.070 --> 00:30:02.600
to make it a little more, take the dust away.

00:30:02.600 --> 00:30:05.210
I love classical ballet, but when I say that,

00:30:05.210 --> 00:30:07.780
you all know that I\'m right and we know that is right,

00:30:07.780 --> 00:30:09.590
but nobody dares to say it.

00:30:09.590 --> 00:30:13.700
It is damn long sometimes, these classical versions.

00:30:13.700 --> 00:30:15.370
We have to be much more direct with the audience,

00:30:15.370 --> 00:30:18.342
otherwise they start thinking about something else.

00:30:18.342 --> 00:30:19.175
Yes.

00:30:37.420 --> 00:30:40.090
I start many things like the Petipa,

00:30:40.090 --> 00:30:42.660
you know the grand pas at the end in fifth position,

00:30:42.660 --> 00:30:44.800
developpe to the front and then I change the whole thing

00:30:44.800 --> 00:30:45.720
into something else.

00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:47.810
I move and you know it\'s much more free,

00:30:47.810 --> 00:30:50.010
there is not so much time for preparations,

00:30:50.010 --> 00:30:53.353
everything is more fluid, the music is much faster.

00:30:56.423 --> 00:30:57.256
Move in the back, go, go, go, go, go.

00:30:57.256 --> 00:30:58.089
Long arms, long.

00:31:00.060 --> 00:31:00.893
Yes .

00:31:09.755 --> 00:31:11.279
Travel back, travel, travel, travel.

00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:13.953
Go, go, go, go, go.

00:31:13.953 --> 00:31:16.120
More, even more.

00:31:23.330 --> 00:31:25.110
Okay, good.

00:31:25.110 --> 00:31:26.173
Thank you.

00:31:35.860 --> 00:31:37.150
Move the body, body...

00:31:42.986 --> 00:31:45.110
Relax the top, relax.

00:31:45.110 --> 00:31:45.943
Push.

00:31:48.977 --> 00:31:50.960
\"Sleeping Beauty\'s\" one of the most academic,

00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:55.300
it\'s when Petipa starts to show sort of class steps

00:31:55.300 --> 00:31:58.160
or more difficult variations.

00:31:58.160 --> 00:31:59.770
But nowadays we have the technique

00:31:59.770 --> 00:32:03.053
to do that and on top of it to free the body.

00:32:10.990 --> 00:32:12.740
Open the back, open.

00:32:14.780 --> 00:32:15.620
Yes, that is very nice!

00:32:15.620 --> 00:32:17.015
Yes!

00:32:17.015 --> 00:32:19.665
She has to just take the risk, because she can do it.

00:32:24.345 --> 00:32:25.762
Long, long, long!

00:32:48.742 --> 00:32:50.138
Okay, okay, okay, okay.

00:32:50.138 --> 00:32:51.150
Good, good, good.

00:32:51.150 --> 00:32:52.090
I tried with this version

00:32:52.090 --> 00:32:54.730
that people comes to see technique,

00:32:54.730 --> 00:32:57.420
but as well as they feel something from the story.

00:32:57.420 --> 00:32:58.740
Because this is what ballet is about.

00:32:58.740 --> 00:33:02.880
Ballet\'s not only about pirouettes and feet and high legs,

00:33:02.880 --> 00:33:06.030
it\'s about emotion and the feeling of the movement,

00:33:06.030 --> 00:33:07.823
of the music in the body.

00:33:39.090 --> 00:33:40.450
I think that moment the music

00:33:40.450 --> 00:33:42.750
is very beautiful in that moment.

00:33:42.750 --> 00:33:45.060
Normally when you see the classical version,

00:33:45.060 --> 00:33:46.510
I\'m not saying that it\'s bad,

00:33:46.510 --> 00:33:48.300
but it doesn\'t use all the accents

00:33:48.300 --> 00:33:51.340
and all the, all the notes

00:33:51.340 --> 00:33:53.737
that are so beautiful in this music.

00:33:53.737 --> 00:33:54.820
♪ Too room, too room, too room ♪

00:33:54.820 --> 00:33:57.620
It\'s in the mind of Carabosse, but it\'s not in the body.

00:34:02.725 --> 00:34:04.820
In my version, I think you see it in the body,

00:34:04.820 --> 00:34:05.653
you see in dance.

00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:26.970
I was worried if I was being fair to Tchaikovsky

00:34:26.970 --> 00:34:31.440
and to the story and to the classical ballet you know.

00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:34.380
And I think that the ballet and like it or not,

00:34:34.380 --> 00:34:37.030
but it is respectful with the story,

00:34:37.030 --> 00:34:38.913
with the music, with the composer.

00:38:24.152 --> 00:38:25.470
Well what we are doing now,

00:38:25.470 --> 00:38:29.240
we can\'t call it the authentic Petipa text,

00:38:29.240 --> 00:38:32.920
but we can say we reconstruct the notation.

00:38:32.920 --> 00:38:36.670
The notation was done some eight,

00:38:36.670 --> 00:38:40.240
seven, eight years after the premiere

00:38:40.240 --> 00:38:41.490
and you know how it goes.

00:38:44.998 --> 00:38:46.664
The steps get changed.

00:38:46.664 --> 00:38:47.655
Yes.

00:39:01.235 --> 00:39:02.662
One second.

00:39:02.662 --> 00:39:05.011
It now becomes something very very modern.

00:39:05.011 --> 00:39:09.043
I think you do it, you do a is going up.

00:39:09.043 --> 00:39:10.960
Yeah, so it does go in.

00:39:12.999 --> 00:39:13.832
Up.

00:39:53.823 --> 00:39:54.857
You do it beautifully,

00:39:54.857 --> 00:39:57.820
but it would be more effective if it\'s faster, no?

00:39:57.820 --> 00:39:58.967
Don\'t you think?

00:40:00.140 --> 00:40:02.714
So nasty.

00:40:02.714 --> 00:40:03.991
I\'ll do that way.

00:40:03.991 --> 00:40:04.932
It\'s difficult, yeah.

00:40:04.932 --> 00:40:05.765
It is.

00:40:05.765 --> 00:40:07.410
This is the first time that I\'ve ever worked

00:40:07.410 --> 00:40:10.173
with, you know, this sort of notation.

00:40:11.670 --> 00:40:13.890
New York City Ballet, we don\'t really

00:40:13.890 --> 00:40:14.723
ever work with it.

00:40:14.723 --> 00:40:16.040
So today was my first time

00:40:16.040 --> 00:40:17.740
and it\'s very difficult.

00:40:17.740 --> 00:40:21.350
It\'s very tedious and very precise

00:40:21.350 --> 00:40:24.900
in a way that I don\'t think maybe people dance

00:40:24.900 --> 00:40:26.003
that way today.

00:40:28.010 --> 00:40:33.010
I think that now we dance more as like a whole

00:40:33.540 --> 00:40:36.190
and each step doesn\'t have a specific.

00:40:36.190 --> 00:40:40.090
So getting the coordination now,

00:40:40.090 --> 00:40:42.020
when you learn it the other way,

00:40:42.020 --> 00:40:44.213
it was quite difficult I think.

00:42:03.840 --> 00:42:04.910
Keep falling.

00:42:04.910 --> 00:42:06.350
Down to the corner.

00:42:06.350 --> 00:42:07.183
Yes!

00:42:31.931 --> 00:42:33.764
Okay, beautiful bravo.

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