PAINTING

Light, color, shape, texture--all these are of intense interest to artists trying to capture their surroundings on paper or canvas. Painters use many different techniques to tell us more than just the subject of their work; each line and color choice in a composition contributes to the overall impression you have when looking at a piece of art. Impressionist painters in particular were concerned with recording the visual "reality" of a scene by paying particular attention to light and color; instead of focusing on every detail of a subject, they tried to convey a sense of the person or place.

Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) was a painter and sculptor during the Impressionist period. Although he was a personal friend and associate of the Impressionists, Degas tended to follow the more traditional approach to painting. He preferred to paint in his studio rather than outdoors, working methodically from studies he made at the Opera or at the Races. He is well-known for his paintings of ballerinas and scenes from the ballet.

Making the connection

Look at these Degas paintings and drawings in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. What elements are often used to capture these three-dimensional 'objects' in 2-d? How does the artist convey a sense of movement and grace? Do all of the paintings you see have a sense of movement? How does Degas show the effects of light on the dancers?

Try this!

• Do a Gesture Drawing. Like sketching, gesture drawing is used to quickly capture the basic shapes of a form-- like in The Ballet Master. Use a soft pencil, charcoal or even a pen. Instead of following the edges of whatever you are drawing, try to rough out the form quickly, barely lifting the tip of your pencil off the page and hardly looking away from your subject. You are capturing the shapes, not details, using fluid motions and your intuition.

• Create an Impression. You'll need watercolors or pastels, paper and someplace beautiful, preferably outside. Using lots of strokes and working freely, try to capture the essence of what you see-- the colors, the way the light falls, the basic shapes. Don't focus on getting each line perfect; the goal is to create a record of your impressions of the scene, not the scene itself.

Dancer Seen from Behind and Three Studies of Feet, c. 1878, black chalk and pastel on blue-gray laid paper, .456 x .598 m (19 x 24 in.)

Four Dancers, c. 1899 oil on canvas, 1.511 x 1.802 m (59 1/2 x 71 in.) Chester Dale Collection

Dancers Backstage, 1876/1883, oil on canvas, .242 x .188 m (9 1/2 x 7 3/8 in.)

The Ballet Master, c. 1874, monotype heightened and corrected with white chalk or wash, plate: .565 x .700 m (22 1/4 x 27 9/16 in.) sheet: .620 x .850 m (24 7/16 x 33 7/16 in.) executed in collaboration with Vicomte Lepic Edgar

The Dance Lesson, c. 1879, oil on canvas, .380 x .880 m (14 15/16 x 34 5/8 in.)

Before the Ballet, 1890/1892, oil on canvas, .400 x .889 m (15 3/4 x 35 in.)

Click on any of the images above to reach more NGA information about the work or the artist. You can also reach an online collection of Degas' images of the ballet at the National Gallery of Art.

SCULPTURE

Sculptors have been trying to capture the natural movement of the body since well before the advent of Ballet. Most of us are familiar with the stiff legs and arms of Egyptian, Babylonian and other ancient art. Although this mode of depicting the human body was partly driven by artistic convention, many artists were working toward more realistic portrayal. By about 480 bce, the Greeks had discovered the key to portraying the human form in action, allowing for natural representations of the body in art, particularly sculpture. Since then, sculptors have been building upon this discovery, aided by advances in materials and techniques which allow for more articulated forms and a fuller range of movement.

Making the connection

Look at Mycerinus and His Queen, in the Museum of Fine Arts or above. Notice the flat feet and locked knees of the Pharaoh and his wife, even as he seems to be ready to walk toward you? Now compare them to The Doryphorus , carved some 2000 years later. In the years between these sculptures, the Greeks 'discovered' that the key to portraying a natural stance was contrapposto -- allowing the subject's weight to be shifted from equal distribution on both legs to one. This shift in weight pulls the lines of the body into a series of curves as the body readjusts its balance--the hips tilt and the shoulders follow, the whole form taking on a more realistic feel.

This technique is used to great effect in Degas' Dressed Ballet Dancer. This life-sized bronze, modelled after a 14 year-old dancer who was the daughter of a laundress, caused a furor when shown to the public in 1881. Many thought her to be ugly, too "real" and not in keeping with the other-worldly beauty associated with ballerinas. Instead of sculpting her costume, Degas used a real tutu and horsehair tied with a satin ribbon to bring his statue to life.

Try this!

• Imitate a statue. Start "at attention" with your shoulders back and legs straight. Hold that for 15 seconds--don't move! Now go "at ease," shifting your weight to one leg for another 15 seconds. Think about the differences in your posture, noting the adjustments your spine, hips and shoulders make. Next, lift your free leg, and continue through a variety of "dance-like" poses. Think about what a sculptor must do to capture not only this range of motion but also the tension created by absolute stillness.

• Model in clay. Take a fist-sized piece of sculpture or modeling clay. Give yourself five minutes to create a fully three-dimensional figure that looks suddenly frozen--a horse in mid-gallop, a dancer landing a grand jete, a man walking. What do you have to consider when working "in the round"? What limitations does your medium impose? What benefits?

• Make the jump! Modern dance relies on the shaping and defining of space with the body, creating visual patterns that make it comparable to kinetic sculpture. Try creating a visual pattern by making up a dance movement of your own, one that might include a jump or a slide. For inspiration, consider the works of Alexander Calder and the dance troupe, Pilobolus. Does Calder's mobile Little Spider look like it is dancing? Does Pilobolus appear as sculpture? Why? What aspects of these artistic forms make them comparable to sculpture?

Mycerinus and his Queen, c. 2530 bce, artist unknown

The Doryphorus (Spearbearer),
c. 5th century bce. Attrib. to Polyklitis

Dressed Ballet Dancer (Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans), 1880/1881, cast c. 1920-1923 plaster cast, with base: 1.041 x .483 x .508 m (41 x 19 x 20 in.) without base: .991 x .381 x .356 m (39 x 15 x 14 in.)

DANCE

Ballet is only one form of dance--and even if we limit ourselves to theatrical dance, we still have a huge history of the moving arts to explore.

Modern dance was born when Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis, among others, rebelled against the structure and conventions of academic ballet, opting instead for natural, often extemporaneous movements and presenting abstract subject matters in a lyrical, energetic manner. They choreographed their dances using freedom of movement and personal expression, and developed a dance form that many others have emulated.

Dance made more huge strides under the influences of choreographers like Martha Graham and Twyla Tharp. Graham often used Greek myths as a pretext, while Tharp relied on visual patterns to engage her audiences.

More recently, troupes such as Pilobolus Dance Theatre have developed dance as a "team effort." Pilobolus is a dance company from Washington, Connecticut that tours and performs all over the world. The dancers use their bodies to create intricate and interesting shapes, and rely on one another to balance and support specialized movements.

Making the connection

Think about how modern dance compares with the Ballet. Consider the basic steps and the patterns of movement. How does the dance of the prima ballerina differ from the team dance approach of groups like Pilobolus? Where are there similarities? At what point do the two forms of dance become very different?

Try this!

• Dance in the abstract. Compose a series of movements that do not specifically tell a story but are instead nothing more than a visual pattern. You may want to give yourself a starting point by thinking of an abstract concept. Don't tell your audience your idea--in fact, don't tell them your dance has no "story." After your presentation, question your audience as to what you were "communicating." Did they see a story? Does the "story" rely as much on the audiences' perceptions as your motivation?

• Team up! On a matted gymnasium or dance floor, and dressed appropriately for movement, work with one or two friends to balance each other's weight as you make shapes. Begin by leaning into each other's shoulders to make an inverted "V" shape. Being careful to support each other at all times, create some new shapes using your arms and legs. Experiment to find ways to support each other. Show the shapes that you have created to your class and explain how you created them. (Excerpted from Prince William Network/Kennedy Center Performing Arts series. )

Parsons Dance Company

Pilobolus Dance Theatre

Parsons Dance Company

DRAMA

Of all the arts, Ballet and other stage (rather than social) dances are most closely allied with the Dramatic arts. Like theatre actors, dancers play often complex characters on a stage and in costumes designed to give their audience a sense of being in another place.

Making the connection

Ballet dancers have music but no words; dramatic actors have words but (usually) no music. What other forms of theatre use both? What are the similarities and differences in these differing forms of the performing arts? How does not having a voice limit or change the dancers ability to tell their story?

Try this!

• Storytelling. Select a story with which your audience is familiar--remember, many ballets are based on folk tales, literature or other stories with which their audiences are (or were) familiar. Try to tell your story without words, avoiding charade-like movements or overt facial expressions, and using body movement to express the basic theme, rather than the exact words of the story. Afterwards, discuss with your audience their views on the presentation, while sharing with them the limitations or frustrations you may have felt being unable to use words.

• Character study. Choose a character from a favorite book or play whose characteristics you have studied. Compose a list of adjectives that would help to describe this character, but do not share it with your audience. Use your list of words to create a character study made only from movement. Have your audience make a list of adjectives that describe what type of character they see in your performance. Discuss your list and theirs. How might you convey the character to bring their list closer and closer to your own?

Playwright and actor Athol Fugard (left) in The Captain's Tiger. Playwriting and acting are just two aspects of the dramatic arts to consider...

... and Puppetry arts, Opera, and Storytelling just a few other kinds of theatrical forms.

The technical side of the performance is another area to consider when looking at the theatre. We invite you to visit the ARTSEDGE Stanislavsky Ballet Theatre Photo Diary for a behind-the-scenes look at the art of stagecraft.

MUSIC

To many of us, classical music refers to music that is played by orchestras. To musicians and music historians, however, Classical music actually refers to a time period in music, just as it does to a (different) time in art. The Classical period in music was roughly 1750-1820, corresponding with the Neoclassical and Romantic periods in art and literature. Tchaikovsky in particular is important in development not only of music but in dance as well, scoring many of the world's best loved Ballets.

Making the connection

Many classical ballets rely on the this particular form of orchestral music not only to provide a framework in which to dance but also to advance the narrative, underscoring particular passages or adding a sense of drama (or even better understanding) to a particular part. Imagine ballet, or any dance form, without music-- even dances performed to one's own heartbeat or other "non-musical music" are relying on sound to direct or inform the movements.

Try this!

• Listen to Music. Select several pieces of music: The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Tchaikovsky, Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev, or Mussourgsky's Night on Bald Mountain are all good choices. Close your eyes and listen carefully to the story being told by the composer. Does the music encourage you to imagine a scene or a story? If so, what is the scene or story, and what are the elements of the music that suggest that scene or story?

• Analyze it. Does this music have a strong beat or pulse? Is the pulse even and steady or uneven and hard to clap? Does the rhythm seem to affect the way it makes you feel? If so, how? Does the music move in 2’s (like walking: left, right, left, right), in 3’s (like a waltz: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3) or in some other way? What is your emotional response to this music? What are some words that describe the way the music makes you feel?