Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

325 results found

Farrell, Suzanne

(Encyclopedia)Farrell, Suzanne fârˈəl [key], 1945–, American ballet dancer, b. Cincinnati, Ohio, as Roberta Sue Ficker. After studying in her hometown and at the School of American Ballet, she joined the New Y...

Bolshoi Ballet

(Encyclopedia)Bolshoi Ballet bōlˈshoi, bôlˈ– [key], one of the principal ballet companies of Russia; part of the Bolshoi Theatre, which also includes Russia's premier opera company. The Bolshoi Ballet began a...

Muses

(Encyclopedia)Muses, in Greek religion and mythology, patron goddesses of the arts, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Originally only three, they were later considered as nine. Calliope was the Muse of epic poetry a...

Behan, Brendan

(Encyclopedia)Behan, Brendan bēˈhăn [key], 1923–64, Irish dramatist. A notoriously outspoken and uninhibited man, he joined the Irish Republican Army in 1937 and was twice imprisoned for political offenses. Hi...

reggae

(Encyclopedia)reggae, Jamaican popular music that developed in the 1960s among Kingston's poor blacks, drawing on American “soul” music and traditional African and Jamaican folk music and ska (a Jamaican and Br...

Imphal

(Encyclopedia)Imphal ĭmˈpəl [key], city, capital of Manipur state, NE India, in the Manipur River valley...

Bartlett, Paul Wayland

(Encyclopedia)Bartlett, Paul Wayland, 1865–1925. American sculptor, b. New Haven, Conn. The son of a sculptor, he lived in Paris in his boyhood and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and under Frémiet. The Boh...

interlude

(Encyclopedia)interlude, development in the late 15th cent. of the English medieval morality play. Played between the acts of a long play, the interlude, treating intellectual rather than moral topics, often contai...

Taglioni, Maria

(Encyclopedia)Taglioni, Maria, 1804–84, Italian ballerina, b. Stockholm. Taglioni is considered the first and foremost ballerina of the romantic period. She made her debut in Vienna in 1822 in a ballet created fo...

Basie, Count

(Encyclopedia)Basie, Count (William Basie) bāˈsē [key], 1904–84, American jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer, b. Red Bank, N.J. After working in dance halls and vaudeville in New York City, Basie moved to ...