Marius petipa - choreographic style

The choreographic style in Petipa's ballet seems to be devoid of personal features. It seems rather purely academic, with no clear stamp of individuality (as in Perrot's case). In Petipa's ballets the overall structure as well as the composition of various dances is subjugated to an established impersonal pattern. We might call it ballet abstracted to a brilliant ideal. Yet, this statement is only partly true, for Petipa's academic style is multi-faceted and internally fluid. His classical choreo-

graphic style absorbed his own artistic experience and the changing aspirations of at least three generations of St. Petersburg ballet artists.

Let us note, however, that Petipa valued the touches of womanly fascination no less than he valued a woman's spirituality or tenderness. All those details and impulses went to create Petipa's Ballerina Myth, at once graceful and grandiose. Petipa applied that combination of grace and grandeur to his choreography, to his dancers and to ballet in general. This was the standard of beauty which is the foundation of his choreographic style. He combines subtle touches with grand style, stylistic finesse with sense of space, nuances with expansive movements. 

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