Dance on the stage - short dance number , solo or group, presented in national pop concerts, variety shows, music halls, miniature theaters, accompanies and complements the program of vocalists, original numbers even of speech genres . It was formed on the basis of folk, everyday (ballroom) dance, classical ballet, modern dance, artistic gymnastics, acrobatics , on the crossing of all kinds of foreign influences and national traditions. The nature of dance plasticity is dictated by modern rhythms and is formed under the influence of related arts: music, theater, painting, circus, pantomime.
The history of the development of the dance direction can be divided into two milestones: the period before the 20th century and the period of time starting from the 20th century up to the present.
In addition to medieval traveling artists and their performances, divertissements can also be considered the ancestors of modern pop dance. They were scenes that in the XVII-XVIII were shown between musical acts or parts of dramatic performances. During the divertissements, opera arias were performed, the viewer could see excerpts from ballets, listen to folk songs and finally enjoy dancing. In Russia, the origins of the dance stage are found in the performances of dancers in Russian and Gypsy choirs, and from the mid-19th century - at folk festivals. The end of the 19th century was marked by the holding of group concerts on the stages of gardens, “voxals”, and cafes.
Popular dance of the 19th century. - cancan(French cancan, from canard - duck), French dance of Algerian origin, 2-beat meter, fast tempo. Characteristic steps - throwing out legs, jumping. Distributed since the mid-19th century, widely used in classical operetta and variety shows. We can say that with the advent of the cancan, a new dance era begins. The cancan originated in Paris around 1830. It was a female dance performed on stage, accompanied by high kicking of the legs. In 1860, many dance classes opened in St. Petersburg, where they danced mainly the cancan.
Another popular dance of the 19th century is the Cake Walk dance.
Cake walk -(also cake walk, cake walk; English cakewalk - walking with a pie) is a march dance of African-American origin, popular since the mid-19th century. Characteristic features: fast tempo, musical size - 2-beat, syncopated rhythm, chords reproducing the sound of a banjo, playful comedy (often ironically grotesque) style. The sharply accented rhythms typical of cake walk later formed the basis of ragtime, and two decades later defined the style of pop jazz. The cake walk was part of the humorous performances of 19th-century North American minstrel theater, in which it was performed to fast, syncopated music in the spirit of later ragtime. IN recent years In the 19th century, the cake walk, separated from the minstrel stage, became widespread in Europe in the form of a salon dance. pop dance choreographer dramaturgical
On the minstrel stage, the cake walk had a special symbolic meaning. It was a promenade scene in which dressed-up Negro dandies, arm in arm with their equally fashionably dressed ladies, reenacted in comic form the solemn Sunday processions of white ladies and gentlemen. Reproducing the outward manner of the planters, black dandies ridiculed their stupid importance, spiritual dullness, and smug sense of imaginary superiority. The motive of hidden mockery contained in the cake walk found a specific reflection in the sound sphere.
Dance music, the expressiveness of which was based primarily on percussive sounds and significantly complicated meter rhythms, played a significant innovative role and opened up new ways for the development of modern musical art. New musical principles, opposing everything that European composing has asserted over the centuries. Musical form Cake walk is found in salon piano pieces, and in pop numbers for traditional instrumental composition, and in marches for brass band, and sometimes in ballroom dancing of European origin. “Even in the waltzes, syncopation appeared, which Waldteufel and Strauss never dreamed of” (Blesh R., Janis H. They all played ragtime). The cake walk genre was used by many academic composers (for example, Debussy, Stravinsky, etc.).
The cake walk was innovative not only in music, but also in terms of choreography. This was manifested in special movements of the legs, seemingly “independent” of the dancer’s body. Just as in other dances of the minstrel theater, the performer’s body remained in a strictly controlled, balanced state, his arms hung like helpless, shapeless “rags.” All the dancer’s energy, all his phenomenal skill and dizzying pace were embodied in the movements of his legs. Precise synchronized accents produced by the heel of one foot and the toes of the other; a kind of “knocking” stamping using wooden soles; running forward on your heels; free, seemingly random “shuffling”. The unusual ratio for traditional ballet of the “indifferent body” and “worried” legs emphasized the humorous effect of external equanimity, inseparable from the image of a frozen mask.
Cake walk has had a huge impact on dance art late XIX - early XX centuries. He gave birth to a number of dances that displaced polka, square dance, country dance and others from cultural use. popular dances recent past. These newest dances - Grizzly Bear, Bunny Hug, Texas Tommy, Tarky Trot, etc. were distinguished by a special 2-beat, inseparable from the cake walk, and its characteristic “swinging” effect. Their evolution culminated with the well-known two-step and foxtrot, which gained wide popularity throughout the world and remained in the everyday dance repertoire for many years.
The initial heyday of all these dances coincides with the culmination of the popularity of ragtime and the beginning of the “jazz era.”
Word "variety" ( from Latin strata) means - flooring, platform, hill, platform.
The most accurate definition of pop art as an art that unites various genres, given in the dictionary of D.N. Ushakov: " Stage is the art of small forms, the area of spectacular and musical performances on an open stage. Its specificity lies in its easy adaptability to various conditions of public demonstration and short duration of action, in artistic and expressive means, art that contributes to the vivid identification creative individuality performer, in topicality, acute socio-political relevance of the topics addressed, in the predominance of elements of humor, satire, journalism."
The Soviet encyclopedia defines pop music as originating from the French estrade - a type of art that includes small forms of dramatic and vocal art, music, choreography, circus, pantomime, etc. In concerts there are separate complete numbers united by a show and a plot. It emerged as an independent art at the end of the 19th century.
There is also the following definition of stage:
A stage area, permanent or temporary, for an artist's concert performances.
Pop art has its roots in the distant past, traced in the art of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Although the stage closely interacts with other arts, such as music, drama theater, choreography, literature, cinema, circus, pantomime, it is an independent and specific form of art. The basis of pop art is “His Majesty’s number” - as N. Smirnov-Sokolsky said 1.
Number- a small performance by one or several artists, with its own plot, climax and denouement. The specificity of the performance is the direct communication of the artist with the public, on his own behalf or from a character.
In the medieval art of traveling artists, farce theaters in Germany, buffoons in Rus', mask theater in Italy, etc. there was already a direct address from the artist to the audience, which allowed the subsequent artist to become a direct participant in the action. The short duration of the performance (no more than 15-20 minutes) requires extreme concentration of expressive means, laconicism, and dynamics. Variety numbers are classified according to characteristics into four groups. The first type group includes conversational (or speech) numbers. Then there are musical, plastic-choreographic, mixed, “original” numbers.
The art of comedy was built on open contact with the public del-arte (masque) XVI- p.p.XVII century.
Performances were usually improvised based on standard plot scenes. Musical sound as interludes (insertions): songs, dances, instrumental or vocal numbers - was the direct source of the variety act.
In the 18th century they appeared comic opera And vaudeville. Vaudevilles were exciting performances with music and jokes. Their main heroes - ordinary people - always defeated stupid and vicious aristocrats.
And by the middle of the 19th century, the genre was born operetta(literally small opera): view theatrical arts, which combined vocal and instrumental music, dance, ballet, elements of pop art, and dialogues. Operetta appeared as an independent genre in France in 1850. The “father” of French operetta, and operetta in general, was Jacques Offenbach(1819-1880). Later the genre develops in the Italian “comedy of masks”.
The stage is closely connected with everyday life, with folklore, with traditions. Moreover, they are being rethought, modernized, “extradized.” Various forms of pop creativity are used as an entertaining pastime.
This is no coincidence. In England pubs(public public institutions) arose in the 18th century and became the prototypes of music halls (music hall). Pubs became places of entertainment for broad democratic sections of the population. Unlike aristocratic salons, where predominantly classical music was played, in pubs songs and dances were performed, accompanied by a piano, comedians, mimes, acrobats performed, scenes from popular performances consisting of imitations and parodies were shown. Somewhat later, in the first half of the 19th century, they became widespread cafe-concerts, which were originally literary and artistic cafes where poets, musicians, and actors performed their improvisations. In various modifications they spread throughout Europe and became known as cabaret(zucchini). Entertainment does not exclude the factor of spirituality; civic position is especially important for a pop artist.
The easy adaptation of pop art to the audience is fraught with the danger of flirting with the public and yielding to bad taste. In order not to fall into the abyss of vulgarity and vulgarity, an artist needs true talent, taste and flair. The director formed a program from individual pop numbers, which was also a strong means of expression. Free installation connection of small shapes, separated from various types artistic creativity and healed on its own, which led to the birth of colorful art variety show. The art of variety shows is closely related to theater and circus, but unlike theater it does not require organized dramatic action. The conventionality of the plot, the lack of development of the action (the main drama) are also characteristic of a big performance revue(from French - review). The individual parts of the revue are connected by a common performing and social idea. As a musical dramatic genre, revue combines elements of cabaret, ballet and variety show. The revue performance is dominated by music, singing, and dancing. The variety show has its own modifications:
- variety show from separate numbers
- variety show
- dance cabaret
- review
In the 20th century, the revue became a lavish entertainment show. Varieties of revues appeared in the USA, called show.
The musical stage included different genres light music: songs, excerpts from operettas, musicals, variety shows in pop adaptations of instrumental works. In the 20th century, the stage was enriched by jazz and popular music.
Thus, pop art has passed long haul, and today we can observe this genre in a different form and performance, which suggests that its development does not stand still.
Variety is a type of entertainment art in which short concert performances by one or more artists (storytellers, singers, coupletists, dancers, acrobats, magicians, etc.) make up a complete program, usually designed for mass perception. The stage is many-sided and varied. The audience's perception of this art is also varied. For some, the stage is the performance of song and music groups and performers, for others it is the performance of comedians, for others it is clownery or modern dance performers. The forms of existence of this art are also different: a concert in a club, a cinema and concert hall, a student skit in the assembly hall of the institute, a theatrical program at a stadium or in the Sports Palace, a performance at the Theater of Miniatures, a performance at the Variety Theater, a solo concert, etc. And in each case The composition of the audience and its size determine the characteristics of a live variety show.
The roots of the stage go back to the distant past, can be traced in the art of antiquity - Egypt, Greece, Rome, its elements are in the performances of traveling comedians - buffoons, shpilmans, jugglers, dandies, etc. modern forms pop art evolved into Western Europe throughout the 19th century. Thus, visitors to Parisian cafes were entertained by musicians, singers, singers, whose repertoire included sharp and topical things. The success of such cafes gave rise to the emergence of larger entertainment enterprises - cafe-concerts (“Ambassador”, “Eldorado”, etc.). In England, music halls appeared at inns (hotels) - music halls, where dances, comic songs, and circus acts were performed; The first is considered to be the Star Music Hall, founded in 1832.
Modeled after the London music hall Alhambra, the Folies Bergère opened in Paris in 1869, and two decades later the Moulin Rouge, which received the name “variety hall” (from the French variété - variety). Gradually, the word “variety show” began to be applied not only to specific theaters, but also to an entire art form, consisting of various genres, from which a holistic performance is ultimately created.
In 1881, an artistic cabaret (from the French cabaret - zucchini) “Cha Noir” (“Black Cat”) opened in Paris, where young artists, actors, and writers gathered. Acute social and political problems were often touched upon here. Cabarets were very famous in Germany, Austria and other countries. In our time, this form, having separated from the cafe, began to exist as a political and satirical theater of small forms (Germany) with a slightly changed name - cabarette.
Variety shows came to Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Following the variety show, the cabaret also attracted the attention of the public. They had their own predecessors in Russia, who largely determined the uniqueness of the Russian stage. These are booths that entertained a motley crowd on holidays. social composition audience, and divertissements - small concert programs that were given in theaters before and after the end of the main play. The divertissement programs included Russian songs and arias from operas, classical and folk dances, couplets from vaudeville, poems and stories performed by dramatic actors. In general, the theater had a significant influence on the Russian stage, which determined its originality.
After October Revolution artists came out of the small, cramped halls of cabarets, variety shows, and miniature theaters onto the streets and squares, to the people. They replaced speakers at numerous concerts and rallies, went with concerts to the fronts of the civil war, performed at recruiting stations, in barracks, and workers' clubs. It was then that the concept of “variety” (from the French estrade - stage) spread to the entire field of art.
The basis of pop art is a number, a short, complete performance (by one or more artists) with its own dramaturgy, in which, as in a large performance, there must be an exposition, a climax and a denouement. Short film presupposes extreme concentration of expressive means. Therefore, hyperbole, grotesque, buffoonery, and eccentricity are widely used on the stage; hence the brightness, exaggeration of details, and the instantaneousness of the actor’s transformation. The number retains its significance in a variety performance (show, revue, etc.) created on the basis of a play (review). In such a performance, the numbers are united by the figure of an observer or a simple plot.
Artists performing on the stage widely use the so-called mask, a certain image, distinguished by the constancy of not only its appearance, but also its character traits and biography. This image, born of artistic imagination, may have nothing to do with the personality of the artist himself.
Often, however, the mask of a pop artist becomes, as it were, a concentrated expression of his own personality. But no matter what mask the artist hides behind, he addresses the audience directly, strives to include them in the action, to make them his “interlocutors.”
On its way, Russian pop music solved various problems: it agitated, called, inspired, educated, enlightened and, of course, entertained. Entertainment is characteristic of the stage, like no other art. But it is not equivalent to vacuity. Behind external lightness and gaiety, serious content is often hidden, and the more talented the artist, the higher his skill, the better he manages to enclose a serious thought in a light form. An example of citizenship, acuity of social content and excellence artistic form serves the satirical art of A.I. Raikin.
Traditionally great place on our stage belongs to genres associated with words. This is a story, a monologue, a small skit, a feuilleton, a couplet, a parody, a show. The task of introducing the broad masses to culture in the 20–30s. XX century brought to life a form of artistic reading from the stage of works of modern and classical literature. Artistic readers strive to reveal to the audience as fully as possible the world of the author and the artistic originality of his works.
Musical and vocal genres took the leading place on the stage: romance, bard and folk songs, pop and rock music, jazz, etc. Huge audiences attract solo concerts of famous pop singers. In the process of development, new forms and stylistic directions emerge, they enrich the musical stage with fresh artistic ideas, reflect the rhythms of time. Choreographic numbers, both ensemble and solo, are widely represented on the stage: folk dances, plastic duets, play miniatures, dances in modern rhythms.
The spectacle of circus acts attracts visitors: jugglers, illusionists, manipulators, acrobats, tightrope walkers, mimes. A lot of exciting things are born at the intersection of genres: pantomime and acrobatics, pantomime and juggling, etc. Many artists use the eccentricity inherent in the very nature of pop art.
Variety art developed widely in the USSR. All-Union Olympiad of Theaters and Arts of the Peoples of the USSR 1930, All-Union Festival folk dance 1936, decade of national art of the union republics, reporting concerts contributed to the development of this type of creativity among peoples who had not previously known it, except for folklore forms. All-Russian and All-Union competitions for creative youth were regularly held. Synthetic in nature, pop music has always been associated with theater, cinema, literature, and music. Various forms of interaction between pop music and other arts can be seen throughout its history. Jazz and rock music are included in symphonic music; pop dance and acrobatics influence classical choreography; constantly turns to the cinema stage; critics write about the variety of theater. In turn, the stage is captured by the process of theatricalization, it affects all its genres, the general tendency towards theatrical programs, towards the creation of performances and variety theaters.
Everyone knows the remarkable skill of K.I. Shulzhenko, who soulfully performed lyrical songs.
Performance by Tarapunka (Yuri Timoshenko) and Shtepsel (Efim Berezin, left)./
Illusionist Harutyun Hakobyan is on stage.
Famous English group The Beatles.
- Variety art. Prerequisites for the emergence and history of the development of pop art……………………………………………………… 3
- Circus. Specifics of circus art……………………………16
List of references………………………………………………………..20
- Variety art. Prerequisites for the emergence and history of the development of pop art pop art genre director
The roots of pop art go back to the distant past, traced in the art of Egypt and Greece. The roots of pop art go back to the distant past, traced in the art of Egypt, Greece, Rome; its elements are present in the performances of traveling comedians-buffoons (Russia), shpilmanov (Germany), jugglers (France), dandies (Poland), masqueraders (Central Asia), etc.
The troubadour movement in France (late 11th century) acted as the bearer of a new social idea. His peculiarity was the writing of music to order, the genre diversity of songs from the plots of love lyrics to the glorification of the military exploits of military leaders. Hired singers and traveling artists spread musical creativity. The roots of pop art go back to the distant past, traced in the art of Egypt, Greece, Rome; its elements are present in the performances of traveling comedians-buffoons (Russia), shpilmanov (Germany), jugglers (France), dandies (Poland), masqueraders (Central Asia), etc.
Satire on urban life and morals, sharp jokes on political topics, a critical attitude towards power, couplets, comic scenes, jokes, games, and musical eccentricities were the beginnings of future pop genres, born in the noise of carnival and square amusements. Barkers, who, with the help of jokes, witticisms, and funny couplets, sold any product in squares and markets, later became the predecessors of the entertainer. All this was of a massive and intelligible nature, which was an indispensable condition for the existence of all pop genres. All medieval carnival performers did not perform performances. The basis of the performance was miniature, which distinguished them from the theater, the main feature of which is the elements that link the action together. These artists did not portray characters, but always acted on their own behalf, directly communicating with the audience. This is still the main distinguishing feature modern show business.
Somewhat later (the middle and end of the 18th century), various entertainment establishments appeared in foreign countries - music halls, variety shows, cabarets, ministerial shows, which combined all the experience of fair and carnival performances and were the predecessors of modern entertainment organizations. With the transition of many street genres to indoor spaces, a special level of performing art began to form, since the new conditions required a more concentrated perception on the part of the viewer. The activity of cafes - chantans, cafes - concerts, designed for a small number of visitors, formed in the second half of the 19th century, allowed the development of such chamber genres as lyrical singing, entertainer, solo dance, eccentricity. The success of such cafes caused the emergence of larger, more spectacular enterprises - cafe-concerts, such as "Ambassador", "Eldorado" and others.
This form of performing acts was characterized by such qualities as openness, laconicism, improvisation, festivity, originality, and entertainment. At this time, France acquires the status of a cultural and entertainment center. "Theatre Montassier" (variety show) - combines musical, theatrical and circus arts. In 1792, the Vaudeville theater became very popular. The theater's repertoire consists of comedy plays that alternate dialogues with couplets, songs and dances. Cabaret (an entertainment venue that combines song and dance genres of an entertaining nature) and operetta were very popular.
Developing as the art of festive leisure, pop music has always strived for originality and diversity. The feeling of festivity was created due to external entertainment, the play of light, a change in picturesque scenery, and a change in the shape of the stage area.
Since the 20s of the last century, pop music has been the focus of attention of cultural and artistic figures, researchers in various fields of knowledge, acting as a subject of controversy on the pages of periodicals and disputes in scientific circles. Throughout the history of Russian pop art, attitudes towards it have changed repeatedly. "IN national science a tradition has developed to consider pop art, and in this context jazz, and then rock music, as manifestations of mass culture, which became the object of study within the framework of sociology, social psychology and other social sciences. The interest of cultural scientists and political scientists in the problems of modern pop music and the socio-cultural phenomena generated by it continues unabated today.”
The development of cinema has had a stunning effect around the world, subsequently becoming an immediate attribute of any society. Since the late 1880s and early 1900s, it has been closely adjacent to the emerging domestic stage, as an institution and as a spectacle it is a direct continuation of the booth. The tapes were transported from city to city by entrepreneurs in vans along with projection equipment. The lack of electricity hampered the development of cinema in large areas of the country. Taking this fact into account, entrepreneurs are purchasing small portable power stations, which have significantly expanded the possibilities of film distribution.
In Russia, the origins of pop genres were manifested in buffoon fun, fun and mass creativity, folk festivals. Their representatives are the Raus jokers with the obligatory beard, who amused and invited the audience from the upper platform of the Raus booth, parsley players, raeshniks, leaders of the “scientific” bears, buffoon actors performing “sketches” and “reprises” among the crowd, playing the pipes , harp, sniffles and amusing the people.
Variety art is characterized by such qualities as openness, laconicism, improvisation, festivity, originality, and entertainment.
Developing as an art of festive leisure, pop music has always strived for unusualness and diversity. The very feeling of festivity was created due to external entertainment, play of light, change of picturesque scenery, change in the shape of the stage area, etc.
Variety, as a synthesized art, has absorbed various genres - instrumental music and vocals, dance and cinema, poetry and painting, theater and circus. All this, mixed together like an amalgam, began to live its own independent life, turning into clear, complete genre forms that never tire of being synthesized and, to this day, giving birth to something new that had no place to be. Pop art is like a huge tree with a great many branches - genres, which, growing and strengthening, send out new shoots-styles.
“Variety art unites various genres, the commonality of which lies in easy adaptability to various actions of public demonstration, in the short duration of the action, in the concentration of its artistic means of expression, which contributes to the vivid identification of the creative individuality of the performer, and in the field of genres associated with the living word - in topicality , acute social and political relevance of the topics covered, in the predominance of elements of humor, satire and journalism. This quality is especially valuable and at the same time specific to the stage.”
Despite the fact that the stage is characterized by a variety of forms and genres, it can be divided into three groups:
Concert stage (previously called "divertissement") combines all types of performances in variety concerts;
Theatrical stage (chamber performances of miniature theaters, cabaret theatres, cafe theaters or large-scale concert revues, music halls, with a large performing cast and first-class stage technology);
Festive stage (folk celebrations, holidays in stadiums, full of sports and concert performances, as well as balls, carnivals, masquerades, festivals, etc.).
There are also these:
1. Variety theaters
2. Music halls
If the basis of a variety show is a completed number, then the review, like any dramatic action, required the subordination of everything that happens on stage to the plot. This, as a rule, did not combine organically and led to a weakening of one of the components of the performance: either the number, or the characters, or the plot. This is what happened during the production of "Miracles of the 20th Century" - the play fell apart into a number of independent, weakly related episodes. Only the ballet ensemble and several first-class circus acts were successful with the audience. The ballet ensemble, staged by Goleizovsky, performed three numbers: “Hey, let’s whoop!”, “Moscow in the rain” and “30 English girls”. The performance of "Snake" was especially impressive. Among the circus acts, the best were: Tea Alba and “Australian Lumberjacks” Jackson and Laurer. Alba simultaneously wrote with chalk on two boards with her right and left hands different words. At the end of the room, the woodcutters were racing to chop down two thick logs. The German Strodi showed an excellent balancing act on the wire. He performed somersaults on a wire. Of the Soviet artists, as always, Smirnov-Sokolsky and the ditties V. Glebova and M. Darskaya had great success. Among the circus acts, the act of Zoe and Martha Koch on two parallel wires stood out.
In September 1928, the opening of the Leningrad Music Hall took place.
3. Theater of Miniatures - a theater group that works primarily on small forms: small plays, sketches, operas, operettas along with variety numbers (monologues, couplets, parodies, dances, songs). The repertoire is dominated by humor, satire, irony, and lyricism is not excluded. The troupe is small, a theater of one actor or two actors is possible. Laconic in design, the performances are designed for a relatively small audience and present a kind of mosaic canvas.
4. Conversational genres on the stage - a symbol for genres associated primarily with words: entertainer, interlude, skit, sketch, story, monologue, feuilleton, microminiature (staged joke), burime.
Entertainer - entertainer can be paired, single, or mass. A conversational genre built according to the laws of “unity and struggle of opposites,” that is, the transition from quantity to quality according to the satirical principle.
A pop monologue can be satirical, lyrical, or humorous.
Interlude is a comic scene or musical piece of humorous content, which is performed as an independent number.
A sketch is a small scene where intrigue rapidly develops, where the simplest plot is built on unexpected funny, poignant situations, turns, allowing a whole series of absurdities to arise during the action, but where everything, as a rule, ends in a happy denouement. 1-2 characters (but no more than three).
Miniature - this is the most popular on the stage conversational genre. On the stage today, a popular joke (not published, not printed - from Greek) is a short topical oral story with an unexpected witty ending.
A pun is a joke based on the comic use of similar-sounding but different-sounding words to play off the sound similarity of equivalent words or combinations.
Reprise is the most common short conversational genre.
Couplets are one of the most intelligible and popular types of conversational genre. The coupletist seeks to ridicule this or that phenomenon and express his attitude towards it. Must have a sense of humor
Musical and conversational genres include couplet, ditty, chansonette, and musical feuilleton.
A parody common on the stage can be “conversational,” vocal, musical, or dance. At one time, speech genres included recitations, melodic recitations, literary montages, and “Artistic reading.”
It is impossible to give an accurately recorded list of speech genres: unexpected syntheses of words with music, dance, original genres (transformation, ventrology, etc.) give birth to new genre formations. Living practice continuously supplies all kinds of varieties; it is no coincidence that on old posters it was customary to add “in his genre” to the name of the actor.
Each of the above speech genres has its own characteristics, its own history, and structure. The development of society and social conditions dictated the emergence of first one genre or another. Actually, only entertainer born in cabaret can be considered a “variety” genre. The rest came from booths, theaters, and from the pages of humorous and satirical magazines. Speech genres, unlike others that tend to embrace foreign innovations, developed in line with the domestic tradition, in close connection with theater and humorous literature.
The development of speech genres is associated with the level of literature. Behind the actor is the author, who “dies” in the performer. And yet, the intrinsic value of acting does not detract from the importance of the author, who largely determines the success of the act. The artists themselves often became the authors. The traditions of I. Gorbunov were picked up by pop storytellers - Smirnov-Sokolsky, Afonin, Nabatov and others created their own repertoire. Actors who did not have literary talent turned for help to authors who wrote with the expectation of oral performance, taking into account the mask of the performer. These authors, as a rule, remained "nameless". For many years, the press has discussed the question of whether a work written for performance on the stage can be considered literature. In the early 80s, the All-Union and then the All-Russian Associations of Pop Authors were created, which helped legitimize this type of literary activity. Author's "anonymity" is a thing of the past; moreover, the authors themselves took to the stage. At the end of the 70s, the program “Behind the Scenes of Laughter” was released, composed like a concert, but exclusively from performances by pop authors. If in previous years only individual writers (Averchenko, Ardov, Laskin) presented their own programs, now this phenomenon has become widespread. The phenomenon of M. Zhvanetsky greatly contributed to the success. Having started in the 60s as the author of the Leningrad Theater of Miniatures, he, bypassing censorship, began to read his short monologues and dialogues at closed evenings in the Houses of the Creative Intelligentsia, which, like Vysotsky’s songs, spread throughout the country.
5. Jazz on stage
The term “jazz” is commonly understood as: 1) a type of musical art based on improvisation and special rhythmic intensity, 2) orchestras and ensembles performing this music. The terms “jazz band”, “jazz ensemble” (sometimes indicating the number of performers - jazz trio, jazz quartet, “jazz orchestra”, “big band”) are also used to designate groups.
6. Song on the stage
Vocal (vocal-instrumental) miniature, which has become widespread in concert practice. On the stage it is often solved as a stage “game” miniature with the help of plastics, costume, light, mise-en-scène (“song theater”); The personality, characteristics of the talent and skill of the performer, who in some cases becomes a “co-author” of the composer, become of great importance.
Brief description
In Russia, the origins of pop genres were manifested in buffoon fun, fun and mass creativity, folk festivals. Their representatives are the Raus jokers with the obligatory beard, who amused and invited the audience from the upper platform of the Raus booth, parsley players, raeshniks, leaders of the “scientific” bears, buffoon actors performing “sketches” and “reprises” among the crowd, playing the pipes , harp, sniffles and amusing the people.
Chapter V
“Form is a way of existence and expression of content... The unity of the content and form of a work of art does not mean absolute identity, but only a certain degree of mutual correspondence... The degree of correspondence... depends on... the talent and skill of the artist.”
Aesthetics. Dictionary
Concert [from lat. concerto - compete] - a public performance by artists according to a certain pre-compiled program.
Theater encyclopedia
Without deviating in this chapter from the position of exploring only what directly concerns the director’s creativity on the stage, we do not need to fully reveal the features of the creativity of each of the forms variety programs. It is important for us here to reveal only what distinguishes the work of a pop director from a theater director when he stages a pop program.
As a rule, none of the forms of variety programs is important for a theater director, since practically he does not have to deal with them when staging a play, because they (these forms) belong only to variety art.
Before talking about one or another form of pop program:
concert, performance, it is useful to determine the meaning...... of the word “concert” (besides the fact that this word denotes a certain stage action, consisting of the sum of the numbers that make it up).
So, the word “concert” [lat. concert] translated from Latin means competition, competition.
Indeed, in any concert, including pop concerts, there is a kind of competition, a competition between performers and numbers in their artistic creativity: by skill of performance, by success with the audience, etc. Moreover, it is in the concert (the competition in front of the audience) that the variety act receives its artistic completion.
Naturally, a pop concert, like any concert, is not just a mechanical set, but a fusion of different genres of numbers into a single whole performance, as a result of which a new work of art is born, the name of which is the concert.
It is precisely the creation of a concert from numbers that are sometimes different in genres, characters, and contents - another important difference between the work of a pop director and a theater director, who, as a rule, deals with a work (play) of the same genre, with a single plot and a single development that develops from the beginning to the end of the performance. end-to-end action.
A pop concert is an effectively dynamic spectacle, it is a special imaginative world in which the entertaining principle prevails, clothed in a bright, sharp form, a festive atmosphere, allowing the viewer to easily perceive its content.
Of course, the success of a concert depends on many reasons: here are the performers, and the quality of their numbers, and their novelty, and the construction of the order of numbers (composition), and the coherence of transitions from number to number, and its genre, and its types, etc. .
If we open page 95 of Volume VIII of the III edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, we can read: “A concert is a public performance by artists according to a specific program. Types of concert: musical (symphonic, chamber, piano, violin, etc.), literary (art reading), pop (light vocal and instrumental music, humorous stories, parodies, circus acts, etc.)" We can read almost the same thing in the "Theater Encyclopedia": "Types of concerts: musical (symphonic, chamber, piano, violin, etc.), literary (art reading), mixed ( musical numbers, artistic readings, scenes from plays, ballets, etc.), variety (light vocal and instrumental music, humorous stories, parodies, circus acts, etc.)"
Without disputing the opinion of two authoritative sources, we note that this concept of the word “concert” does not reveal a very important circumstance. Namely, that all types of concerts, according to the nature and content of the numbers performed in them, according to the way they are expressed (even if we are dealing with a “mixed concert”) are divided into two main types: philharmonic and pop. We proceed from the fact that functionally and psychologically the philharmonic and pop concerts are separated from each other. Despite the fact that both functions, without deviating from the solution of some common tasks(aesthetic, ideological, educational), satisfy the various needs of the viewer (listener).
Concert venues to fulfill the monthly quota of performances.
There could be no question of any logic in constructing such a concert. This is where the entertainer had to “extricate himself.”
Perhaps the latter circumstance to some extent played a role in the disappearance of group concerts from the stage: leading pop artists began to prefer solo concerts or large variety performances to teams, since with a quantitative increase in the number of ordinary concerts, their creative level was overwhelmingly lower average
Another important reason for the disappearance of group concerts in our days was the extremely low artistic level of people who considered themselves professional entertainers. Genuine entertainers who know how to create a variety act out of numbers of different genres have practically disappeared for various reasons. Television also played a significant role in the disappearance of national concerts, on whose screens pop “stars” constantly flash, especially in various advertising videos. Why pay a lot (not to say huge money) for a concert when your favorite artists can be seen on the TV screen?
A survey of many potential viewers conducted by the author of the work indicates not only the coincidence of their point of view with the opinion of V. Kalish, but also that the fashion for grandiose spectacles, no matter how show business inculcates it, will pass, and on the stage Group concerts will return equal to the show, albeit in a different and, above all, spectacular quality, but consisting of numbers of various genres. This is confirmed by the practice of Western pop music these days and a number of past concerts at the Moscow Variety Theater, the current life of regional and regional philharmonic societies, and even the fact that even in solo concerts his hero invites other performers in the genre to participate, because he subconsciously feels the desire for a variety of impressions characteristic of human psychological perception.
In recent years, on posters advertising pop concerts, we can most often find names such as “variety show”, “cabaret”, but most often - “show”. Although each of these concerts is based on a set of numbers of various genres (as in a national team), each of them has its own rather obvious features.
If we consider a “variety show” as a special form of pop concert, then most often this name hides a light, entertaining performance consisting of performances by singers, dancers, musicians, parodists, acrobats, magicians, etc.
Typically, a variety show program is a kaleidoscope of numbers, often performed with minimal participation of the entertainer, not to mention other conversational genres.
If we talk about the difference between variety shows and cabaret, then already from the mid-20th century the line between them, both in content and form, practically began to disappear. Today it is very difficult to discern the difference between them.
Cabaret [fr. - zucchini] is not so much the audience sitting at the tables, but the style, form and content of the pop concert, which largely depends on the atmosphere in which it takes place.
At its core, a cabaret program is also a set of various performances (numbers). But these programs had a number of significant features.
Firstly, they walked in taverns, in coffee shops, where the public, sitting at tables, looked at the speakers. At first, these were a kind of artistic and literary clubs, where poets, artists, writers, and artists gathered after twelve at night. As a rule, those who came here to relax and have fun went up to a small stage located in the middle or on the side of the hall, singing songs and reading poetry. To some extent, what was happening in such taverns was a reflection of the processes taking place in the artistic sphere.
Secondly, the spectacle was varied and improvisational in nature. The performers sought to emotionally stir the audience. Bursts of laughter, applause, and shouts of “bravo” were the usual atmosphere for a cabaret program. In the cabaret of that time, excitement and competition reigned, which created an atmosphere of ease, joy and freedom of creativity, festivity. In the cabaret, the line between the stage and the auditorium seemed to be blurred.
Thirdly, a prerequisite for cabaret activity was the intimacy of the atmosphere, allowing the performers to establish close contact with the audience. And although the cabaret programs consisted and consist of various humorous and lyrical songs, solo dances, satirical numbers, parodies, etc. etc., the main role in them is played by the compere, who takes care of creating a trusting, intimate atmosphere, leading a casual conversation, often causing an immediate reaction (which is very important in a cabaret program)
The volume of cabaret programs has increased significantly and has become a kind of kaleidoscope of numbers characteristic of cabaret. At the same time, the methods of grotesque, eccentricity, buffoonery, and ironic stylization were used in their solution. Parodies began to be widely used, in which performances and events that were currently taking place on the theater stage were ridiculed.
In Russia, the first cabarets appeared at the very beginning of the 20th century. Among them, the most famous were: “The Bat” in Moscow - at first a cabaret of Moscow actors Art Theater, which later became the N.F. Cabaret Theatre. Balieva, “Crooked Mirror”, “Stray Dog”, “Comedians’ Halt” in St. Petersburg and others. Soon cabarets appeared in Odessa, Kyiv, Baku, and Kharkov. Usually they were located in basements and semi-basements with a small stage.
Already in the early nineties of the 20th century, many cabarets lost their birth characteristics: tables disappeared, the structure and content of programs changed.
Cabaret theaters began to use theatrical techniques: curtains, ramps, stage decorations.
Show [English] - 1. Spectacle; 2. Show] - a very common type of pop entertainment show, especially these days, with the obligatory participation of at least one pop “star”.
The show is a bright, emotionally rich variety program that does not have a solid plot line, based on outwardly spectacular spectacular numbers and attractions, connected into a single whole by unexpected transitions and connections; built on fast-paced stage action, close in character to music hall. With the same music hall elegance of choreographic numbers, with the same colorfulness and splendor, with stunning dynamics of tempo, which allows you to saturate the show program with a large number of varied numbers, but without the obligatory for a music hall program, albeit a primitive, “dotted” plot line. At the same time, the show program does not exclude the boldness of presenting numbers. On the contrary, the more varied the presentation methods of the numbers included in the program, the brighter the stage form of the show.
It should be noted that the show is not only a genre category. In the form of a show, performances by a popular pop artist or various competitions, and presentations, and theatrical auctions, etc.
A show program is a large-scale spectacle, the scenography of which is created in a real stage space and largely depends on the technical capabilities of the stage and its equipment. The show does not limit the imagination of the stage designer. It is important that his invention be technically feasible.
And although today it is quite often possible to observe how a set designer acts as a stage director, it seems to us that this phenomenon is the result of a shortage of genuine pop direction. They may object to us: they say, many artists later became directors. For example, Gordon Craig, Nikolai Pavlovich Akimov and others. Indeed, their creative life began with the profession of an artist. But later their creative profession became directing, as the basis of their stage activities. Perhaps the creative fate of B. Krasnov, who calls himself a “director-set designer,” will be the same.
Of course, a set designer, to a certain extent, like a director, senses drama in dynamics, in movement. But this means that by doing so he can replace the director. Unfortunately, this is exactly what we see today in the production of various show programs. Because of this, the artist’s stage design becomes dependent on the design, and not vice versa, when the artist, the content of his program, his performance determines different scenography solutions. We often see how the design of a stage set, with all the modern tricks of playing with light, smoke, the use of electronics and other special effects, does not work for the artist, but becomes a pompous background. For example, as we already said in the previous chapter, this was clearly demonstrated in the latest production by A.B. Pugacheva “Christmas Meetings” in 1998 (artist B. Krasnov).
Review [fr. - pantomime, review] first arose in France in the first thirds of the XIX century (1830) as a satirical theatrical genre. Thus, the “Annual Revue,” popular at that time, was a topical review of Parisian life. Even then, the content of the revue consisted of alternating numbers of various genres. That is, in essence, the revue carried all the main features of a variety program.
A revue (review) is a form of variety performance in which individual numbers are connected by a plot that allows the scene of action to constantly “change” as it develops. For example, a stage stage, sometimes without changing the design (using only details), becomes an underground passage for one act, a park bench for another, a stadium grandstand for a third, etc. Most often, the plot move is based on the need for the hero (heroes) to make a “journey” or “look for” someone or something, or the plot move may be the release of a stage version of the newspaper, as in the same variety review “Evening Moscow”. In a revue, each number is perceived by the viewer not as an isolated work, but as a bright episode, a bright action in the overall composition of the concert. In other words, a revue (review) is a variety show on a theme conceived and expressed through the plot, composed of different numbers combined into episodes.
Music hall program"
Usually “Music Hall” is defined in two ways: the first definition is a type of theater that gives pop concert performances, the second – as a kind of variety program, a performance whose content is built on the alternation of various numbers, attractions, demonstrations of virtuoso performing techniques, stage tricks, cemented by a plot ( “dotted”) moves and dance numbers of a ballet group, usually a female group (“girls”).
From the very beginning, music hall programs, unlike cabarets, did not aim to be topical. In the foreground in such programs there was not so much relevance as the brightness of the external form and artistic sophistication.
The conditions of music hall programs, their saturation with various production effects and attractions, also changed the nature of public behavior. “Instead of being an accomplice (as in other forms of entertainment), in the music hall the audience became, as in the theater, an audience of spectators.”
The fate of the Moscow Music Hall was quite difficult. Either it was persecuted and ceased to exist, then it arose again. In the early twenties, the theater did not have a permanent troupe. The programs featured guest performers, including foreign ones, who arrived almost on the day of the performance. Naturally, directors rarely managed to create a single film united by a common concept.
But the more significant the successes became, requiring an abyss of invention and skill.”
The music hall program is a unique production of a bright, colorful, sometimes eccentric review-spectacle, consisting of enchanting scenes that quickly replace each other, full of variety and circus attractions; review-spectacle in which first-class numbers and episodes with the participation of pop “stars” are connected by the so-called “dotted line” plot. A very significant place in music hall programs is occupied by inventively staged mass performances. dance numbers“girls” with perfect synchronization of movements. This is a program in which a pop orchestra participates, usually located on the stage. These are always bright, catchy costumes of performers (especially ballet). This is the brilliance of colors, the play of light and shadows. This is a design transformation. For example, as the program progresses, ice stalactites suddenly turn into flowers; or flies across the hall onto the stage and lands spacecraft(as in the Parisian Alcazar); or suddenly a huge glass pool rises in the center of the stage, where girls in swimsuits swim together with crocodiles, performing a sports synchronized swimming routine underwater (“Friedrichstatt Palace”). These are various kinds of stage effects. This is the use of a wide variety of modern technical means of design.
In the art of variety there is such a form of variety performance as “teamp miniatures”.
In our understanding, the word “theater” emphasizes its creative and organizational principles, since in this case the word “theater” is not equivalent to the concept “Theatre”, when by this word we understand a creative organism whose repertoire is based on dramatic or ballet performances. On the other hand, in miniature theaters their programs are based on the same variety acts, differing from variety shows and cabarets only in the scale of the numbers that make them up. As for the division of miniatures of spectators and performers in theaters (by separating spectators from the latter by a ramp and other stage elements) and the disappearance of tables from the hall, the appearance of ramps and tables also occurred in later cabarets.
Theater of miniatures is not only a certain form and a certain content, but also a special style and way of thinking, a way of life.
This is what frightened those in power, who saw in it (especially in the 20s and 30s) bourgeois art alien to the proletariat. Such an attitude towards the art of small forms could not but slow down the development of pop art.
Unable to ban it (for reasons that are not the subject of our study), they only tolerated it. There was no question of the words “variety show,” much less “cabaret,” appearing on posters announcing pop concerts. A solution was found, as it turned out, acceptable to everyone: the art of small forms began to be called “variety”, although before that the word “variety” meant a stage area, stage stage, and small theaters form-theaters miniatures, which did not have a permanent staff troupe and were essentially a rental platform.
Miniature [fr. miniature] - a word that once meant only a drawn and painted decoration in ancient times handwritten books(these drawings were so named after the paint made from minis) also has a figurative meaning: something in a reduced size. The latter determines the repertoire of the Theater of Miniatures. Here you can see various variety performances: a short joke play, vaudeville, a sketch, a choreographic miniature, a pantomime scene, and even cinema. That is, as they say, works of small forms.
Widely known in post-war years acquired the Moscow Theater of Miniatures under the direction of Vladimir Polyakov, the Saratov Theater of Miniatures ( artistic director Lev Gorelik) and, of course, the most famous for many years There was the Leningrad Theater of Miniatures under the artistic direction of the unique artist Arkady Raikin.
But in addition to the types of programs that we are talking about, in pop art there are forms of pop performance that differ from those we have considered. This is a variety show, a performance.
While maintaining all the main features of a variety program and, above all, the presence of different genres in them, these works of art to a certain extent, they also synthesize the signs of theatrical action. The dramaturgy of a variety show is based on a detailed plot with role personification and the fate of the heroes. They widely use the expressive means inherent in the theater: stage action, mise-en-scène, stage atmosphere, etc.
It is no coincidence that we separated a variety show from the general concept of a “variety concert.” If the concept of “performance” does not need to be explained (perhaps there is not a single work on theatrical art where this concept has not been thoroughly studied), then “performance” has many, sometimes contradictory, definitions. Often before the word “performance” the word “theatrical” is written or pronounced, that is, they essentially call the oil oil, because the concept of “performance” itself is identical to the concept of “theatricalization”.
Since this concept (“theatricalization”) has been interpreted differently to this day, we consider it necessary in this work to reveal it from the position of practitioners who have staged more than one variety performance, especially since a theatrical concert is the forerunner of a variety performance, in our understanding the last one. The concept of “theatricalization” in relation to a concert means that when staging such a concert, in addition to all those pop expressive means that we talked about when analyzing the features of a combined concert, the theatrical concert uses expressive means characteristic of the theater and theatrical action. Namely: stage action (as is known, the main means of expression theatre), mise-en-scène (when a combination of poses and movements of the performers is introduced into the statics inherent in the genre of the act, which at the moment express the essence of the content of the act and the relationship between the performers), stage atmosphere (to create it, as in the theater, play light and noise are used , background music and other elements that create a certain environment in which the action of the performance develops), costume and design.
Watching various pop performances, you can easily discover that the plot of such a performance forces the audience not only to follow the development of the plot, but also to understand and accept the logic of constructing the performance, and sometimes to perceive one or another number (or all numbers) in an unexpected light.
A variety show, unlike a theatrical concert, is characterized by the role personification of the entertainer (the presenter or presenters). That is, he or they, endowed with certain character traits and characteristics (profession, age, social status, habits, etc.), become an actively acting character in the performance, because it is he (they) who embodies the movement of the plot.
In the process of performing a performance, the director does not think about what “conditions of the game” - theatrical or pop - determine his directorial decision of one or another moment of the performance. The synthesis of these “conditions of the game” for the director occurs on a subconscious level, and at the time of rehearsals the director does not realize what is currently coming from the stage and what from the theater. This skill, albeit unconsciously, relies on two different types performing arts.
As we see, even in such a performance, seemingly close to the genres of theatrical art, as a variety performance, a variety performance has its own specifics, its own methods of directing creativity. And yet, despite the complexity of this variety program, in our understanding, confirmed by modern practice, the future of the stage is connected with plot performances. When, using the means of pop art, a performance is created in which everything - entertainment, stage effects, the play of light and color, scenography, and most importantly, the selection of numbers - is subordinated to thought, plot, conflict, and most importantly - to the artistic image of the performance. Suffice it to recall some of the latest programs performed on the stage of the Rossiya Concert Hall.
Of course, the performance is the most complex type of variety program, since in it, as the outstanding director Fyodor Nikolaevich Kaverin wrote: “there is a certain textual material, with its own plot, with a certain, albeit very small number of characters, and their characters and destinies (most often their comedic adventures) become the inevitable focus. Purely pop numbers are interspersed in separate moments into the course of the play... Developing in action the idea of such a performance, the director is faced with completely special tasks, completely different from what determines his work in the theater in general. He needs to establish the principle by which numbers are introduced into such a play-program, find and establish the correct proportions in their number relative to the plot, determine their character... The director’s special concern when working on such a performance is the search and definition of the style of the entire performance, the manner of acting, which, when combined with conventional pop pieces... “It also requires its own internal course and a clearly established relationship (either coordinated or consciously contrasting) within the performance.”