5 replies to this topic

[innopac]

Type the word ballet into ngrams from google to find out.

Explained in article from the New York Times.

[Alexandra]

I guessed it, actually. I don't want to be a spoiler, so I'll only say "that period" wasva high point for ballet. There were many articles written that ballet had "triumphed," that modern dance had faded from the scene, had been replaced by ballet, etc. (Why oh why does it have to be either/or???)

[innopac]

What I think is useful about the site is that you can click on the links at the bottom to gain access to books written during that period about the subject.  You can also do this in Google Books advanced search but this is very quick access.

[bart]

Thanks, innopac, for this intriguing link.

I don't want to be a spoiler either.  So ... hear comes a  clumsy circumlocution:

My search for "ballet" produced a graph with two peaks.  The earlier peak was higher than the later peak.  

I was surprised by the period separating the peaks -- two decades that look like a valley on the graph.

I would have thought that those two decades were a high point.  But that may reflect my narrow Balanchine perspective.

[Amy Reusch]

I had fun comparing "Balanchine" to "choreographer"...

[carbro]

Just what I need -- another internet time eater!

This is fascinating.  It indicates (here) that for the first half of the 20th Century, there was more Abe Lincoln than Thomas Jefferson.  Not surprising.  But they seemed to tie briefly in the mid '50s until 1960, when Jefferson actually overtook Lincoln.  Permanently (so far).  That surprises me.