Early Career
Gorsky was taught by Platon K. Karsavin (father of Tamara Karsavina), N. I. Volkov, and Marius Petipa . Upon graduation of the ballet school he joined the company and moved up in rank from corps de ballet, coryphée (a dancer who performs in small ensembles), to solo dancer. He danced roles in La Fille mal gardée, the La Flûte magique, and Le Réveil de Flore.
In 1895 Alexander Gorsky developed a friendship with V.I. Stepanov who was creating a system of dance notation. Upon Stepanov’s death Gorsky perfected Stepanov's system and was later appointed to teach it to students of the Imperial Ballet School. Stepanov's system was utilized by the Imperial Ballet to document much of the company's repertory. Today this cache of notation is included in the Sergeyev Collection.
In 1900 Alexander Gorsky was nominated to be Premier danseur (principal male soloist) of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre, only to be moved to the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre as régisseur (manager) eight days later. What was meant to be a temporary move became permanent. The school was creating many talented students but the company was in decline. Gorsky was named Premier Maître de Ballet of the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre. In his teaching he used “ free dance movements in contrast to the academic, frozen forms” of previous classical ballet style. He was inspired by Isadora Duncan who was famous for rejecting ballet and believed dance should be a natural expression of the soul. He was also inspired by the Stanislavsky's method of acting.
Read more about this topic: Alexander Alexeyevich Gorsky
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“[My early stories] are the work of a living writer whom I know in a sense, but can never meet.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)