Dancing Through the Centuries
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Without a single note of music or an elaborate costume in sight, dance fills the Vincent Astor Gallery, at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where “500 Years of Italian Dance: Treasures From the Cia Fornaroli Collection” is on display.
Arranged in four chronological sections, the exhibit features lithographs, etchings, rare manuscripts, and other memorabilia dating to the mid-16th century. The pieces showcase the Italian rise to global renown and pay tribute to the luminaries of the respective eras, such as Salvatore Taglioni, who founded the La Scala school and wrote several ballets, the 19th-century ballet teacher Carlo Blasis and several of his students, including Maestro Enrico Cecchetti, who went on to establish his own technique.
“One important theme is that dance in its broadest sense — choreography, music, performance, spectacle — is something that has been a presence in the development of modern ballet up until the 20th century,” curator Lynn Garafola said of Italians’ contribution to the art form.
The pieces in the collection span half a millennium, but the process of acquiring them is a history in and of itself. It began when bookseller Walter Toscanini, son of famed conductor Arturo Toscanini, picked up a libretto for a ballet called the “Semiramis.” After acquiring that first book in the 1910s, he expanded his collection. The volume, which is on display, was Walter’s first gift to the woman who would become his wife, ballerina Cia Fornaroli.
Aside from the portraits of the star dancers, several rare manuscripts with the “feuillet” system of notation are also on view. In that system, musical notes line the very top of the page, while the necessary dance steps are illustrated below, in time with the music. Two other books showcase the contention between Jean-George Noverre and Gasparo Angiolini.
Though there are many pieces to adore in this exhibit, Ms. Garafola said her favorite piece remains Marie-Paul Taglioni as the Flower Fairy in Paul Taglioni’s “Thea, ou La Fée aux Fleurs.” “What I love about it is the delicacy, the fact that she has bare feet,” she said.
If Ms. Garafola could impart one message to patrons, she said, it would be this: “Italy should be a big part of our framework when we think of the history of dance.”
Until January 20 (40 Lincoln Center Plaza, 212-870-1630).
