Monday, November 20, 2006

The Romantic History of Ballet by Nadya Petronas

The art of ballet dance is actually very old. It takes a disciplined and athletic body to perform the beautiful movements that tell us a story. Performances usually take place in a theater. Many young girls fantasize about becoming stars in the ballet world. In actuality it takes a lot of hard work and many years if they make it at all.
Since so many French names are given to ballet postures, for instance the plie, most people think that the dance itself began in France. Actually ballet is known to go back as far as 15th century Italy. These movements performed during the Renaissance led to the French development of ballet as we now know it. The Queen's Ballet Company was the very first and was located in France.
As the years passed the beautiful dances began to be performed in gorgeous and complicated costumes, and intricate sets and props were introduced. Royalty fell in love with the ballet as it became more popular. The costumes became more elaborate and within a few hundred years dancing on toes began. Since there were no block toe shoes yet, the dancers could only hold a pose for a few seconds at a time.
La Sylphide is credited with introducing the romantic style of ballet in the 1800s. This style used the toe dancing technique extensively and brought about many changes to ballet. However, to answer the question posed by many, the traditional tutu came from the ballet Giselle where the tutu was worn by all the ghostly spirits.
All romantic ballets focused on women and this encouraged women to take on increasingly to become ballerinas. They grew up in Russia, Denmark and even the United States. While ballet prospered in other nations, it started declining in France. The decline could be because ballet was seen as being very other worldly with mythical steps.
The shift from mythical steps to a more reasonable style that could be co-related to human movements came about in the twentieth century. This was because of the many different styles of dance that were becoming increasingly popular. The change that started in the twentieth century continues to transform ballet even today where it incorporates different styles of dance.
These days ballets have evolved as a combination with another style of dance to produce a new symphony in the art of dance. This process began in 1944, when a ballet called Fancy Free was introduced. This ballet used jazz dance with the ballet steps to create a revolutionary dance form.
Today many more modern ballets are being performed, while at the same time audiences still love the classical and romantic forms. All of these styles are still taught and performed as ballet is immensely popular. People are constantly impressed at the variety and complexity of movements that humans are capable of. Even though most of us will never be able to perform these moves, we can marvel and dream when we see ballet on stage.

About the Author
About the author: Nadya Petronas is the chief editor for Ballet @, the best place on the internet when you are searching for the latest knowledge, accurate up to date advice and commentary to do with Ballet, For more articles on Ballet why not visit: http://www.balletat.com/articles

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