Dash

A dash is a punctuation mark that is similar to a hyphen or minus sign, but differs from both of these symbols primarily in length and function. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash (–) and the em dash (—), named for the length of a typeface's lower-case n and upper-case M respectively.

Usage varies both within English and in other languages, but the usual convention in printed English text is:

Caroline Harrison

Caroline Scott Harrison (October 1, 1832 – October 25, 1892), was a teacher of music, the wife of Benjamin Harrison and mother of two surviving children; after his election as President of the United States, she was First Lady of the United States from 1889 until her death.

She secured funding for an extensive renovation of the White House and oversaw the work. Interested in history and preservation, in 1890 she helped found the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and served as its first President General.

Early life and education

Caroline Lavinia Scott was born in Oxford, Ohio, the second daughter of John Witherspoon Scott, a Presbyterian minister and professor of science and mathematics at Miami University, and his wife Mary Potts Neal. Caroline had two sisters and two brothers. Although the family was not well off, her father ensured that his daughters as well as his sons were well educated. Wherever they lived, he filled the house with books, art, and music. Religion, was important in his and the family's life.

Dash (disambiguation)

A dash is a punctuation mark. Dash may also refer to:

Animals

People

Given name

Surname

Nickname or stage name

Art, entertainment, and media

Fictional characters

Ballet

Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ (French: [balɛ]) is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology. It has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training. Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art.

Ballet may also refer to a ballet dance work, which consists of the choreography and music for a ballet production. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a two-act ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a music score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists. Many classical ballets are performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, though there are exceptions to this. Most notably, American choreographer George Balanchine is known for his plotless neoclassical ballets which are often performed in simple leotards and tights without scenery.

Ballet (music)

Ballet as a music form progressed from simply a complement to dance, to a concrete compositional form that often had as much value as the dance that went along with it. The dance form, originating in France during the 17th century, began as a theatrical dance. It was not until the 19th century that ballet gained status as a “classical” form. In ballet, the terms ‘classical’ and ‘romantic’ are chronologically reversed from musical usage. Thus, the 19th century classical period in ballet coincided with the 19th century Romantic era in Music. Ballet music composers from the 17th–19th centuries, including the likes of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, were predominantly in France and Russia. Yet with the increased international notoriety seen in Tchaikovsky’s lifetime, ballet music composition and ballet in general spread across the western world.

History

Until about the second half of the 19th century the role of music in ballet was secondary, with the main emphasis on dance, while music was simply a compilation of danceable tunes. Writing "ballet music" used to be a job for musical craftsmen, rather than for masters. For example, critics of the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky mentioned his writing of ballet music as something demeaning.