A Case Study Of Soviet Ballet's Historical Experience In Choreography & Teaching

In the five hundred years' ballet history, the Soviet Ballet has got a magnificent place with its outstanding achievement, great significance and profound influence, and naturally become a focus in the studies of ballet history.In fact, the history and experience of the Soviet Ballet has become the focus of dance historians in different countries and from different angles, with plenty of descriptions, fairly high recognitions and strong belief in its great historical values and realistic importance. Based on these, this author has elaborated on the critical issues and historical experience in its choreographic and educational fields, and thought that the Soviet Ballet has not only formed a connecting link between the fine tradition of the 19th and early 20th Centuries' Russian Ballet, but also set up a basic aesthetic pursuit and methodological discipline for its development after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.This Ph.D paper is divided into four chapters as follows.The First Chapter deals with the reservation and exploration of the classical dance heritage in the Soviet dance world from 1917 to 1927, during which the ballet artists not only severely struggled for the right of ballet's existence, but also seriously explored the directions of their development: inspired by their brand new situation and forms, the choreographers released their sensitivity and consciousness, as well as their creative thinking through smooth channels while experimenting with their contents and forms, their structural languages and expressive methods, thus adding new vitality to the ballet art at the beginning years of the Soviet Union.The Second Chapter deals with the achievement and experience of Dramatic Ballet from 1927 to late 1950s. From an objective and historic eye, the wholistic and strict dramatic structure of this specific ballet genre, the logic evolution of its plots, the distinctive and convincing images of its characters, the complicated and constantly changing inner world, as well as its characteristics closely connecting the real life, all have greatly enlightened the development of the world ballet as an art form.The Third Chapter deals with the achievements and experience of Symphonic Ballet from late 1950s to 1991 during which the Soviet Ballet actively searched for the common features and structural logic between dance and music, with great enthusiasm for the ontological nature of symphonic dance, thus guaranteeing the strict and complete system of dance thinking, and providing favorite conditions from the ballet art to further develop and innovate. At the same time, it has produced surprisingly pure dance images and its music-dance-drama structure clearly depicted the plots, distinctively represented the characteristics of human figures, and the in-depth thinking of its choreography.The Fourth Chapter deals with the general situation and achievement of the Soviet ballet education, and the characteristics and experience of the Vaganova Ballet Teaching Methodology whose double-folded meaning about "Teaching with Specific Methods" and "Teaching without Specific Methods" has enlightened the younger generations to come.During the process of proving and writing this Ph.D paper, the author has adopted the traditional research methodologies of logic positivism such as Induction, Deduction, Inference, Contrast, Judgment, Summery, etc., and the principle of "writing a 'big' paper from a 'small' topic," in order to try her utmost to explore the developing laws and gains and losses of the Soviet Ballet through sorting out and analyzing a large amount of Russian and Chinese historical materials, watching and reflecting on a large number of Soviet ballets, interviewing and studying with many Chinese and Russian experts and scholars, etc.