Dance is part of the cycle of life, with movements passed on from generation to generation.
Certain movements have morphed into the most extraordinary and often highly sophisticated dance forms. As with most art forms, dance styles and fashions continue to change, develop or die out. There are often interesting similarities or remarkable differences in the way people move to rhythms or music in every corner of the earth.
Nowadays there is a plethora of ways to learn to dance and perform. For dance the advent of film – in all its various forms – marks a new method of proliferation and conservation. Yet, there is still no better way to ‘pass on the baton’ than the ‘voice’ of experience working together with young dancers in the rehearsal room.
Originators of roles will pass down their first-hand knowledge to dancers taking on these artworks, who will then teach them to a following generation, creating a thread of physical knowledge that is the lifeblood of dance, particularly ballet.
Thus from generation to generation, from the old to the young, we still witness the echo of past voices, alive and vital in the dancing bodies of the present. It’s a thrilling interaction between the perspective of the current day and our dance heritage.
Credit: Sae Maeda and Leo Dixon coached by Anthony Dowell in a a Frederick Ashton Foundation ‘Ashton Rediscovered’ masterclass on Ashton’s ‘Thaïs’ pas de deux, 2024 © Frederick Ashton Foundation
Ballet, as we call it now, had its roots in the European courts from the 1400s and it has grown and flourished in a myriad of different ways for the last 600 years.
Ballet in Britain really only took off in the 20th Century, the story of which will be told variously through our Voices of British Ballet podcasts.
Most of the dancers seen in the following photographs within Evolution have podcasts in the pipeline that will be available for future listening!
Credit: Isabella Gasparini coached by Lesley Collier in a Frederick Ashton Foundation ‘Ashton Rediscovered’ masterclass on ‘Enigma Variations’, 2019 © Frederick Ashton Foundation