title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: Gregory of Tours recorded the tradition that after the persecution under the co-emperors Decius and Gratus (250–251), future pope Felix I sent seven missionaries to re-establish the broken and scattered Christian communities, Gatien to Tours, Trophimus to Arles, Paul to Narbonne, Saturninus to Toulouse, Denis to Paris, Martial to Limoges, and Austromoine to Clermont.


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: In the fifth and sixth centuries, Gallo-Roman Christian communities still consisted of independent churches in urban sites, each governed by a bishop; Christians experienced loyalties divided between the bishop and the civil prefect, who operated largely in harmony within the late-imperial administration. Some of the communities had origins that predated the third-century persecutions. The personal charisma of the bishop set the tone, as fifth-century allegiances, for pagans as well as Christians, switched from institutions to individuals: most Gallo-Roman bishops were drawn from the highest levels of society as appropriate non-military civil roads to advancement dwindled, and they represented themselves as bulwarks of high literary standards and Roman traditions against the Vandal and Gothic interlopers; other bishops drew the faithful to radical asceticism. Bishops often took on the duties of civil administrator after the contraction of the Roman imperial administration due to the Barbarian invasions of the 5th century, helping fund building projects and even acting as arbiters of justice in the local community. Miracles attributed to both kinds of bishops, as well as holy men and women, attracted cult veneration, sometimes very soon after their death; a great number of locally venerated Gallo-Roman and Merovingian saints arose in the transitional centuries 400–750. The identification of the diocesan administration with the secular community, which took place during the fifth century in Italy, can best be traced in the Gallo-Roman culture of Gaul in the career of Caesarius, bishop and Metropolitan of Arles from 503 to 543. (Wallace-Hadrill).


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: Before Roman incursion, most of Gaul spoke Celtic dialects that are today considered to be the Gaulish language, with considerable variation. The south-western region that would later become Gascony spoke the Aquitanian language, which may have been the parent language of Basque, while parts of the coast near Marseille spoke Ligurian with some Greek-speaking colonies on the Mediterranean coast, notably including Massilia. In the northeastern zone of Belgica, there may have been some presence of Germanic languages, although this is disputed. In the late empire, there was some settlement in Gaul by tribes speaking Germanic or Eastern Iranian languages, such as the Alans.


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: The Gaulish language is thought to have survived into the 6th century in France, despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture. The last record of spoken Gaulish deemed to be plausibly credible was when Gregory of Tours wrote in the 6th century (c. 560–575) that a shrine in Auvergne which "is called in the Gallic tongue" was destroyed and burnt to the ground. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and calques (including , the word for "yes"), sound changes, and influences in conjugation and word order.


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: The Vulgar Latin in the region of Gallia took on a distinctly local character, some of which is attested in graffiti, which evolved into the Gallo-Romance dialects which include French and its closest relatives. The influence of substrate languages may be seen in graffiti showing sound changes that matched changes that had earlier occurred in the indigenous languages, especially Gaulish. The Vulgar Latin in the North of Gaul evolved into the langues d'oïl and Franco-Provencal, while the dialects in the South evolved into the modern Occitan and Catalan tongues. Other languages held to be "Gallo-Romance" include the Gallo-Italic languages and the Rhaeto-Romance languages.


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: Roman culture introduced a new phase of anthropomorphized sculpture to the Gaulish community, synthesized with Celtic traditions of refined metalworking, a rich body of urbane Gallo-Roman silver developed, which the upheavals of the third and fifth centuries motivated hiding away in hoards, which have protected some pieces of Gallo-Roman silver, from villas and temple sites, from the universal destruction of precious metalwork in circulation. The exhibition of Gallo-Roman silver highlighted specifically Gallo-Roman silver from the treasures found at Chaourse (Aisne), Mâcon (Saône et Loire), Graincourt-lès-Havrincourt (Pas de Calais), Notre-Dame d'Allençon (Maine-et-Loire), and Rethel (Ardennes, found in 1980).


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: The two more Romanized of the three Gauls were bound together in a network of Roman roads that linked cities. Via Domitia (laid out in 118 BC), reached from Nîmes to the Pyrenees, where it joined the Via Augusta at the Col de Panissars. Via Aquitania reached from Narbonne, where it connected to the Via Domitia, to the Atlantic Ocean through Toulouse to Bordeaux. Via Scarponensis connected Trier to Lyon through Metz.


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: At Périgueux, France, a luxurious Roman villa called the "Domus of Vesunna", built round a garden courtyard surrounded by a colonnaded peristyle enriched with bold tectonic frescoing, has been handsomely protected in a modern glass-and-steel structure that is a fine example of archaeological museum-making (see external link).


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: Lyon, the capital of Roman Gaul, is now the site of the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon (rue Céberg), associated with the remains of the theater and odeon of Roman Lugdunum. Visitors are offered a clear picture of the daily life, economic conditions, institutions, beliefs, monuments and artistic achievements of the first four centuries of the Christian era. The "Claudius Tablet" in the Museum transcribes a speech given before the Senate by the Emperor Claudius in 48, in which he requests the right for the heads of the Gallic nations to participate in Roman magistracy. The request having been accepted, the Gauls decided to engrave the imperial speech on bronze.


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: In Metz, once an important town of Gaul, the Golden Courtyard Museums displays a rich collection of Gallo-Roman finds and the vestiges of Gallo-Roman baths, revealed by the extension works to the museums in the 1930s.


title: Gallo-Roman culture

text: In Martigny, Valais, Switzerland, at the Fondation Pierre Gianadda, a modern museum of art and sculpture shares space with Gallo-Roman Museum centered on the foundations of a Celtic temple.


title: Call to the bar

text: The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to the bar". "The bar" is now used as a collective noun for barristers, but literally referred to the wooden barrier in old courtrooms, which separated the often crowded public area at the rear from the space near the judges reserved for those having business with the court. Barristers would sit or stand immediately behind it, facing the judge, and could use it as a table for their briefs.


title: Call to the bar

text: Like many other common law terms, the term originated in England in the Middle Ages, and the "call to the bar" refers to the summons issued to one found fit to speak at the "bar" of the royal courts. In time, English judges allowed only legally qualified men to address them on the law and later delegated the qualification and admission of barristers to the four Inns of Court. Once an inn calls one of its members to its bar, they are thereafter a barrister. They may not, however, practise as a barrister until they have completed (or been exempted from) an apprenticeship called "pupillage". After completing pupillage, they are considered to be a practising barrister with a right of audience before all courts.


title: Call to the bar

text: England and Wales and some other jurisdictions distinguish two types of lawyers, who are regulated by different bodies, with separate training, examinations, regulation and traditions:


title: Call to the bar

text: A solicitor must qualify as a solicitor-advocate in order to acquire the same "higher rights" of audience as a barrister. In other jurisdictions, the terminology and the degree of overlap between the roles of solicitor and barrister varies greatly; in most, the distinction has disappeared entirely.


title: Call to the bar

text: Common law jurisdictions include Australia, England and Wales, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Nigeria, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and most jurisdictions in the Commonwealth of Nations and the United States (the "See also" section below contains links to articles on the laws of these jurisdictions).


title: Call to the bar

text: Candidates wishing to become barristers may have to pass an examination and undergo further specialised training before those candidates are "called to the bar" or "sign the roll of counsel". Both the examination and the further training are administered by the state's bar association:


title: Call to the bar

text: Upon completing the relevant training course, new barristers ("readers") are required to spend a period of months "reading" in the chambers of an experienced barrister, called the reader's "tutor" (in New South Wales) or "mentor" (in Victoria) (historically, this experienced barrister was called the new barrister's "pupil master"). This "reading" period serves as a kind of practical apprenticeship for the new barrister, who works in the same chambers as their tutor/mentor and is able to learn by observing their tutor/mentor, as well as actively seeking their guidance.


title: Call to the bar

text: In common law Canadian provinces, despite the unified legal profession (lawyers are qualified as both barristers and solicitors), the certificate issued by the provincial Law Society to the newly qualified lawyer generally indicates his or her having been called to the bar and admitted as a solicitor.


title: Call to the bar

text: In Ontario and Manitoba, there are two certificates, one issued by the respective provincial Law Society for call to the bar and the other by the Superior Court (Ontario) or Court of Queen's Bench (Manitoba) for admission as a solicitor.


title: Call to the bar

text: In Ontario, being called to the bar requires students to article (apprentice) with a law firm for ten months, but due to a shortage of articling positions available each year and an influx of articling candidates, a pilot alternative program available through the University of Ottawa and Toronto Metropolitan University was established. The Law Practice Program requires the articling students to spend four months in a virtual law office and to spend another four months in a work placement.


title: Call to the bar

text: Alberta and Prince Edward Island are the only common law jurisdictions with individual, rather than group, calls. The student's supervisor, referred to as his or her principal, makes an oral application to the Provincial Court of Alberta or Court of Queen's Bench, or the Supreme Court of Prince Edward Island, respectively, to have the student called to the bar. Gowns are worn and the ceremony is public, with the presiding judge (or judges) welcoming the new member with a speech written specifically for that call.


title: Call to the bar

text: In England and Wales, a call ceremony takes place at the barrister's Inn of Court (or at Temple Church for members of the Inner Temple), before or during the pupillage year. A barrister is called to the "utter" ("outer") bar or "appointed to the degree of the utter bar". Those appointed as King's Counsel are entitled to plead from "within the bar" in court.


title: Call to the bar

text: In Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers. Candidates wishing to qualify as barristers must complete a series of examinations at the Honorable Society of King's Inns. Successful candidates are called to the Bar by the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court. Upon being called to the bar, a barrister becomes a member of the Outer Bar, or "Junior Counsel". Some barristers may subsequently be called to the Inner Bar in a similar ceremony, gaining the title "Senior Counsel".


title: Call to the bar

text: As in Canada, the legal profession is fused. A lawyer in New Zealand is admitted as either a "barrister sole" or a "barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand". Once admitted, New Zealand's "barrister and solicitors" are able to practise in either mode provided they hold a practising certificate, while barristers sole are entitled only to practice as a barrister. Admission is overseen by the New Zealand Law Society.


title: Call to the bar

text: As in New Zealand, there is no formal distinction between barristers and solicitors. A lawyer in Nigeria is admitted as a "Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria". Once admitted, Nigerian lawyers may argue in any federal trial or appellate court as well as any of the courts in Nigeria's thirty six states and the Federal Capital Territory. Lawyers are regulated by the Nigerian Bar Association.


title: Call to the bar

text: Prior to the partition of Ireland, barristers in what is now Northern Ireland were called to the bar in the same manner as those in the rest of Ireland. The procedure remains much the same today, save that candidates wishing to qualify as barristers must complete a series of examinations at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies at Queen's University Belfast (under the supervision of the Honourable Society of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland), barristers are called to the bar by the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and members of the Inner Bar are known as Queen's Counsel.


title: Call to the bar

text: In Sri Lanka, a lawyer must be admitted and enrolled as an attorney-at-law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. This is referred to as the call to the bar.


title: Call to the bar

text: Generally, a lawyer is said to have been "admitted to the bar" and become an "attorney at law"; some states still use the older term "attorney and counselor (also spelled 'counsellor') at law", upon taking his or her oath of office. Historically, the institution of attorney was similar to that of the solicitor, whereas the office of the counselor was almost identical to that of the barrister, but today this distinction has disappeared. The phrase "called to the bar" is still sometimes used informally by U.S. attorneys to refer to their qualification as a lawyer.


title: 50% Off

text: "50% Off" is the second episode of the fifth season of the AMC television series "Better Call Saul", a spin-off series of "Breaking Bad". The episode aired on February 24, 2020, on AMC, in the United States. Outside of the United States, the episode premiered on the streaming service Netflix in several countries.


title: 50% Off

text: Victor and Tyrus Kitt bring Nacho Varga to Gus Fring. Threatening harm to Nacho's father, Gus demands that Nacho obtain information on the Salamancas' activities. Hector Salamanca confirms for Lalo Salamanca that Gus's distribution network is an essential component of the Juarez cartel's operation and profits.


title: 50% Off

text: Sticky and Ron, two drug users who received Jimmy McGill's 50 percent off business card, go on a multi-day binge. They purchase numerous bags of cocaine from the Salamanca stash house but the bags get stuck in the drainpipe. The police arrive just before Domingo Molina dislodges the drugs. He is arrested and the police prepare to raid the house. Nacho climbs over rooftops to sneak into the house and retrieve the drug stash before police enter. Lalo is impressed with Nacho but worries Domingo may talk in jail. Still upset over Werner Ziegler's death, Mike Ehrmantraut has been regularly drinking to excess. While babysitting Kaylee Ehrmantraut, he lashes out at her when she asks for details about her father.


title: 50% Off

text: Kim Wexler is still apprehensive about Jimmy practicing law as Saul Goodman. Jimmy and Kim view a house and consider buying it. Kim again thanks Jimmy for his effort to help her client accept the plea bargain, but says she does not want to succeed by lying.


title: 50% Off

text: Jimmy turns on the Saul Goodman persona at the courthouse and avoids trials while obtaining favorable plea bargains for his clients, generating fees by producing a high case turnover. Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Ericsen, suspicious of Jimmy since Huell Babineaux's arrest, resists Saul's entreaties and insists on formally resolving their pending cases during an already-scheduled appointment. Howard invites Jimmy to lunch, and Jimmy is unsettled by the reminder of his past. Jimmy later pays a custodian, the brother of one of his clients, to disable the courthouse elevator while he is inside with Ericsen, enabling him to informally work out several favorable deals. Nacho drives up after Jimmy leaves the courthouse and coerces Jimmy into his car.


title: 50% Off

text: The episode ties in two Easter eggs to "Breaking Bad" as the "Better Call Saul" narrative draws closer to that point, according to showrunner Peter Gould and writer Alison Tatlock. One is the origin of Domingo's "Krazy-8" nickname ("ocho loco"), which is revealed to have been given to him by Lalo during a poker game after Domingo fell for Lalo's bluff and folded on what would have been a winning set of 8s. The second is the introduction of Saul's Bluetooth headset, which he was seen wearing frequently during "Breaking Bad".


title: 50% Off

text: "50% Off" received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it garnered a perfect 100% rating with an average score of 8.14/10 based on 15 reviews. The site's critical consensus is, 50% Off' is no bargain chapter, settling the season into "Better Call Saul"s familiar pace while taking big strides in coalescing the series' parallel worlds."


title: 50% Off

text: "50% Off" was watched by 1.06 million viewers on its first broadcast, down from 1.60 million from the season premiere the previous night, making it the least viewed episode of the series.


title: Social order

text: The term social order can be used in two senses: In the first sense, it refers to a particular system of social structures and institutions. Examples are the ancient, the feudal, and the capitalist social order. In the second sense, social order is contrasted to social chaos or disorder and refers to a stable state of society in which the existing social structure is accepted and maintained by its members. The problem of order or Hobbesian problem, which is central to much of sociology, political science and political philosophy, is the question of how and why it is that social orders exist at all.


title: Social order

text: Thomas Hobbes is recognized as the first to clearly formulate the problem, to answer which he conceived the notion of a social contract.


title: Social order

text: Social theorists (such as Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Jürgen Habermas) have proposed different explanations for what a social order consists of, and what its real basis is. For Marx, it is the relations of production or economic structure which is the basis of social order. For Durkheim, it is a set of shared social norms. For Parsons, it is a set of social institutions regulating the pattern of action-orientation, which again are based on a frame of cultural values. For Habermas, it is all of these, as well as communicative action.


title: Social order

text: Another key factor concerning social order is the principle of extensiveness. This states the more norms and the more important the norms are to a society, the better these norms tie and hold together the group as a whole.


title: Social order

text: A good example of this is smaller religions based in the U.S., such as the Amish. Many Amish live together in communities and because they share the same religion and values, it is easier for them to succeed in upholding their religion and views because their way of life is the norm for their community.


title: Social order

text: In every society, people belong to groups, such as businesses, families, churches, athletic groups, or neighborhoods. The structure inside of these groups mirrors that of the whole society. There are networks and ties between groups, as well as inside of each of the groups, which create social order.


title: Social order

text: Some people belong to more than one group, and this can sometimes cause conflict. The individual may encounter a situation in which they have to choose one group over another. Many who have studied these groups believe that it is necessary to have ties between groups to strengthen the society as a whole, and to promote pride within each group. Others believe that it is best to have stronger ties to a group, enabling social norms and values to be reinforced.


title: Social order

text: "Status groups" can be based on a person's characteristics such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, caste, region, occupation, physical attractiveness, gender, education, age, etc. They are defined as "a subculture having a rather specific rank (or status) within the stratification system. That is, societies tend to include a hierarchy of status groups, some enjoying high ranking and some low." One example of this hierarchy is the prestige of a university professor compared to that of a garbage man.


title: Social order

text: A certain lifestyle usually distinguishes the members of different status groups. For example, around the holidays a Jewish family may celebrate Hanukkah while a Christian family may celebrate Christmas. Other cultural differences such as language and cultural rituals identify members of different status groups.


title: Social order

text: Smaller groups exist inside of one status group. For instance, one can belong to a status group based on one's race and a social class based on financial ranking. This may cause strife for the individual in this situation when they feel they must choose to side with either their status group or their social class. For example, a wealthy African American man who feels he has to take a side on an issue on which the opinions of poor African Americans and wealthy white Americans are divided and finds his class and status group opposed.


title: Social order

text: Values can be defined as "internal criteria for evaluation". Values are also split into two categories, there are individual values, which pertains to something that we think has worth and then there are social values. Social values are our desires modified according to ethical principles or according to the group, we associate with: friends, family, or co-workers.


title: Social order

text: Norms tell us what people ought to do in a given situation. Unlike values, norms are enforced externally – or outside of oneself. A society as a whole determines norms, and they can be passed down from generation to generation.


title: Social order

text: An exception to the idea of values and norms as social order-keepers is deviant behavior. Not everyone in a society abides by a set of personal values or the group's norms all the time. For this reason, it is generally deemed necessary for a society to have authority. The adverse opinion holds that the need for authority stems from social inequality.


title: Social order

text: In a class society, those who hold positions of power and authority are among the upper class. Norms differ for each class because the members of each class were raised differently and hold different sets of values. Tension can form, therefore, between the upper class and lower class when laws and rules are put in place that do not conform to the values of both classes.


title: Social order

text: The order does not necessarily need to be controlled by the government. Individuals pursuing self-interest can make predictable systems. These systems, being planned by more than one person, may actually be preferable to those planned by a single person. This means that predictability may be possible to achieve without a central government's control. These stable expectations do not necessarily lead to individuals behaving in ways that are considered beneficial to group welfare. Considering this, Thomas Schelling studied neighborhood racial segregation. His findings suggest that interaction can produce predictability, but it does not always increase social order. In his researching, he found that "when all individuals pursue their own preferences, the outcome is segregation rather than integration," as stated in "Theories of Social Order", edited by Michael Hechter and Christine Horne.


title: Social order

text: Social honor can also be referred to as social status. It is considered the distribution of prestige or "the approval, respect, admiration, or deference a person or group is able to command by virtue of his or its imputed qualities or performances". The case most often is that people associate social honor with the place a person occupies with material systems of wealth and power. Since most of the society finds wealth and power desirable, they respect or envy people that have more than they do. When social honor is referred to as social status, it deals with the rank of a person within the stratification system. Status can be achieved, which is when a person position is gained on the basis of merit or in other words by achievement and hard work or it can be ascribed, which is when a person position is assigned to individuals or groups without regard for merit but because of certain traits beyond their control, such as race, sex, or parental social standing. An example of ascribed status is Kate Middleton who married a prince. An example of achieved status is Oprah Winfrey, an African American woman from poverty who worked her way to being a billionaire.


title: Social order

text: Two different theories exist that explain and attempt to account for social order. The first theory is "order results from a large number of independent decisions to transfer individual rights and liberties to a coercive state in return for its guarantee of security for persons and their property, as well as its establishment of mechanisms to resolve disputes," as stated in "Theories of Social Order" by Hechter and Horne. The next theory is that "the ultimate source of social order as residing not in external controls but in a concordance of specific values and norms that individuals somehow have managed to internalize." also stated in "Theories of Social Order" by Hechter and Horne. Both arguments for how social order is attained are very different. One argues that it is achieved through outside influence and control, and the other argues that it can only be attained when the individual willingly follows norms and values that they have grown accustomed to and internalized. Weber's insistence on the importance of domination and symbolic systems in social life was retained by Pierre Bourdieu, who developed the idea of social orders, ultimately transforming it into a theory of fields.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: Brian Heffron (born May 18, 1973), better known by his ring name The Blue Meanie, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation between 1995 and 2005. His ring name is a reference to the Blue Meanies, the antagonists from the 1968 animated film "Yellow Submarine".


title: The Blue Meanie

text: Heffron started wrestling in the Midwest out of Al Snow's Bodyslammers Pro Wrestling Gym in Lima, Ohio in March 1994. He continued to wrestle in various independent wrestling promotions throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions until 1996.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: Heffron was noticed by Raven and Stevie Richards at a Steel City Wrestling show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was asked by Raven to become Richards' sidekick in ECW. He went on to become "The Blue Meanie", taking his name and persona from the villains of the 1968 animated film "Yellow Submarine", in 1995 in ECW at the November To Remember event. He was the flunky for Richards, who was himself the flunky for Raven. Heffron, Richards, and Super Nova performed several skits but their most famous was the bWo, a parody of WCW's top heel group, the nWo. Meanie played the role of "Da Blue Guy" in the bWo, lampooning nWo member Scott Hall's nickname "The Bad Guy".


title: The Blue Meanie

text: After Richards left ECW in May 1997, the Blue Meanie continued to team with Super Nova throughout 1997 and 1998. At Wrestlepalooza in May 1998, they defeated the Full Blooded Italians. At November to Remember in November 1998, they defeated Danny Doring and Roadkill. The Blue Meanie wrestled his final match for ECW on November 21, 1998, leaving to join the World Wrestling Federation later that month.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: Heffron made his World Wrestling Federation debut on the November 29, 1998, episode of "Sunday Night Heat", interfering in a match between Duane Gill and Christian. He then spent some time as part of Al Snow's J.O.B. Squad. He rose to short prominence as "Bluedust", a revival of a 1996 mockery of the Goldust gimmick he used in ECW, this time paired with Goldust himself. Bluedust and Goldust were pitted against one another at the WWF's pay-per-view, a match Goldust eventually won. Heffron would later be pulled under Goldust's "spell", calling him "mommy" and serving as a manager, all the while bickering with Goldust's other manager, Ryan Shamrock. After Goldust dumped both Meanie and Shamrock, Heffron made little headway in the WWF. He challenged Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental Championship on the July 17, 1999, episode of "Shotgun Saturday Night", but lost. Throughout the remainder of 1999, the Blue Meanie wrestled primarily on house shows and on episodes of "Shotgun Saturday Night", "Sunday Night Heat", and "Jakked". In 2000, he was assigned to Memphis Championship Wrestling for seasoning; while there, he teamed with Jim Neidhart as the New Foundation. He was released by the WWF in June 2000.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: Under the name "Blue Boy", Heffron returned to Extreme Championship Wrestling in mid-2000. During this period, Heffron had lost over 100 pounds of weight. His gimmick was that of an arrogant stud who would insult the looks and weight of fans and other wrestlers, in an ironic twist. He wrestled for ECW until December 2000, with his final match being a bout against Chilly Willy at Holiday Hell 2000.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: After leaving ECW once more, the Blue Meanie returned to the independent circuit. In February 2002, he opened his own promotion, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Pro Pain Pro Wrestling.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: The Blue Meanie appeared at WWE's ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view on June 12, 2005. He made headlines at the event for being bloodied and deliberately (and legitimately) injured by WWE wrestler JBL. A few weeks after the incident, during which time Heffron indicated on his website that he was considering pursuing legal action against JBL, it was announced that he had signed a short-term deal with WWE and reformed the bWo with Stevie Richards and Simon Dean (formerly Nova). On the July 7 episode of "SmackDown!", the bWo drove to ringside in JBL's limousine, then proceeded to spraypaint "bWo" on the hood. This led to a No Disqualification match between JBL and Meanie later that evening, which Meanie won after interference from Richards, who hit a notoriously stiff chair shot to JBL's head, and World Heavyweight Champion Batista. The Mexicools later defeated Meanie, Richards, and Nova in a six-man tag match at The Great American Bash.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: In 2005, Heffron wrestled at Hardcore Homecoming against Tracy Smothers in what commentator Joey Styles called a "comedy match", and also appeared with Raven during Raven's match against Sandman. In April 2006, Heffron announced on his blog that he had been diagnosed with empyema, and had undergone emergency surgery to have part of his lung removed. On June 3, 2007, he defeated Smothers to become the World Champion again, but lost it at the next event on August 5, to Jason Bane in a Street Fight. On September 8, he defeated Troy Justice to become APWF Heavyweight Champion. On December 28, he was managed by Tammy Lynn Sytch and teamed with The Patriot to defeat The Sychadellic Sissies (Ace Darling and Nicky Oceans) at National Wrestling Superstars Holiday Tour.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: On January 18, 2008, he defeated Danny Demanto at a National Wrestling Superstars event in Manville, New Jersey. On April 12, he and JD Love defeated Zaquary Springate III and Isys Ephex in a surprise appearance at 2CW's Living on the Edge. On August 8, 2010, Heffron was slated to appear at the TNA PPV Hardcore Justice; however, he could not attend the event and was replaced by a fake Blue Meanie named The Blue Tilly.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: On September 4, 2015, Da Blue Guy, Big Stevie Cool and Hollywood Nova reunited as the Blue World Order for Chikara's 2015 King of Trios tournament. They were eliminated from the tournament in their first round match by the Devastation Corporation (Blaster McMassive, Flex Rumblecrunch and Max Smashmaster).


title: The Blue Meanie

text: On March 20, 2022, The Blue Meanie joined Aron Stevens to take on the Dirt Sexy Boys in the NWA Crockett Cup.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: The Blue Meanie made a cameo appearance with AEW on October 11, 2021, on an episode of in Philadelphia, coming out to support Crowbar in a losing effort to Joey Janela.


title: The Blue Meanie

text: Heffron has appeared in the WB sitcom "Nikki", the documentary film "Beyond the Mat", the film "Communication Breakdown", and the cult horror film "Swamp Zombies" (with Dan Severn). He also starred in the films "Curse of the Wolf", "Fist of the Vampire", and "Warriors of the Apocalypse". He had a small cameo in the film "The Wrestler".


title: The Blue Meanie

text: In March 2020, Heffron began a podcast called "Mind of the Meanie" with co-host Josh Shernoff. In January 2022, Shernoff left the program and was replaced by Adam Barnard.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: The dual monarchy of England and France existed during the latter phase of the Hundred Years' War when Charles VII of France and Henry VI of England disputed the succession to the throne of France. It commenced on 21 October 1422 upon the death of King Charles VI of France, who had signed the Treaty of Troyes which gave the French crown to his son-in-law Henry V of England and Henry's heirs. It excluded King Charles's son, the Dauphin Charles, who by right of primogeniture was the heir to the Kingdom of France. Although the Treaty was ratified by the Estates-General of France, the act was a contravention of the French law of succession which decreed that the French crown could not be alienated. Henry VI, son of Henry V, became king of both England and France and was recognized only by the English and Burgundians until 1435 as King Henry II of France. He was crowned King of France on 16 December 1431.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: In practical terms, King Henry's claim to de jure sovereignty and legitimacy as king of France was only recognised in the English and allied-controlled territories of France which were under the domination of his French regency council, while the Dauphin ruled as King of France in part of the realm south of the river Loire.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: The Dauphin was crowned as King Charles VII of France at Reims on 17 July 1429, largely through the martial efforts of Joan of Arc, who believed it was her mission to free France from the English and to have the Dauphin Charles crowned at Reims. In 1435, the Duke of Burgundy, released from his obligations to Henry VI by a papal legate, recognised Charles VII as the rightful king of France. The defection of this powerful French noble marked the decline of Henry's de facto reign over France. The dual monarchy came to an end with the capture of Bordeaux by Charles VII's forces on 19 October 1453 following their final victory at the Battle of Castillon (17 July 1453), thus bringing the Hundred Years' War to a conclusion. The English were expelled from all of the territories which they had controlled in France, with the sole exception of Calais. Charles VII had thus established himself as the undisputed king of almost all of France.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: The English and French had been constantly at war over hereditary sovereignty in France; the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) escalated, and the conflict between the two nations reached its peak in an intermittent series of belligerent phases, with each phase usually ending with a temporary truce lasting for a few years. In the first phase Edward III won some extraordinary victories against the French, most notably at Crécy and Sluys. His son Edward, the Black Prince also captured the French king John II at the battle of Poitiers in 1356, and routed the French army. The year 1360 marked the end of the first phase and an opportunity for peace.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: In the Treaty of Brétigny the French king was ransomed for an amount equal to twice the French kingdom's Gross. In addition, the French granted Edward III an extended Aquitaine, thus restoring one of the main duchies of the previous Angevin Empire. Edward III was, however, forced to give up his title as the rightful king to the throne of France, this claim being based on his mother, Isabella. Charles V ascended to the throne, and in 1369 hostilities were reopened by the French declaring war, thus breaking the treaty. This time they led to embarrassing strategic defeats for the English side. Charles' strategy was to attack the castles, where English victories were less certain, and to avoid pitched battles with the English; with this important strategic move, the extended English holdings in Aquitaine were quickly recaptured. The English, now on the defensive, lost more territory, retaining only parts of Gascony and a few coastal cities. By now, Edward was aging and no longer fit to lead in battle. His son, the Prince of Wales, predeceased him by a year, and so when Edward III died in 1377 it was his grandson Richard II who became king.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: There was another truce in 1396 when Richard II married Isabella of Valois, a daughter of King Charles VI of France, thus marking the end of the second phase. Peace did not last long however, as, in 1399, Henry IV usurped Richard's throne while Richard was away in Ireland, thus provoking French hostility in 1403 which marked the beginning of the third phase of the war.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: In the beginning, Henry claimed he was retrieving his confiscated region of Lancaster, and wrote to Richard that he had "no wish or right to depose your highness as king". Henry, nevertheless, remained firmly on the throne, and Richard II was deposed. Internal strife reached its climax during his reign, with the rebellions of Owain Glyndŵr (in Wales) and of the Percy family (Henry's old primary supporters) in the North. Henry, however, was least involved politically. Civil War was raging in France, especially between the parties of Armagnac and the Burgundians. Charles VI's brother Louis, Duke of Orléans, was assassinated on the order of the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless. This was largely due to a scandalous affair with the Duchess of Burgundy, which started as a rumor but would later involve Charles VII. Henry IV was considered a key ally during the civil war. The Armagnacs even offered to give back the Duchy of Aquitaine in support of military services, although Aquitaine was forgotten when the Armagnacs won. Henry sent an expeditionary force in 1412 to aid them.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: The civil war continued with persecution on both sides, the sack of Soissons by the Armagnacs and the control of Paris by the Burgundians. John the Fearless claimed to be the regent of the young dauphin Charles and the insane king Charles VI. Henry IV, the usurper, died in 1413. His son, Henry, was still in his mid twenties when he became king.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: The main feature of Henry IV's reign in England was internal strife and rebellion, and as a result, Henry V took part in battles from an early age. His first test in battle was in the Welsh wars: Henry fought at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. He took a Welsh arrow in the lower part of his face; it passed through his jaw and out the other side. Henry's knights were charging the Welsh positions, so in spite of his wound, Henry refused to leave the field and the English won the day.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Henry would employ the English and Welsh archers on a massive scale in his campaign at Agincourt. Upon the death of Henry IV, Thomas, Duke of Clarence (Henry V's younger brother) was supported as the heir rather than Henry. The dauphin was made Duke of Guyenne, which was English Gascony, as the Armagnacs wanted Gascony back under their own sovereignty. Clarence was to lead the English in Gascony, not Henry; this would give him a chance to take the throne of England. While Clarence was away in Gascony, Henry V took the throne. Henry had also successfully fended off the dauphin's designs on the Guyenne region. As Henry started his reign in 1413, and the civil war in France was still on, Henry demanded that the King of France give him back an extended Aquitaine, Normandy, the ports of Provence, the old county of Toulouse (which was vassal to the Angevin empire), and the provinces of Maine and Anjou. The French refused to accept his demands, and they ignored his claims. In 1415, at the age of twenty-eight, Henry began his invasion of France which would culminate in the Battle of Agincourt.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: On 11 August 1415, Henry sailed for France, where his forces besieged the fortress at Harfleur, capturing it on 22 September. Afterwards, Henry had to march with his army across the French countryside towards Calais. On 25 October 1415, on the plains near the village of Agincourt, he turned to engage a pursuing French army in battle. Despite his men-at-arms being exhausted and outnumbered, Henry led his men into battle, decisively defeating the French who died in the thousands. Most of those taken prisoners were slaughtered by order of Henry, who spared only the most illustrious. This victorious conclusion, from the English viewpoint, was only the first step in the campaign.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: This Latin epigram was one of many produced after the battle and came from a long tradition of such work in Chronicles.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: So, with those two potential enemies gone, and after two years of patient preparation following the battle of Agincourt, Henry renewed the war on a larger scale in 1417. Lower Normandy was quickly conquered, and Rouen cut off from Paris and besieged. The French were paralysed by the disputes between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs. Henry skilfully played them off one against the other, without relaxing his warlike approach. In January 1419, Rouen fell. The Norman French who had resisted were severely punished: Alain Blanchard, who had hung English prisoners from the walls, was summarily executed; Robert de Livet, Canon of Rouen, who had excommunicated the English king, was sent to England and imprisoned for five years.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: By August, the English were outside the walls of Paris. The intrigues of the French parties culminated in the assassination of John the Fearless by the Dauphin's partisans at Montereau (10 September 1419). Philip the Good, the new duke, and the French court threw themselves into Henry's arms. After six months of negotiation, the Treaty of Troyes recognised Henry as the heir and regent of France (see English Kings of France), and, on 2 June 1420, Henry married Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI of France. From June to July, Henry's army besieged and took the castle at Montereau, then Melun in November, returning to England shortly thereafter. Henry VI was born the following year.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: On 10 June 1421, Henry sailed back to France for what would be his last military campaign. From July to August, his forces besieged and captured Dreux, thus relieving allied forces at Chartres. That October, his forces lay siege to Meaux, capturing it on 2 May 1422. Henry V died suddenly on 31 August 1422 at the Château de Vincennes near Paris, apparently from dysentery, which he had contracted during the siege of Meaux. He was thirty-five years old. Before his death, Henry V had named his brother John, Duke of Bedford regent of France in the name of his son Henry VI, then only a few months old. Henry V did not live to be crowned King of France himself, as he might confidently have expected after the Treaty of Troyes, as the sickly Charles VI, whose heir he had been named, survived him by two months. His son Henry, who was born the year before, succeeded his father as king Henry VI of England and, six months later, his maternal grandfather as king of France.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: After Henry V's death, the issue of the regency to the infant king Henry VI was resolved by meetings between Bedford, Burgundy and the French Estates-General. The Settlement of Troyes was reaffirmed in accordance with it; Bedford was made keeper of Normandy and Burgundy and may have been named regent for the king of France. Bedford was a little uncertain whether Burgundy would relinquish his status as keeper of Normandy, so he wrote to London five days later to advertise his position as Regent of England, then of France. Bedford had no reason to contradict Henry V, but if he could not be regent for his French king, he would be as his English Regent. At the time, Bedford was still referring to himself as "gubernator Normandiae", governor of Normandy, on 1 November six days after the letter was dispatched to London. Bedford started to emerge as French regent for his nephew King Henry VI of England and France. At the same time the Treaty of Troyes was reaffirmed, and on 19 November Bedford presided as French regent in the "Parlement de Paris" and dedicated himself to be working for the good of France.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Henry VI was also now King of France united with Normandy, and Gascony, by the Treaty of Troyes, passed directly to the French king Charles VI; when Henry VI of England succeeded to the French crown in 1422 it was included as part of the jurisdiction. The Duke of Bedford was content and he made no appeal to return to England, returning only in 1425 to England in an urgent meeting with Bishop Henry Beaufort. Philip of Burgundy could hardly resist English wishes, for he needed their support after the murder of his father, John the Fearless by the henchmen of the dauphin (now "de facto" Charles VII of France). Henry V's arrangements had one fatal flaw: not until the last few days of his life had he thought he would predecease Charles VI. Moreover, the treaty had restricted Henry's freedom on his deathbed. The arrangements he had made were to cover the short term (up to Charles VI's death) and the long term (when Henry VI would become king of both France and England). This is a major reason for Burgundy's alliance with England and the steadfastness of English commanders to the battlefield.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Charles VI's death had in no way affected the Anglo-Burgundian alliance or the legal dual monarchy of England and France. Monstrelet the Burgundian is the only contemporary to record that Burgundy backed down to the regency to the French king in order to have Bedford as Regent. He claimed to record Henry V's last words on his deathbed, and also the content of the recorded speech. It made an insult to Gloucester by further saying Henry had maintained the regency of England to Exeter. The chronicle, however, was written after Gloucester's invasion of the Low Countries in 1425 which provoked Burgundy's hostility and after Gloucester repelled Duke Philip's attack on Calais in 1436. This was a distortion of fact. Monstrelet was trying to heighten Burgundian self-esteem and to explain why Burgundy dropped the regency in 1422. The St. Albans' chronicler recorded that Burgundy was never entrusted with the regency of France. However, his work ends six weeks before Charles VI's death and mentions nothing beyond that. Henry V may have not inquired about any specific regent for France, but Bedford was unopposed.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Henry V's wish that Gloucester be appointed regent for England was controversial, and not clear in any sense that there was any named candidate to adopt the regency to England. On 7 November 1422, which was the day of Henry V's solemn burial at Westminster, dukes of Gloucester and Exeter and Bishop Beaufort studied the attached last wills of Henry. There was some agreement on the authority of the dead king's wishes, but until all of Henry's directions were carried out, there was still going to be objections to Humphrey. John, Duke of Bedford, unsure of his future in France, issued an objection to Humphrey's regency on 26 November. Some lords supported the idea of Gloucester as regent because of his youth, and his emerging reputation; however, most of the lords still disliked the idea and expressed great misgivings about the powers which were later to be bestowed upon him by the codicil of 1422.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Gloucester realised the idea of using history or precedent; in 1216, the first English minority since the Norman conquest was upheld and later, William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke who was rector to king Henry III while the latter was in his minority. He wanted to have the same authority but as wardship to the young king. The lords countered that this precedent was too far back in time, and furthermore Richard II was in his minority as King but John of Gaunt (Humphrey's grandfather) was given no specific position in the council. They ruled with general consensus between the gentry rather than a single rector to the king. Bedford was rector of France because a single regent was favoured in France rather than a ruling council and the dual monarchy existed through a personal union and each kingdom is allowed with their own traditions and customs. The lords did not want to attack Humphrey personally in his pretensions to regent but rather the will itself. They denied that Henry V had any right to determine the governance of England or of disposing of any royal land. The will itself was too inclined to Roman law and rather heavily foreign to the English. It was said Gloucester's keepership was made forfeit by Henry's death.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Gloucester was given a blow and was only to act in affairs by council permission as well as by opening and closing parliament. However, it was not the only drawback and since Bedford was heir to the throne of France as well as to that of England, if he returned from France he would take Gloucester's position as head regent with the permission of council temporarily until he withdrew back to his regency in France. Gloucester's position was severely limited in England but both realms were to benefit for the time being.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Staying in the offensive and maintaining French possessions meant that the English navy was now a second defence. In 1420, the Treaty of Troyes achieved political stability as did the Anglo-Burgundian alliance. In 1423, the alliance further included John VI, Duke of Brittany. The English, under Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury, were moving towards the Loire by 1428.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: In the 1420s, Gascony had received no harm from any of the Valois attempts to capture the area, as it was isolated by both sea and land from the northern French territories. Gascony was largely protected by French nobles sympathetic to the English cause and there were negotiations with the Languedoc gentry, such as the Count of Foix. Calais was protected by its garrison and local merchant community which exported wool to Northern Europe and England and making good commercial relations with the Low Countries. Normandy and the Île-de-France region was protected by the French Regent and Rheims by the Duke of Burgundy. The only sensitive part was in the Channel where Anglo-Breton relations and attitudes affected the safekeeping of south-western English waters and the passing of ships to Gascony.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: The Duke of Brittany's allegiance to the dual monarchy under the protectorate of Bedford was preserved through his abiding aim to preserve the independence of his duchy. Arthur de Richemont, a Breton nobleman, at first supported Henry V in the signing of the Treaty of Troyes, and he was created Count of Touraine by the English, but soon gave allegiance to Charles VII when Yolande of Aragon made him Constable of France. As the English were moving into Valois territory , relations with Brittany started to deteriorate in 1424 and when "open war" was declared the Estates-General took precautions against Breton raiders on the coast. Relations with Burgundy were much more important for English commerce.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Like Jean V, Philip also had other political wishes. One of his greatest concerns was Burgundian influence in the Low Countries. After Jacqueline of Hainault's flight to England in 1421 from her husband John of Brabant, she married Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester in 1423. This quickly caused English intervention in 1424 when Jacqueline's uncle and enemy made the Duke of Burgundy his heir. The outcome was Gloucester's disastrous campaign to Hainault. Bedford came to shore up the alliance on which his power depended.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Channel naval protection was not a concern, even after Burgundy switched its support at Arras. In the late 1420s, coastal areas like Devon and the Isle of Wight suffered some military engagements against Breton raiders. Bedford himself relied heavily on English financial aid to support his armies on the Norman frontiers. Local revenue from Normandy, Gascony and Calais was used for expected naval defence fortifications and garrisons in France.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: A dual monarchy gave Englishmen and northern Frenchmen alike the impetus to ensure complete suzerainty of France and to punish the treachery of Charles VII. In the 1420s, the English sent a small expeditionary force to France. As such, many English gentry were given French estates. The scheme was supported in 1417 during the conquest of upper Normandy during the reign of Henry V and was revived by Bedford. Most of Normandy, with the exception of Mont Saint-Michel, was stabilized. The Crotoy in the mouth of the Somme was also in Valois' hands, but was taken over by an English force, with Bedford's aid. Another expedition under the Duke of Exeter consisting of 1600 men (mostly archers) was sent to protect the Lancastrian-dominated part of France. Not only was most of Normandy cleared from the Armagnac French but there was also some attempts south of the Loire to endanger Charles VII's capital at Bourges.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: The English strategy became more widespread while they swept across the Seine valley and Paris. The western border on Brittany was also strengthened. In 1424, Bedford made a bid in Paris at the Estates-General for an expeditionary force aimed to conquer Maine-Anjou and the Picardy region. It led to the Battle of Verneuil on the Maine–Normandy border. Bedford began to emerge as an English conqueror with a better reputation after his victory. It dealt also a stinging defeat against the Scots since they supported Charles VII and fought many causes in his name. Bedford's extensive conquests in Maine and towards the Loire meant that King Henry's French realm's capital was no longer in the front lines as long as the English remained in the offensive. Bedford assured the Norman population and made proclamations that the Normans would not suffer any colonial regime or financial hardship by taxation.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: After Henry V's death in 1422, the duke of Bedford had intended on bringing the powerful duke of Brittany and Burgundy closer to the Lancastrian cause and confirm it in a treaty. In 1423, at the Treaty of Amiens, the three dukes, John VI of Brittany, John of Bedford and Philip the Good agreed on a triple alliance, lapsing on any of their deaths, which also recognized Henry VI as King of France and that they would work together to subjugate Charles the dauphin in the South. Overshadowing the Treaty of Troyes further, it arranged the marriage of Anna of Burgundy (Philip's sister) to John Duke of Bedford Regent of France. The two were married at Troyes cathedral, where Henry V was married to Catherine of Valois. The marriage, although primarily a political movement, evolved into a love match despite Anna being 15 years Bedford's senior.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: The alliance of Amiens was almost completely undermined when Brittany and Burgundy held a conference the same year in which both parties agreed to be friends if either side ever reconciled with the dauphin. Although both Brittany and Burgundy acknowledged Henry VI of England as their sovereign, the friendly relations still remained between Brittany and Burgundy despite Burgundy breaking their agreements with the English at the Treaty of Arras.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: By 1424, French estates were sold widely from noble to commoner, and by both English and French. In 1417, English settlers had arrived to purchase estates in coastal cities like Cherbourg, Caen and Harfleur. However, for matters of security of English-controlled France, the English soldiers were valued highest for the disposal of French estates. As much as the conquests seemed realistic in a complete France, enthusiasm started to wane. After Gloucester's invasion of Holland in 1424 to enforce the rights of his wife, Jacqueline of Hainault, Anglo-Burgundian relations began to become strained. In addition, Brittany under Duke Jean V lost interest, and his negotiations with Charles VII were used to weaken the western military frontier on Brittany. In 1428, the Scots continued to support Charles, and when Anglo-Scottish relations deteriorated completely, French envoys were sent to Scotland for an alliance and a proposal that King James I of Scotland's daughter would marry Charles' son Louis.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: The military of Normandy now depended on three men, Bedford, Warwick and Suffolk. Warwick landed in France in 1426 to protect Cherbourg, threatened by Breton raids. In 1427, Brittany was forced again to be a Vassal after 1 year of fighting against the English. After Verneuil, there was less need for a civil administration. The defence and garrisons slowly passed to the keeping of the civilians after Bedford and his host left for England in 1427 left. The same year, there was another draw for an invasion further in towards the Anjou region. Local French forces subject to their King Henri II of France however were neglected of military duty and the English soldier again was favoured by the Estates-General to carry out the offensive. This decision was made during the absence of Bedford, who had already left for England.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Orléans was the last jewel for the Armagnacs. The Earl of Salisbury began the siege in 1428 with 2400 men in addition to Burgundian allies who joined the siege. Salisbury's death at the start of the siege destroyed the Anglo-Burgundian morale. The French revived with Jeanne d'Arc's arrival, and it was the turning point of the war. She lifted the siege and Charles VII was consecrated in Rheims, the traditional crowning place for French kings. It was reported with great gravity in Westminster and the coronation of Henry VI as king of France in Paris could be the sole propaganda weapon against Charles. The crusade assembled by Beaufort against the Bohemians was quickly diverted to France. Beaufort could not afford to anger Pope Martin V by denying the crusade, however the defeat at Patay could not have been ignored. The events at the Loire brought the English-French military scheme to its test.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Henry VI experienced two coronations: the first at Westminster Abbey in England, on 6 November 1429, and the second at Notre-Dame in Paris, on 16 December 1431. The coronation in England was in response to the collapse of the Siege of Orléans and was a move recommended by Henry's English and French advisers. His English coronation had already been postponed for seven years, and John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, was the one to suggest the idea of his French coronation in Paris, as there was no reason to further postpone his coronation until he came of age. Deeply shocked by the Valois success in having Charles VII crowned King of France in Reims, the traditional altar for the consecration of French kings, Bedford believed that Henry VI's coronation in Paris would cancel the victory of Joan of Arc, and he quickly arranged it. Charles' coronation in Reims, on 16 July 1429, was an act of symbolic significance compared to the English position in the 1420s. However, by the end of 1427, the French and the English were quarrelling over strategic military plans to gain the upper hand in conquering France. The States-General in Paris announced that the provinces adjacent to the east and south of Normandy were assigned to Philip the Good and so allowed Bedford to concentrate in Normandy. Some Englishmen who feared an English government in France were opposed to the idea of Henry's being crowned in France before his coronation in England.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: During Henry's coronation as king of England in 1429, poems by John Lydgate were read to stress further Henry's dual inheritance of England and France. A direct link was made between Henry and his grandfather, Charles VI. The painted pedigree paralleled Henry's descent through his mother, Catherine of Valois, from Saint Louis, and his descent on his father's side from another saint, Edward the Confessor. This was not mentioned in John Lydgate's poem, no doubt because it was largely a translation from a French work. But in another poem written for the king's coronation on 6 November 1429 Henry's descent from both these saints was mentioned.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: There was also a mention of the king's descent from Clovis, to whom God had sent an angel, to secure for Henry of France and England the fleur-de-lys and to signify perfect religious belief and the steadfast unity of the three persons of the Trinity. The actual anointing and coronation were performed by Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, a natural son of John of Gaunt.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: On 23 April 1430, Henry embarked from Dover for France in company with Cardinal Beaufort, the Duke of Bedford and the bishops of Thérouanne, Norwich, Beauvais and Évreux. On 16 December 1431, on the way to his French coronation in Paris, Henry travelled to the Basilica of St Denis, a hallowed burial place for French kings on the outskirts of Paris. Two days earlier, the coronation was carefully set to be held at the cathedral of Notre-Dame, on the first Sunday in Advent, which was the traditional day for a king of France to proceed to the cathedral, this being a symbolic parallel with the progress of the King of Heaven. Henry was preceded by twenty-five trumpeters and a guard of between two and three thousand men. The royal party's route took the usual ceremonial entry into Paris from the north.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: With trumpets sounding and "fleurs-de-lys" flying, the procession proceeded over the Seine bridge to the Île de la Cité, where the young French King kissed the Holy Relics at the "Sainte Chapelle". The route traversed to the western part of Île de la Cité carefully missing the Cathedral and then moved east to the "Hôtel des Tournelles" where Anne of Burgundy and the Duke of Bedford awaited their royal nephew. The following day, the King waited to the east of the city for his coronation. Preparation was done for the hallowing at "Notre-Dame", and the gold draperies were taken down until the coronation day. The newly anointed and crowned sovereign would be seated on a great raised dais. Stairs were covered by azure cloth sewn with "fleurs-de-lys" from the top of the structure down. The English Chapel Royal choir joined the choir of the cathedral of Paris, who sang their traditional polyphonic music during the coronation. Cardinal Beaufort did the actual crowning, which was traditionally an office to be performed by the bishop of Paris, who was further shocked that Beaufort also celebrated part of the Holy Mass service at the chapel, another office which properly belonged to him. The coronation had very important orchestration, seeking to present again the dual-lineage of Henry, and a French play called "tableau of Châtelet": a boy clothed in gold "fleurs-de-lys", representing the king of England and France, was balancing the two crowns on his head with actors representing the duke of Burgundy and his son, the count of Nevers, offering him the shields of France, and other actors playing Anne of Burgundy and the Duke of Bedford as offering him the Lion Rampant of England. As a blight on the occasion, Philip, Duke of Burgundy, never in fact met his acknowledged sovereign at any time during his expedition to France from 1430 to 1432, since Philip was in Lille in connection with his newly established Order of the Golden Fleece.


title: Dual monarchy of England and France

text: Apart from its splendour and glory, the coronation ultimately achieved little. England's suspicions of Burgundy had become marked concerning the actual military position, as it was discovered three days before the coronation that Philip had made a six-day general truce with Charles VII. The coronation was principally an English affair, dominated by Beaufort, some English bishops, and some Anglophile French bishops. The coronation had not offered resistance to the Valois-French pressing at the borders, with the English losing mile after mile of territory. Henry, with little to show for his two-year stay in his French kingdom, returned to England by way of Calais and never stepped on his French kingdom again. In 1432, Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, stated that Henry's stay had not achieved its desired effect but had instead shown that English power in Normandy was weakening. Bedford himself was then mourning the death of his wife, Anne of Burgundy, and collapsed from exhaustion after news of more territory being lost to Charles VII. Five months later, Bedford married Jacquetta of Luxembourg, who came from a family distrusted by Philip the Good's Anglo-Burgundian forces, and thus Bedford and Philip lost the link they had with each other through Anne of Burgundy, who had been the primary mediator between the two. The last three years saw England struggle to maintain its military commitment to the war, and Philip was finding the war too costly on his part.


title: History of ballet

text: Ballet is a formalized form of dance with its origins in the Italian Renaissance courts of 15th and 16th centuries. Ballet spread from Italy to France with the help of Catherine de' Medici, where ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. An early example of Catherine's development of ballet is through 'Le Paradis d' Amour', a piece of work presented at the wedding of her daughter Marguerite de Valois to Henry of Navarre. Aristocratic money was responsible for the initial stages of development in 'court ballet', as it was royal money that dictated the ideas, literature and music used in ballets that were created to primarily entertain the aristocrats of the time. The first formal 'court ballet' ever recognized was staged in 1573, 'Ballet des Polonais'. In true form of royal entertainment, 'Ballet des Polonais' was commissioned by Catherine de' Medici to honor the Polish ambassadors who were visiting Paris upon the accession of Henry of Anjou to the throne of Poland. In 1581, Catherine de' Medici commissioned another court ballet, "Ballet Comique de la Reine", however it was her compatriot, Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, who organized the ballet. Catherine de' Medici and Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx were responsible for presenting the first court ballet ever to apply the principles of Baif's Academie, by integrating poetry, dance, music and set design to convey a unified dramatic storyline. Moreover, the early organization and development of 'court ballet' was funded by, influenced by and produced by the aristocrats of the time, fulfilling both their personal entertainment and political propaganda needs.


title: History of ballet

text: In the late 17th century Louis XIV founded the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera) within which emerged the first professional theatrical ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet. The predominance of French in the vocabulary of ballet reflects this history. Theatrical ballet soon became an independent form of art, although still frequently maintaining a close association with opera, and spread from the heart of Europe to other nations. The Royal Danish Ballet and the Imperial Ballet of the Russian Empire were founded in the 1740s and began to flourish, especially after about 1850. In 1907 the Russian ballet in turn moved back to France, where the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev and its successors were particularly influential. Soon ballet spread around the world with the formation of new companies, including London's The Royal Ballet (1931), the San Francisco Ballet (1933), American Ballet Theatre (1937), the Royal Winnipeg Ballet (1939), The Australian Ballet (1940 as the predecessor Borovansky Ballet), the New York City Ballet (1948), the National Ballet of Canada (1951), and the National Ballet Academy and Trust of India (2002).


title: History of ballet

text: In the 20th century styles of ballet continued to develop and strongly influence broader concert dance, for example, in the United States choreographer George Balanchine developed what is now known as neoclassical ballet, subsequent developments have included contemporary ballet and post-structural ballet, for example seen in the work of William Forsythe in Germany.


title: History of ballet

text: The etymology of the word "ballet" reflects its history. The word "ballet" comes from French and was borrowed into English around the 17th century. The French word in turn has its origins in Italian "balletto", a diminutive of "ballo" (dance). "Ballet" ultimately traces back to Italian "ballare", meaning ""to dance"".


title: History of ballet

text: Ballet originated in the Renaissance court as an outgrowth of court pageantry in Italy, where aristocratic weddings were lavish celebrations. Tutus, ballet slippers and pointe work were not yet used. The choreography was adapted from court dance steps. Performers dressed in fashions of the times. For women that meant formal gowns that covered their legs to the ankle. Early ballet was participatory, with the audience joining the dance towards the end.


title: History of ballet

text: Domenico da Piacenza (c. 1400–c. 1470) was one of the first dancing masters. Along with his students, Antonio Cornazzano and Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro, he was trained in dance and responsible for teaching nobles the art. Da Piacenza left one work: " De arte saltandi et choreus ducendi" (On the art of dancing and conducting dances), which was put together by his students.


title: History of ballet

text: In 1489, Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, married Isabella of Aragon in Tortona. An elaborate dance entertainment was arranged for the celebrations by the Italian dance master Bergonzio di Botta. The dances were linked by a slim narrative concerning Jason and the Argonauts, and each corresponded to a different course for the dinner. Tristano Calco of Milan wrote about the event, and it was considered so impressive, that many similar spectacles were organized elsewhere.


title: History of ballet

text: Ballet was further shaped by the French "ballet de cour", which consisted of social dances performed by the nobility in tandem with music, speech, verse, song, pageant, decor and costume. When Catherine de' Medici, an Italian aristocrat with an interest in the arts, married the French crown heir Henry II, she brought her enthusiasm for dance to France and provided financial support. Catherine's glittering entertainments supported the aims of court politics and usually were organized around mythological themes. The first "ballet de cour" was the "Ballet de Polonais." This Ballet was performed in 1573 on the occasion of the visit of the Polish Ambassador. It was choreographed by Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx and featured an hour-long dance for sixteen women, each representing a French province. "Ballet Comique de la Reine" (1581), which was also choreographed and directed by Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, was commissioned by Louise of Lorraine, queen consort of King Henry III, son of Catherine, to celebrate the marriage of Henry's favorite the Duke de Joyeuse to Marguerite de Lorraine, the sister of Queen Louise. The ballet lasted for more than five hours and was danced by twenty-four dancers: twelve naiades and twelve pages.


title: History of ballet

text: In the same year, the publication of Fabritio Caroso's "Il Ballarino", a technical manual on court dancing, both performance and social, helped to establish Italy as a centre of technical ballet development.


title: History of ballet

text: Ballet developed as a performance-focused art form in France during the reign of Louis XIV, who was passionate about dance. His interest in ballet dancing was politically motivated. He established strict social etiquettes through dancing and turned it into one of the most crucial elements in court social life, effectively holding authority over the nobles and reigning over the state. Louis's initiates led to the refinement and perfection of social dancing among aristocrats as a way to display royalty, further consolidating the art of classical ballet with newly established rules and protocols.


title: History of ballet

text: In 1661 Louis XIV, determined to further his ambition in controlling the nobles and reverse a decline in dance standards that began in the 17th century, established the Académie Royale de Danse. Before that, aristocrats considered dancing, together with riding and military training as three major disciplines in showcasing their nobility. Nonetheless, Louis' founding of the Academy diverted their attention from military arts to court social functions, from war to ballet, further tightening rules around them.


title: History of ballet

text: To expand the influence of French culture throughout Europe, Louis ordered Pierre Beauchamp, the king's personal dance teacher and favorite partner in "ballet de cour" in the 1650s, to create “a way of making dance understood on paper”. Beauchamp was also appointed "Intendant des ballets du roi" and in 1680 became the director of the dance academy, a position he held until 1687. This order led to an intense research in this area by many ballet masters, however, only Beauchamp's dance notation system got recognized. In his system, he codified the five basic positions of the feet in ballet. Raoul Auger Feuillet, a Parisian ballet master, later adopted his system and had his work published in 1700. His notation system became significantly popular in Europe.


title: History of ballet

text: Feuillet concentrated his efforts on the most influencing dance at court, called "La belle danse", or also known as "The French noble style". This kind of dance was popular at balls or courts with more demanding skills. "Entrée grave", as one of "la belle danse"'s highest form, was typically performed by one man or two men with graceful and dignified movements, followed by slow and elegant music. At this time, it's only men that performed "la belle danse" and "entrée grave". Women did perform at queen's ballets and other social occasions, but not at "entrée grave", king's ballets, at courts or on Paris' stages, not until 1680s. During this particular time, men were considered to be the champion and master of art, displaying their masculine, dignified and noble dance, a king's dance. This also set the model for classical ballet.


title: History of ballet

text: Court ballets had a long history of combining dance and etiquette since the Renaissance, but when it came to "la belle danse", etiquettes in ballet were brought to a completely new height. Every single etiquette rule in Louis' courts was put in great detail in "la belle danse" and one could certainly see others' noble status through their dances. Five positions of the bodies codified by Beauchamp, followed by Feuillet, described the body like a miniature court, with the head as the central point, coordinating its limbs like the king ruling his state. A dancer performing a genuine noble would perform different five positions than one performing a peasant or lower-ranking characters. Proof of nobility was also indicated through use of masks, makeup, costumes especially shoes in "la belle danse".


title: History of ballet

text: Jean-Baptiste Lully, an Italian violinist, dancer, choreographer, and composer, who joined the court of Louis XIV in 1652, played a significant role in establishing the general direction ballet would follow for the next century. Supported and admired by King Louis XIV, Lully often cast the king in his ballets. The title of "Sun King" for the French monarch, originated in Louis XIV's role in Lully's "Ballet de la Nuit" (1653). The fourteen-year-old Louis XIV danced five roles in this 12-hour ballet. This Ballet was lavish and featured a scene where a set piece of a house was burned down, included witches, werewolves, gypsies, shepherds, thieves, and the goddesses Venus and Diana. The ballet's main theme was not darkness and night terrors though, but its focus was on Louis who appeared at the end as the Sun (the Sun God, Apollo), putting an end to the night. Lully's main contribution to ballet were his nuanced compositions. His understanding of movement and dance allowed him to compose specifically for ballet, with musical phrasings that complemented physical movements. Lully also collaborated with the French playwright Molière. Together, they took an Italian theatre style, the "commedia dell'arte", and adapted it into their work for a French audience, creating the "comédie-ballet". Among their greatest productions, with Beauchamp as the choreographer, was "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" (1670).


title: History of ballet

text: In 1669 Louis XIV founded the Académie d'Opéra with Pierre Perrin as director. Louis XIV retired as a dancer in 1670, largely because of excessive weight gain. Earlier, in 1661 he had founded a school, the "Adacemie Royale de danse". Beauchamp was the first ballet-master of the Opéra and created the dances for the new company's first production "Pomone" with music by Robert Cambert. Later, after Perrin went bankrupt, the king reestablished the Opéra as the Académie royale de Musique and made Lully the director. Beauchamp was one of the principal choreographers. In this position Lully, with his librettist Philippe Quinault, created a new genre, the "tragédie en musique", each act of which featured a "divertissement" that was a miniature ballet scene. With almost all his important creations Jean-Baptiste Lully brought together music and drama with Italian and French dance elements. His work created a legacy which would define the future of ballet.


title: History of ballet

text: France's court was in some ways the leading source of fashionable culture for many other royal courts in Europe. Styles of entertainment were imitated, including the royal ballets. Courts in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany, and elsewhere all became audiences and participants in ballets. In addition to France, Italy became an important influence on the art form, predominantly Venice.


title: History of ballet

text: Professional ballet troupes began to organize and tour Europe, performing for aristocratic audiences. In Poland, King Władysław IV Vasa (1633–1648) hosted Italian opera productions, which included ballet performers in some scenes. The famous European ballet-masters who worked for the Polish court include Jean Favier, Antoine Pitrot, Antonio Sacco and Francesco Caselli.


title: History of ballet

text: The 18th century was a period of advancement in the technical standards of ballet and the period when ballet became a serious dramatic art form on par with the opera. Central to this advance was the seminal work of Jean-Georges Noverre, "Lettres sur la danse et les ballets" (1760), which focused on developing the ballet d'action, in which the movements of the dancers are designed to express character and assist in the narrative. Noverre believed that: ballet should be technical but also move the audience emotionally, plots need to be unified, the scenery and music need to support the plot and be unified within the story, and that pantomime needs to be simple and understandable.


title: History of ballet

text: Reforms were made in ballet composition by composers such as Christoph Willibald Gluck. Finally, ballet was divided into three formal techniques "sérieux", "demi-caractère" and "comique". Ballet also began to be featured in operas as interludes called divertissements.


title: History of ballet

text: Venice continued to be a centre of dance in Europe, particularly during the Venice Carnival, when dancers and visitors from across the continent would travel to the city for a lively cultural exchange. The city's Teatro San Benedetto became a famous landmark largely due to the ballets performed there. Italian ballet techniques remained the dominant influence in much of southern and eastern Europe until Russian techniques supplanted them in the early 20th century.


title: History of ballet

text: Ballet performances spread to Eastern Europe during the 18th century, into areas such as Hungary, where they were held in private theatres at aristocratic castles. Professional companies were established that performed throughout Hungary and also toured abroad. The Budapest National Theatre increasingly serving a role as a home for the dancers.


title: History of ballet

text: Some of the leading dancers of the time who performed throughout Europe were Louis Dupré, Charles Le Picque with Anna Binetti, Gaetano Vestris, and Jean-Georges Noverre.


title: History of ballet

text: The ballerina became the most popular dance performer in Europe in the first half of the 19th century, gradually turning the spotlight away from the male dancer. In many performances, ballet heroes were played by a woman, like the Principal Boy in pantomime.


title: History of ballet

text: The professionalism of ballet companies became a focus for a new generation of ballet masters and dancers. Vienna was an important source of influential ballet coaches. The first ballet master of Hungary's National Theatre and Royal Opera was the Vienna-born Frigyes Campilli, who worked in Budapest for 40 years.


title: History of ballet

text: The 19th century was a period of great social change, which was reflected in ballet by a shift away from the aristocratic sensibilities that had dominated earlier periods through romantic ballet. Ballerinas such as Geneviève Gosselin, Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler experimented with new techniques such as pointework that gave the ballerina prominence as the ideal stage figure. Taglioni was known as the "Christian Dancer," as her image was light and pure (associated with her role as the sylph in La Sylphide). She was trained primarily by her father, Filipo Taglioni. In 1834, Fanny Elssler arrived at the Paris Opera and became known as the "Pagan Dancer," because of the fiery qualities of the "Cachucha" dance that made her famous. Professional librettists began crafting the stories in ballets. Teachers like Carlo Blasis codified ballet technique in the basic form that is still used today. The ballet boxed toe shoe was invented to support pointe work.


title: History of ballet

text: The Romantic movement in art, literature, and theatre was a reaction against formal constraints and the mechanics of industrialization.[22] The zeitgeist led choreographers to compose romantic ballets that appeared light, airy and free that would act as a contrast to the spread of reductionist science through many aspects of daily life that had, in the words of Edgar Allan Poe, "driven the hamadryad from the woods". These "unreal" ballets portrayed women as fragile unearthly beings, ethereal creatures who could be lifted effortlessly and almost seemed to float in the air. Ballerinas began to wear costumes with pastel, flowing skirts that bared the shins. The stories revolved around uncanny, folkloric spirits. An example of one such romantic ballet is "La Sylphide", one of the oldest romantic ballets still performed today.


title: History of ballet

text: One strain of the Romantic movement was a new exploration of folklore and traditional ethnic culture. This influence was seen in the emergence of European folk dance and western portrayals of African, Asian, and Middle East peoples on European stages. In ballets from this period, non-European characters were often created as villains or as silly divertisements to fit the orientalist western understanding of the world. The National Opera of Ukraine, a performing arts theatre with a resident opera company, was established in Kyiv in 1867. It also included a small resident troupe of ballet dancers, who would perform mainly folk-style dancing during opera productions. By 1893, this grew to a troupe large enough to stage large ballets. Folk dancing and ballets with Ukrainian stories were among the early productions.


title: History of ballet

text: Many leading European professional ballet companies that survive today were established at new theatres in Europe's capital cities during the mid- to late- 19th century, including the Kyiv Ballet, the Hungarian National Ballet, the National Theatre Ballet (Prague) and the Vienna State Ballet (formerly the Vienna State Opera Ballet). These theatres usually combined large opera, drama and ballet companies under the same roof. Composers, dramatists, and choreographers were then able to create works that took advantage of the ability to collaborate among these performance troupes.


title: History of ballet

text: While France was instrumental in early ballet, other countries and cultures soon adopted the art form, most notably Russia. Russia has a recognized tradition of ballet, and Russian ballet has had great importance in its country throughout history.


title: History of ballet

text: After 1850, ballet began to wane in Paris, but it flourished in Denmark and Russia thanks to masters such as August Bournonville, Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-Léon, Enrico Cecchetti and Marius Petipa. In the late nineteenth century, orientalism was in vogue. Colonialism brought awareness of Asian and African cultures, but distorted with disinformation and fantasy. The East was often perceived as a faraway place where anything was possible, provided it was lavish, exotic and decadent.


title: History of ballet

text: Petipa appealed to popular taste with "The Pharaoh's Daughter" (1862), and later "The Talisman" (1889), and "La Bayadère" (1877). Petipa is best remembered for his collaborations with Tchaikovsky. He used his music for his choreography of "The Nutcracker" (1892, though this is open to some debate among historians), "The Sleeping Beauty" (1890), and the definitive revival of "Swan Lake" (1895, with Lev Ivanov). These works were all drawn from European folklore.


title: History of ballet

text: The female dancers' classical tutu as it is recognized today began to appear at this time. It consisted of a short, stiff skirt supported by layers of crinoline or tulle that revealed the acrobatic legwork, combined with a wide gusset that served to preserve modesty.


title: History of ballet

text: Ballet companies from Europe began lucrative tours of theatres in North, Central and South America during the mid-19th century. The prestigious Colon Theater in Buenos Aires, Argentina had hosted foreign ballet artists on its stage, with touring companies from Europe presenting full ballets as early as 1867. By the 1880s, the Colon Theater had its own professional ballet company. It would still be several decades before most countries outside of Europe could claim their own professional ballet companies, however.


title: History of ballet

text: Sergei Diaghilev brought ballet full-circle back to Paris when he opened his company, Ballets Russes. It was made up of dancers from the Russian exile community in Paris after the Revolution.


title: History of ballet

text: Diaghilev and composer Igor Stravinsky merged their talents to bring Russian folklore to life in "The Firebird" and "Petrushka" choreographed by Fokine. Diaghilev's next choreographic commissions went to Nijinsky. His First ballet was "L'apres-midi d'un Faune" (Afternoon of a Faun) to music by Debussy. It was notable for its two dimensional shapes and lack of ballet technique. It caused controversy by depicting the faun rubbing the scarf of one of the maidens on himself, in simulated masturbation. The most controversial work of the Ballets Russes however, was "The Rite of Spring", choreographed by Nijinsky with music by Stravinsky. The ballet's modern music, pigeon toed stomping and theme of human sacrifice shocked audiences so much they rioted.


title: History of ballet

text: After the “golden age” of Petipa, Michel Fokine began his career in St. Petersburg but moved to Paris and worked with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes.


title: History of ballet

text: Russian ballet continued development under Soviet rule. There was little talent left in the country after the Revolution, but it was enough to seed a new generation. After stagnation in the 1920s, by the mid-1930s that new generation of dancers and choreographers appeared on the scene. The technical perfection and precision of dance was promoted (and demanded) by Agrippina Vaganova, who had been taught by Petipa and Cecchetti and headed the Vaganova Ballet Academy, the school to prepare dancers for the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg/Leningrad.


title: History of ballet

text: Ballet was popular with the public. Both the Moscow-based Bolshoi and the St. Petersburg (then Leningrad)-based Kirov ballet companies were active. Ideological pressure forced the creation of many socialist realist pieces, most of which made little impression on the public and were removed from the repertoire of both companies later.


title: History of ballet

text: Some pieces of that era, however, were remarkable. The "Romeo and Juliet" by Prokofiev and Lavrovsky is a masterpiece. The "Flames of Paris", while it shows all the faults of socialist realist art, pioneered the active use of the corps de ballet in the performance and required stunning virtuosity. The ballet version of the Pushkin poem, "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai" with music from Boris Asafiev and choreography by Rostislav Zakharov was also a hit.


title: History of ballet

text: The well-known ballet "Cinderella", for which Prokofiev provided the music, is also the product of the Soviet ballet. During the Soviet era, these pieces were mostly unknown outside the Soviet Union and later outside of the Eastern Bloc. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union they received more recognition.


title: History of ballet

text: The 1999 North American premiere of "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai" by the Kirov Ballet in New York was an outstanding success, for example. The Soviet era of the Russian Ballet put a lot of emphasis on technique, virtuosity and strength. It demanded strength usually above the norm of contemporary Western dancers. Notable prima ballerinas include Galina Ulanova, Natalya Dudinskaya and Maya Plisetskaya and choreographers such as Pyotr Gusev.


title: History of ballet

text: Russian companies, particularly after World War II engaged in multiple tours all over the world that revitalized ballet in the West.


title: History of ballet

text: Following the move of the Ballets Russes to France, ballet began to have a broader influence, particularly in the United States of America.


title: History of ballet

text: From Paris, after disagreements with Diaghilev, Fokine went to Sweden and then the US and settled in New York. Diaghilev believed that traditional ballet offered little more than prettiness and athletic display. For Fokine that was not enough. In addition to technical virtuosity he demanded drama, expression and historical authenticity. The choreographer must research the period and cultural context of the setting and reject the traditional tutu in favour of accurate period costuming.


title: History of ballet

text: Fokine choreographed "Sheherazade" and "Cleopatra". He also reworked "Petrouchka" and "The Firebird". One of his most famous works was "The Dying Swan", performed by Anna Pavlova. Beyond her talents as a ballerina, Pavlova had the theatrical gifts to fulfill Fokine's vision of ballet as drama. Legend has it that Pavlova identified so much with the swan role that she requested her swan costume from her deathbed.


title: History of ballet

text: George Balanchine developed state-of-the-art technique in America by opening a school in New York. He adapted ballet to the new media, movies and television. A prolific worker, Balanchine rechoreographed classics such as "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty" as well as creating new ballets. He produced original interpretations of the dramas of William Shakespeare such as "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and also of Franz Léhar's "The Merry Widow".


title: History of ballet

text: In 1967, Balanchine's "Jewels" broke with the narrative tradition and dramatized a theme rather than a plot. This focus fits with the state-sponsored funding sources in the United States which sought to encourage "liberty and freethinking" in contrast to narrative-driven dance, which was seen as to be connected too closely with socialism, especially Soviet communism. Today, partly thanks to Balanchine, ballet is one of the most well-preserved dances in the world.


title: History of ballet

text: Barbara Karinska was a Russian emigree and a skilled seamstress who collaborated with Balanchine to elevate the art of costume design from a secondary role to an integral part of a ballet performance. She introduced the bias cut and a simplified classic tutu that allowed the dancer more freedom of movement. With meticulous attention to detail, she decorated her tutus with beadwork, embroidery, crochet and appliqué.


title: History of ballet

text: George Balanchine is often considered to have been the first pioneer of what is now known as neoclassical ballet, a style of dance between classical ballet and today's contemporary ballet. Tim Scholl, author of "From Petipa to Balanchine", considers Balanchine's "Apollo" (1928) to be the first neoclassical ballet. It represented a return to form in response to Serge Diaghilev's abstract ballets. "Apollo" and other works are still performed today, predominantly by the New York City Ballet. However, other companies are able to pay a fee for performance rights to George Balanchine's works.


title: History of ballet

text: Frederick Ashton is another prominent choreographer associated with the neoclassical style. Three of his works have become standard pieces in the international repertoire: "Sylvia" (1952), "Romeo and Juliet" (1956), and "Ondine" (1958), the last of which was created as a vehicle to showcase Margot Fonteyn.


title: History of ballet

text: One dancer who trained with Balanchine and absorbed much of this neo-classical style was Mikhail Baryshnikov. Following Baryshnikov's appointment as artistic director of American Ballet Theatre in 1980, he worked with various modern choreographers, most notably Twyla Tharp. Tharp choreographed "Push Comes To Shove" for ABT and Baryshnikov in 1976; in 1986 she created "In The Upper Room" for her own company. Both these pieces were considered innovative for their use of distinctly modern movements melded with the use of pointe shoes and classically trained dancers—for their use of contemporary ballet.


title: History of ballet

text: Tharp also worked with the Joffrey Ballet company, founded in 1957 by Robert Joffrey. She choreographed "Deuce Coupe" for them in 1973, using pop music and a blend of modern and ballet techniques. The Joffrey Ballet continued to perform numerous contemporary pieces, many choreographed by co-founder Gerald Arpino.


title: History of ballet

text: Today there are many contemporary ballet companies and choreographers. These include Madrid Ballet; Royal Ballet of Flanders; Alonzo King and his company, Alonzo King LINES Ballet; Nacho Duato and Compañia Nacional de Danza; William Forsythe, who has worked extensively with the Frankfurt Ballet and today runs The Forsythe Company; and Jiří Kylián, formerly the artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theater. Traditionally "classical" companies, such as the Kirov Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet, also regularly perform contemporary works.