Carlo Blasis

Lore & Background

Carlo Blasis is recognized as one of the romantic ballet choreographers of the 19th century, a time when ballet eventually developed its own vocabulary. He is grouped with August Bournonville, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa as choreographers who contributed to this development. Blasis followed in the tradition of earlier ballet masters like Jean-Georges Noverre, Gasparo Angiolini, Jean Dauberval, Charles Didelot, and Salvatore Viganò, who developed techniques for specific types of dance. The art of choreography, in which Blasis worked, involves specifying human movement and form in terms of space, shape, time, and energy, typically within an emotional or non-literal context. The choreographic process may employ improvisation to develop innovative movement ideas, and dances are generally intended to be performed as concert dance.

Reader's Guide

Carlo Blasis's significance lies in his role as a romantic ballet choreographer during the 19th century, when ballet developed its own vocabulary. He is named alongside August Bournonville, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa as part of that development. The art of choreography, which Blasis practiced, involves specifying human movement and form in terms of space, shape, time, and energy, typically within an emotional or non-literal context. Movement language for choreography is taken from dance techniques including ballet, contemporary dance, jazz, hip hop, folk dance, techno, K-pop, religious dance, pedestrian movement, or combinations of these. Dances designed through choreography are generally intended to be performed as concert dance.

Did You Know?

• Carlo Blasis is named as one of the romantic ballet choreographers of the 19th century, alongside August Bournonville, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa.
• Ballet eventually developed its own vocabulary in the 19th century, and Blasis was part of that development.
• Blasis followed in the tradition of earlier ballet masters such as Jean-Georges Noverre, Gasparo Angiolini, Jean Dauberval, Charles Didelot, and Salvatore Viganò.
• The art of choreography involves specifying human movement and form in terms of space, shape, time, and energy, typically within an emotional or non-literal context.

A Name Among the Romantics

Carlo Blasis is named as one of the romantic ballet choreographers of the 19th century, alongside August Bournonville, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa. This grouping places him in the era when ballet eventually developed its own vocabulary. The romantic ballet period represented a maturation of the form, following the work of earlier ballet masters such as Jean-Georges Noverre, Gasparo Angiolini, Jean Dauberval, Charles Didelot, and Salvatore Viganò, who developed techniques for specific types of dance. Blasis stands as a representative of that pivotal generational shift in the art of movement design.

Inheriting a Theatrical Legacy

Before the 19th century gave ballet its own vocabulary, the role of shaping dance for the stage had a long history. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the separation between social dance and theatrical performance became more pronounced, and the ballet master evolved into the 'arranger of dance as a theatrical art.' Masters such as Jean-Georges Noverre, Gasparo Angiolini, Jean Dauberval, Charles Didelot, and Salvatore Viganò each developed techniques for specific types of dance, building a tradition that would eventually give rise to the romantic era. Carlo Blasis entered this lineage as a choreographer working within the newly self-aware ballet vocabulary of the 19th century.

The Architecture of Movement

Choreography, the art in which Blasis worked, is fundamentally the design of sequences of physical movement in which motion, form, or both are deliberately specified. The choreographic process involves specifying human movement and form in terms of four essential dimensions: space, shape, time, and energy. These specifications typically operate within an emotional or non-literal context. The compositional aspects that a ballet choreographer draws upon include organic unity, rhythmic or non-rhythmic articulation, theme and variation, and repetition. The choreographic process may also employ improvisation as a tool for developing innovative movement ideas before they are fixed into a performed sequence. For a 19th-century romantic ballet choreographer like Blasis, these principles would have governed the construction of dances intended for concert performance.

Ballet as a Movement Language

Within the broader landscape of choreography, ballet occupies a specific and historically significant position as one of the movement languages from which choreographers draw. The art of choreography takes its movement vocabulary from a range of sources, including ballet, contemporary dance, jazz, hip hop, folk dance, techno, K-pop, religious dance, and even pedestrian movement, or combinations of these. For a romantic-era choreographer, ballet was not merely one option among many but the primary and most developed of these languages, having just acquired its own dedicated vocabulary in the 19th century. The choreographies designed in this tradition were generally intended to be performed as concert dance.

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