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Five Centuries of Italian Dance and Its Influence Revealed in New Exhibition Opening October 17 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts  500 Years of Italian Dance: Treasures from the Cia Fornaroli Collection, the first major exhibition of material from a remarkable collection in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts's Jerome Robbins Dance Division, opens at the Library Tuesday, October 17. The exhibition pays tribute to the rich history of Italian dance from the Renaissance and Baroque periods through the early 20th century and calls attention to the Cia Fornaroli Collection itself. The collection, assembled by the bookseller Walter Toscanini and his wife, the ballerina Cia Fornaroli, sheds light on early dance forms and dance development of ballet from its earliest beginnings in court dances and the popular traditions of the commedia dell'arte. Through vivid etchings, lithographs, and photographs, as well as manuscripts, treatises, programs, and posters, 500 Years of Italian Dance underscores the seminal role Italy played in the genesis and development of Western theatrical dance and its profound influence on performance, choreographic, and pedagogical traditions in Europe and the United States. 500 Years of Italian Dance: Treasures from the Cia Fornaroli Collectionwill be on view through Saturday, January 20, 2007 in the Vincent Astor Gallery at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. For further information, telephone 212.870.1630 or visit the Library's exhibition website at http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/italiandance/. The exhibition features a rare mid-16th century manuscript that contains descriptions of 15 dances by three dancing masters. An etching by Jacques Callot [Florence, 1615] shows knights on horseback performing The War of Love, a horse ballet featuring a mock battle and tournament that was staged for Cosimo II de Medici. One of the rarest items on display is a notated score with music for a ballet entitled The Amazon (ca. 1725)that adds to our knowledge of the dances performed on the early 18th century Italian stage. An aquatint engraving shows the spectacular shipwreck scene designed by Alessandro Sanquirico for Salvatore Taglioni's 1820 ballet The Conquest of Malacca at La Scala. One of the iconic images of Romantic ballet is the lithograph by T. H. Maguire from a drawing by A. E. Chalon [London, 1845] of Pas de Quatre with four of the age's great ballerinas: Marie Taglioni, Lucille Grahn, Fanny Cerrito, and Carlotta Grisi – three of whom were Italian. Public Program Organization
of Exhibition The first section, “Genesis of a Tradition,” includes engravings from 1602 that show social dances as well as a group of theatrical dances composed in 1599 for the entry into Milan of the Spanish Infanta Isabella and her husband Albert, the Archduke of Austria. The volume of Letters on Dancing and Ballets by Jean-George Noverre, published in 1767, can be glimpsed alongside Gasparo Angiolini's Letters from Gasparo Agiolini to Monsieur Noverre on Ballet Pantomimes, a polemical volume printed in 1773, in which the ballet master Angiolini disputed Noverre's claim to be the founder of the narrative ballet. Angiolini's wife, Teresa Fogliazzi is seen as Psyche in an engraving that was probably made in Vienna around 1758. The print highlights her charm, which had once attracted the roving eye of Casanova. The “Romanticism” section illustrates the major role Italians played in the development of the Romantic ballet throughout Europe. In this section, the dance dynasty of the Taglioni family holds pride of place. Beginning in the late 1700s in Turin, four generations of Taglionis made their mark in dance history. This included Filippo, the choreographer of La Sylphide (1832) and other ballets that defined the French Romantic style. Filippo's daughter Marie Taglioni, the first Sylphide, was celebrated for her lightness and grace and was one of the first ballerinas to dance on pointe. The exhibition includes a rare lithograph of her by Roberto Focosi (Milan, 1841) in her father's ballet La Gitana. This section also includes numerous, rarely-seen Italian lithographs and shows the influence of Italian themes on Romantic ballet. The “Virtuosity and Spectacle” section focuses on the great 19th century ballet teacher Carlo Blasis and the virtuoso ballerinas who trained with him and then dazzled audiences throughout Europe and the Americas. Lithographs of such students as Flora Fabbri, Caterina Beretta, Marietta Baderna, Carolina Rosati, Amalia Ferraris, and Sofia Fuoco, among others, are on view. Besides training brilliant technicians in the Italian school he created, he also “insisted on his pupils learning and reading for themselves … to acquire the most delicate culture and refinement,” wrote the ballerina Claudina Cucchi in her memoirs. Through his writings and teaching, Blasis transformed the teaching of ballet technique, systematizing the sequence of exercises and insisting upon the need for a daily class. Among his titles on display are Elementary theoretical and practical treatise on the art of dance, containing its development, and demonstration of the general and particular principles that should guide the dancer (Milan, 1820), Lessons in dancing correctly and the practice of civil conversation (Milan, 1830), and On the choreographic compositions and literary works of Carlo Blasis, with testimonies by diverse authors and an unpublished dissertation on the passions and genius (Milan, 1854). The final section deals with the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century when Italian ballerinas and teachers were internationally acclaimed. Memorabilia recall Carlotta Brianza, who created the role of Aurora in Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty in St. Petersburg. A lithograph introduces the viewer to Maestro Enrico Cecchetti, who studied with a student of Carlo Blasis, and danced throughout Europe and even in Philadelphia (at the age of 7) before joining the Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg where he created and choreographed the Blue Bird pas de deux in The Sleeping Beauty. But Cecchetti's lasting legacy is as a teacher, first at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, where he developed a new generation of male dancers and worked privately with such ballerinas as Olga Preobrajenska and Anna Pavlova. Posters in French show the Monday and Tuesday barre exercises used in his classes. This section also contains photographs, drawings, and other materials on Cia Fornaroli, who trained at La Scala before making her debut as première danseuse at New York's Metropolitan Opera during the 1910-11 season. In 1922, she was engaged by Arturo Toscanini, then general manager of La Scala, as prima ballerina. After Enrico Cecchetti's death in 1928, she succeeded him as director of the La Scala school. Then in 1938, she joined her husband Walter Toscanini in New York, where she continued to teach. Archival Materials The exhibition is curated by dance writer and Barnard College professor Lynn Garafola with Italian dance scholar Patrizia Veroli, after a project conceived by José Sasportes and Patrizia Veroli. About the Cia Fornaroli
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The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts About The New York Public
Library 500 Years of Italian Dance: Treasures from the Cia Fornaroli Collection is on view from October 17, 2006 through January 20, 2007 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Exhibition hours are: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from noon to 6:00 p.m.; Thursday from noon to 8:00 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and holidays. Admission is free. For exhibition information, telephone 212.870.1630 or visit the Library's website at www.nypl.org. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the leadership support of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. Additional support for exhibitions has been provided by Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg and the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation ### rc: 10.17.06: nypl063 |