Ballet as a captivating dance form has enthralled discerning audiences for many years. It is a form of dance that combines beauty and grace to tell a story in a dance form. Generally performed in theatres, ballet has always been a favoured dream of many little girls. While ballet dancers need to work very hard for many years to perform in a professional ballet company - this does not deter the aspirants.
Many people think that ballet originated in France, due the ballet steps that all have French names, such as the plie. However, ballet can be traced back to Italy during the Renaissance period of the 1400s. While this was really just a precursor to the classical ballet, the dances performed in Italy during this time led to the further development of ballet in France. The first ballet company arose in France and was called The Queen's Ballet Company.
Development of ballet and its popularity can be credited to the royalty. Popularity led to creation of beautiful dances, extravagant costumes, sets, and props. With passage of time, the costumes continued to become more intricate, and toe dancing was introduced. However, the dancers could only hold their positions for just a few seconds as block toe shoes were yet to be invented.
In the 19th century, romantic ballet came along. This was partly due to the ballet La Sylphide. It brought many changes to ballet and toe dancing was more in evidence. Most of us are familiar with tutus, and if you were wondering where it came from, it is attributed to the ballet Giselle. In this dance there were ghostly spirits and they were costumed in tutus.
Romantic ballet featured many women dancers. Some ballerinas came from the United States. Ballet was also embraced in Russia and Denmark, but was actually declining in France. During these years ballet was considered ghostly and mythical, unrelated to natural human movement.
In the twentieth century however, ballet began to see a shift where the moves started to resemble human movement, thanks in part to the many different styles of dance that were becoming increasingly popular. This change has continued until today where many ballets incorporate different styles of dance as inspiration.
One of the first instances of this was in 1944 when the Fancy Free was introduced. This revolutionary dance combined jazz dance and ballet steps. It was an immediate hit.
While traditional classical and romantic ballets are still performed, taught, and enjoyed today, ballet has evolved with the times, and still has a huge following. Ballet is a beautiful expression of what the human body is capable of, and while most of can never dream of performing many of the steps and moves that a ballet dancer can, we still enjoy watching the magic of the ballet.
Article Source: http://www.artsymmetry.com
About the author: Nadya Petronas is the chief editor for Ballet @, the #1 source on the internet when you are searching for the latest knowledge, accurate up to date advice and commentary to do with Ballet. For questions or comments about this article visit: www.balletat.com/articles
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