The original presentation at the Twenty-Ninth Biennial Conference of the International Council of Kinetography Laban included clips from YouTube and brief excerpts from the dance score to illustrated Balanchine’s innovative vocabulary. For the transformation of the multimedia presentation into a publication the moments of movement captured in the clips are substituted with screen shot stills. The labanotated illustrations remain in the publication.
The Four Temperaments is considered Balanchine’s first modern ballet and appears in the repertory of ballet companies throughout the world. Ballet Society, the predeces-sor to the New York City Ballet, premiered The Four Temperaments in November 20, 1946 with music commissioned by Paul Hindemith and costumes and décor by Kurt Seligmann. The Hindemith score presents a theme in three parts then a series of four variations named after the four temperaments of medieval cosmology: Melancholic (sadness), Sanguinic (cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, confident), Phlegmatic (calm), and Choleric (angry, annoyed).
In a 1947 article dance writer Edwin Denby described the ballet as “A large long piece packed close with intricate but boldly powerful dance invention. It appears to have the dispassionate ferocity of a vital process; … ” (49).
He goes on to say: “It is an impersonal drama that appears to be witty, cruel, desperate and unconsoling, like that of our time. Yet all that actually happens on stage is rapid exact ballet dancing in classic sequences that are like none you could ever imagine.
In fact the technical procedure … is that novel aspects of classic ballet technique — aspects apparently contrary to those one is accustomed to — are emphasized without ever breaking the classic look of the dance continuity” (50).
Ballet Society performed the revised version of The Four Temperaments in February 1948 and the New York City Ballet, in its initial season in October of that same
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year. In 1951, The Four Temperaments was performed in practice clothes and it has been performed this way ever since thus becoming Balanchine’s first black and white ballet.
In a 1957 review of The Four Temperaments, critic John Martin stated: “Looked at purely as movement, this is a remarkable ballet, both in its invention of curiously creative movements and in its development of them in phrases of high potency. The basic danse d’école has been extended not only into new patterns but also into a wide dynamic range” (38).
There are two dance scores of The Four Temperaments recorded in Labanotation housed at the Dance Notation Bureau. The first is a rough manuscript notated by Ann Hutchinson Guest as taught to the Vienna Ballet ca 1964. The second is a handwritten manuscript notated by Mary Corey as taught by Victoria Simon in 1984. The labanotated illustrations in this publication are from Corey’s dance score and the stills of clips are from YouTube.
In The Four Temperaments Balanchine explores possibilities within the danse d’école, and emphasizes and develops these innovative movements in dance sequences. In his later ballets these innovative movements appear in isolation –incorporated into Balanchine’s movement vocabulary and style.
Flexed foot and turned-in legs
The first illustration is Balanchine’s use of the flexed foot and turned-in legs as dramatic qualities. At the start of the opening Theme of The Four Temperaments, there is a sequence exploring the articulation of the foot and the turn-in of the legs. In the pas de deux the dancers commence with their legs turned-in (parallel), the gesture leg turns-out as the toes touch the floor. Then the flexion of the foot is emphasized.
The gesture leg flexes and turns-in with the foot pointed. The gesture foot extends to point on the floor. The gesture foot slides in rond de jambe with a turned-out leg.
Then the gesture leg turns-in (parallel) and the dancers kneel. Illustration 1.
Another illustration of the flexed foot and turned-in legs appears in the first part of the Theme. The ballerina’s legs remain turned-in (parallel) while the foot of the gesture leg is flexed during the half turns. Then it is placed en pointe and the movement is repeated to the other side. Illustration 2.
Lowering dancer’s center of weight
There are many sequences where Balanchine emphasizes the dynamics of gravity and the body weight of the dancer. An illustration of lowering the dancer’s center of weight happens in the third part of the Theme. The ballerina’s standing leg remains bent while she executes a sequence of seven pirouettes. Illustration 3.
Another illustration of a low center of weight for the ballerina occurs in the first part of the Theme where the ballerina holds a grand écart position while being carried off stage.
Her pointes drag on the floor as her partner keeps her at low level. Illustration 4.
Dance historian Tim Scholl states in his book From Petipa To Balanchine: “By the 1940’s … the acknowledgement of gravity was a commonplace of modern dance.
… But Balanchine’s use of weight and exploration of the body represented something quite different” (118).
He goes on to say that “Balanchine … chose to celebrate the very properties of his material that the classical ballet had traditionally concealed. In those moments of The Four Temperaments the means of academic dancing become as important as their end.”
Another illustration that focuses on the body weight of the dancer takes place in the second part of the Theme. The ballerina stands in 5th en pointe with legs bent as her partner shifts her body from side to side. Illustration 5.
Off-balance
A very dramatic off-balance sequence happens in the second part of the Theme.
While the ballerina holds an arabesque her partner pushes her off-balance forward, backward, right and left. This phrase repeats four times within a complete turn.
Illustration 6.
Body slanting backwards while being pulled forward
Former New York City Ballet principal Merrill Ashley describes her experience rehearsing the role of Sanguinic with Balanchine in her book Dancing for Balanchine (140). She discusses new kind of movements with a pelvis thrust forward while arching backwards and off-balance positions. The movement with the body slanting backwards while being pulled forward appears in a variety of variations throughout The Four Temperaments. Here is one version of this movement that is repeated many times in the Melancholic variation. In the glossary of Corey’s dance score, it is stated that this movement is between low and low forward (xviii). Illustration 7.
The turn-in of the legs to parallel, flexion of the foot, bent knees en pointe, lowering the dancer’s center of weight, and off-balance positions and moves are among the ways Balanchine extended the vocabulary of classical ballet. Dance critic Anna Kisselgoff wrote in a 1979 review: “’The Four Temperaments’ became the ancestor of all the Balanchine ballets that now give the City Ballet its signature style” (16).
Illustration 1. Flexed foot and turned-in legs
Illustration 2. Flexed foot and turned-in legs during turns
Illustration 3. Pirouettes en plié en pointe
Illustration 4. Low level partnering
Illustration 6. Pushed off-balance Illustration 5. Body shifts
Acknowledgments
The author thanks the Balanchine Trust and the Dance Notation Bureau for permis-sion to research the dance score of George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments.
References Cited
Ashley, Merrill, and Kibbe Fitzpatrick. 1984. Dancing for Balanchine. New York:
E.P. Dutton, Inc.
Balanchine, George. 1946. The Four Temperaments. Notated by Ann Hutchinson Guest, 1964. Rough manuscript. Dance Notation Bureau, Archives of Notated Theatrical Dances, Dance ID: 50.
———. 1946. The Four Temperaments. Notated by Mary Corey, 1984-1985.
Handwritten manuscript. Dance Notation Bureau, Archives of Notated Theatrical Dances, Dance ID: 51.
———. 1946. “A négy vérmérséklet [The Four Temperaments].” Video. New York City Ballet, 1977. YouTube, 3 June 2014. Web. Accessed 13 April 2015. [The video is erased from YouTube. The editors.]
Dance in America: Choreography by Balanchine. 1977. Part I. New York: PBS. DVD.
Kisselgoff, Anna. 1979. “Ballet: ‘The Four Temperaments’.” The New York Times, May 26: 16.
Illustration 7. Body slant backwards while pulled forward
Martin, John. 1957. “Ballet Enhances ‘4 Temperaments’ City Troupe Gives Work by Balanchine-Herbert Bliss praises as Soloist NYC Ballet at City Center.” The New York Times, December 6: 38.
Denby, Edwin. 1949. Looking at the Dance. New York: Horizon.
Scholl, Tim. 1994. From Petipa to Balanchine. London: Routledge.
References Consulted
Croce, Arlene. 1977. Afterimages. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
D’Amboise, Jacques. 2011. I Was a Dancer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Denby, Edwin, Robert Cornfield, and William Mackay, editors. 1986. Dance Writings. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Gottlieb, Robert. 2004. George Balanchine, the Ballet Maker. New York: Harper Collins.
Kent, Allegra. 1977. Once a Dancer. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Kirstein, Lincoln. 1978. Thirty Years of the New York City Ballet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Mascon, Francis. 1991. I Remember Balanchine. New York: Doubleday.
Reynolds, Nancy. 1977. Repertory in Review: Forty Years of The New York City Ballet.
New York: The Dial Press.
Siegel, Marcia. 1979. The Shapes of Change: Images of American Dance. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
Tallchief, Maria, with Larry Kaplan. 1997. Maria Tallchief. New York: Henry Holt and Co.
Taper, Bernard. 1974. Balanchine: A Biography. Revised and updated edition. New York: Macmillan.
Terry, Walter. 1978. I Was There: Selected Dance Reviews and Articles, 1936-1976.
New York: Marcel Dekker.
Tracy, Robert, with Sharon Delano. 1983. Balanchine’s Ballerinas. New York:
Linden Press/Simon & Schuster.
This workshop session explored the process of reconstructing and notating You Can’t Dress Me Up But You Can Take Me Anywhere, choreographed by Maggie Patton in 1982.
The session included an introduction of the project, a warm-up utilizing movement from the piece exemplifying Patton’s style, and a reading of excerpts of the score (in progress) by conference participants. The session concluded with a video presentation of differ-ent performances of the dance followed by discussion of reconstruction and notation challenges. Professors Brodie and Craig-Quijada shared their experiences to raise awareness of their project while also receiving valuable feedback to aid in refining it.
Background
Choreographer Maggie Patton (1940-2011) was a lively force in Ohio’s contemporary dance scene until her death in 2011. Patton attended the University of Illinois and earned a master’s degree at The Ohio State University, where she became a member of the dance faculty. She established DanCentral, the first professional modern dance company in Columbus, choreo-graphed for Ohio Light Opera, Columbus Light Opera, and founded the dance program at Kenyon College. Over the course of her career, she created over 70
dances and was known for her choreographic versatility. Patton was also a supporter of dance notation. She did several stagings of historical works at Kenyon, including Humphrey’s Passacaglia.