Analyzing the Connections Between Choreography and Music in Ballets by George Balanchine

FAIN: FEL-289801-23

Kara Yoo Leaman
New York University (New York, NY 10012-1019)

Research and writing leading to a website analyzing the musicality of George Balanchine’s choreography.

George Balanchine was one of the most prolific and influential choreographers of the twentieth century. A skilled musician, Balanchine created ballets that are still regarded as exemplars of musicality in dance. This project presents on the website of The George Balanchine Foundation a permanent virtual public exhibition of videos (and supplementary materials) that analyze Balanchine’s ballets from a music-theoretic perspective. The analyses employ choreomusical notation, a method of dance transcription that I developed to facilitate the comparison of musical and choreographic patterns across both time and media. Presented in video format using advanced techniques in digital video manipulation and annotation, this research will help make choreomusical (dance-music) research more engaging for dance practitioners, interdisciplinary scholars, and general audiences. The analyses will provide specific examples to support general intuitions about musicality in Balanchine’s ballets.

Associated Products

Dancing Notes (Web Resource)
Title: Dancing Notes
Author: Kara Yoo Leaman
Abstract: ANALYZING MUSIC AND DANCE IN GEORGE BALANCHINE’S BALLETS WITH KARA YOO LEAMAN, PH.D. Music theorist Kara Yoo Leaman examines George Balanchine’s use of music by Bach, Bizet, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky to explore Balanchine’s expression of musical artistry through choreography. Tracing connections between the movement patterns in Balanchine’s ballets and their musical scores, the analyses provide evidence to support long-held thinking regarding Balanchine’s music-based choreographic process and suggests new ways to understand music-dance interactions. Along with her own music-based movement notation, Leaman applies the latest tools of music analysis and digital video editing to illustrate how in his choreography Balanchine both replicated patterns from musical scores and constructed other patterns to complement the music.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: http://balanchine.org/dancing-notes

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