Dance history Essay Example for Free

Dance history Essay Ballet is a form of dancing performed for theatre audiences. Like other dance forms, ballet may tell a story, express a mood, or simply reflect the music. But a ballet dancers technique (way of performing) and special skills differ greatly from those of other dancers. Ballet dancers perform many movements that are unnatural for the body. But when these movements are well executed, they look natural. The beginnings of ballet can be traced to Italy during the 1400s at the time of the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, people developed a great interest in art and learning. At the same time, trade and commerce expanded rapidly, and the dukes who ruled Florence and other Italian city-states grew in wealth. The dukes did much to promote the arts. The Italian city-states became rival art centres as well as competing commercial centers. The Italian dukes competed with one another in giving costly, fancy entertainments that included dance performances. The dancers were not professionals. They were noblemen and noblewomen of a dukes court who danced to please their ruler and to stir the admiration and envy of his rivals. Catherine de Medici, a member of the ruling family of Florence, became the queen of France in 1547. Catherine introduced into the French court the same kind of entertainments that she had known in Italy. They were staged by Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx, a gifted musician. Beaujoyeulx had come from Italy to be Catherines chief musician. Ballet historians consider one of Beaujoyeulxs entertainments, the Ballet Comique de la Reine, to be the first ballet. It was a magnificent spectacle of about 51/2 hours performed in 1581 in honour of a royal wedding. The ballet told the ancient Greek myth of Circe, who had the magical power to turn men into beasts. The ballet included specially written instrumental music, singing, and spoken verse as well as dancingall based on the story of Circe. Dance technique was extremely limited, and so Beaujoyeulx depended on spectacular costumes and scenery to impress the audience. To make sure that the audience understood the story, he provided printed copies of the verses used in the ballet. The ballet was a great success, and was much imitated in other European courts. French leadership. The Ballet Comique de la Reine established Paris as the capital of the ballet world. King Louis XIV, who ruled France during the late 1600s and early 1700s, strengthened that leadership. Louis greatly enjoyed dancing. He took part in all the ballets given at his court, which his nobles performed, but stopped after he became fat and middle-aged. In 1661, Louis founded the Royal Academy of Dancing to train professional dancers to perform for him and his court. Professional ballet began with the kings dancing academy. With serious training, the French professionals developed skills that had been impossible for the amateurs. Similar companies developed in other European countries. One of the greatest was the Russian Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg, whose school was founded in 1738. The French professional dancers became so skilled that they began to perform publicly in theatres. But in 1760, the French choreographer Jean Georges Noverre criticized the professional dancers in his book Lettres sur la danse, et sur les ballets (Letters on Dancing and Ballets). Noverre complained that the dancers cared too much about showing their technical skills and too little about the true purpose of ballet. This purpose, he said, was to represent characters and express their feelings. Noverre urged that ballet dancers stop using masks, bulky costumes, and large wigs to illustrate or explain plot and character. He claimed that the dancers could express these things using only their bodies and faces. So long as the dancers did not look strained or uncomfortable doing difficult steps, they could show such emotions as anger, joy, fear, and love. Noverre developed the ballet daction, a form of dramatic ballet that told the story completely through movement. Most of Noverres ballets told stories taken from ancient Greek myths or dramas. But during the early 1800s, people no longer cared about old gods and heroes. The romantic period began as people became interested in stories of escape from the real world to dreamlike worlds or foreign lands.

A Research on Communication Technologies and their Applications Essay

Videoconferencing The keyword â€Å"videoconferencing† when entered into search engines such as Google would immediately reveal at least two classifications of information. The first is consisted of applications developed and being marketed and sold for use. The second are business enterprises that offer videoconferencing services and facilities for individuals and businesses. For example, there is a company called Cliftons which caters to multinational clientele and provides conferencing service to its staff who are scattered across the globe. This usage may include meetings, trainings and other organizational activities. Cliftons (2012) rightly argue that videoconferencing â€Å"overcomes the problems inherent in communications between regional business centres as well as enabling [the management] to keep in touch with key people whilst away from their office.† It is a matter of in-depth research to determine the exact nature of this technology, explaining the principle behind its oper ation and conferencing process. An excellent resource for videoconferencing as is the case for almost all things, people, places, and so forth is, of course, Wikipedia. This website has detailed information on this technology. However, it is widely recognized that the site is unreliable and is not often recommended by academic institutions as a resource. Nonetheless, the website proved an effective starting ground that informed this researcher’s efforts at investigating videoconferencing technology. The information provided in the website offered insights as to what specific aspects of the technology should be examined and documented. The preliminary research enabled the identification of at least two types of videoconferencing platforms. There is the case... ...he noise results in satellite power failures. Works Cited Cliftons. (2012). Fact sheet. Cliftons. Retrieved from http://www.cliftons.com/video-conferencing-facilities. Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. (n.d.). Geostationary Satellites Frequently Asked Questions. Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. Retrieved from http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/pdusfaq.html. â€Å"Geostationary Satellites.† (2007). Reformation.org. Retrieved from http://www.reformation.org/geostationary-satellites.html. United States Office of Satellite Operations. (2012). Geostationary Satellites. (USOSO). Retrieved from http://www.oso.noaa.gov/goes/. Videoconference.com. (2012). Start Videoconferencing. Videoconference.com. Retrieved from http://www.videoconference.com/. Webopedia. (2012). Videoconferencing. Webopedia. Retrieved from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/V/videoconferencing.html.

The Day I Will Never Forget

Cassandra SmithOctober 13, 2011 EnglishFormal 2 The Day I Will Never Forget The hardest thing I had to face in my life when I was younger was when I was thirteen. That day would be July 14, 2005 and it is the day my grandmother passed away. My family and I went through so much about seven months prior to her passing. We got through the tragedy. She was eighty-two years old at the time. I will never forget her telling me the night before that she had to go to the doctors for a check-up meanwhile I was in school but when I got home, I would go right up to my grandmas. We lived on the same property. That day I went up there I remember her telling me that she had cancer and the doctors gave her six months to live, maximum. I was devastated and I didn’t know what to think. I was so close with her so it was hard for me to handle. We moved into her house three months before she went and we took care of her while no one else. That summer morning on July 14, 2005, I remember my parents, my brother and I sitting on the porch. My cousin came over to see her around 8:30 and then she left because she had to head to work. It was ten minutes to nine and I laid on the couch that was located on the porch. I remember how everything was set up. I remember the living room, the porch, just everything in that house. The couch was a sand tan color with a floral design and a table diagonal from where it sat. Nine o’clock rolled around, my father walked in to see if she was alright but when he came back to the porch he said, â€Å"She’s gone†. Those words hit me like a meteorite falling out of the sky hitting Earth. I immediately started crying because it just didn’t seem real to me. The crazy thing is a few days before she passed I made a picture of a cross with the date and year of when she was going to die and my picture was right. It was just scary. That day and the next few weeks were chaos. My father had to call all the family, set up the obituary and the funeral services. The next few days I would cry myself to sleep, cry all day. I didn’t know how to cope with what was going on around me, I was only thirteen. My parents called the funeral home and told them what happened; the directors came and took her. The family didn’t want my brother or I in the house so they sent us back to my house. Of course, I put up a fight because I didn’t want to leave, I didn’t want her dead. I wanted her here. The following week was hectic with the funeral arrangements, sitting down and talking about everything so it could go in the paper. I stayed in my room on the computer while the family gathered in my living room to talk about what they wanted to write for the piece. My cousin took my brother and I shopping in Kingston to get an outfit for the funeral; I didn’t know what to pick out but my brother found his right away. The following year was the hardest because I knew she was gone. I knew I couldn’t just walk across the drive way to visit her like I normally would have, I can’t sit with her and watch television, I can’t sit and help her with her word search books. All I thought was why did she have to go so soon? I didn’t want to accept it but it was life and I had to accept it; it was reality that I had to face. I talked to my dad about how I felt and what was going on and both my parents supported me through the whole thing. My mom and my dad knew how close I was with her. Two years later, my house burnt down while I was at school and when I arrived home I was just worried about my dad and the rest of my family. The one thing that was crazy in the house was there was one picture of my dad’s family on the wall and the fire never touched it; all my family had the instinct that my grandmother was in the house as the guardian angel. I know that she is looking down on me and my family because of the events that have taken place from when she passed up until now but I know she will be looking down on me all the way up until I die.

How to Make Gelatin Plastic Tutorial

Colorful gelatin shapes can be used to make jewelry, mobiles, decorations, and more! This project is not too difficult and takes about 2-3 days to complete. What You Need 3 envelopes plain gelatin9 tablespoons or 75 ml water3-5 drops food colorPlastic lid with a  rimSaucepanPaper towelsCookie cuttersDrinking strawScissors How to Make Gelatin Plastic Mix the water and food coloring in the saucepan over low heat.Stir in the 3 envelopes of unflavored gelatin to dissolve. Cook and stir for 30 seconds or until thickened.Pour the mixture into the plastic lid with a rim, push the air bubbles out with a spoon or other utensil, and let the gelatin cool on the counter for 45 minutes.Remove the gelatin disk from the lid. It should be flexible and pliable.Use the cookie cutters to make interesting shapes. Leftover scraps also make interesting pieces! Scissors may be used to make spirals or other designs. Use a plastic drinking straw to make holes for hanging pieces.Shapes may be dried flat on a cookie sheet or cooling rack. Spirals may be hung by clothespins. Shapes with holes may be strung on ​a  string to dry. The gelatin will be hard like plastic in 2-3 days.Be creative! Have fun! Useful Tips Adult supervision is required!To prevent curling, take a plastic container, place a paper towel or cloth over the top, and place the shapes on the cloth.Cut the center out of a lid that fits the bucket, put another towel over the gelatin shapes, then press the lid tightly onto the container to hold everything firmly in place.Allow the shapes to dry completely before removing them.An embroidery hoop and two pieces of cloth or paper towel may also be used to keep pieces from curling while drying.