Female ballet composers. A Reconnaissance
While Polish theoretical and musicological reflection seems to treat ballet music as a poor relation, ballet works composed by women appear as a complete tabula rasa. The present author decided to contribute to filling it by analysing works of Polish female composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Statistical calculations based on three databases including Polish Music Information Centre (POLMIC), polishstage. pl (e-teatr) and taniecpolska.pl portals as well as own research have revealed 35 Polish female composers of the 20thand 21st centuries have written at least one or more works whose subtitles contain the words “ballet” or “ballet music” or have been composed particularly for a dance theatre, pantomime or dance performance. Out of 122 compositions, twenty ballets have not been staged. The works composed for other types of “dance shows” were written in collaboration with specific choreographers, therefore they have all been staged, except for three compositions. The first Polish female composer to write ballet music was Anna Maria Klechniowska. Her two earliest ballets, Bilitis and Juria were composed in the interwar period, and the third one titled Fantasma in 1964. The most successful female composer was Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska who composed ballets for children. Her most popular work was ballet Pinokio [Pinocchio]. Another question refers to stage productions of ballets composed by women. Eighteen of the ballets staged were choreographed by men, and fourteen by women. In the case of music composed strictly for “dance shows” (dance theatre, pantomime or dance performance) female choreographers prevail (47): only twelve male choreographers decided to collaborate with a female composer. Two performances were the result of collaborative work. The findings to date constitute a point of departure for further research into music composed “for dance” (ballet, pantomime, dance theatre and dance performances).
