Ballet - The History Of A Divine Dance

Ballet is a beautiful form of dance that has captivated audiences for many years. Typically performed in a theatre, ballet is a powerful art that combines beauty and grace to tell a story. Ballet dancers must work very hard for many years to become good enough to perform in a professional ballet company, but this doesn't stop many little girls from dreaming that they can become the next prima ballerina.

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.

In the 1800s the romantic style of ballet was ushered in, thanks in part to the ballet La Sylphide. La Sylphide made much use of the toe dancing technique and brought about many changes to ballet. Many people wonder where the traditional tutu came from, and that can be accredited to the ballet Giselle, where the ghostly spirits all wore the tutu.

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.

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.

With time, ballet has evolved and changed in many forms. While connoisseurs of the traditional ballet have remained steadfast, the new avatars have also. A well executed ballet by professionals continues to enthral audiences despite the fact that most of us cannot even dream of performing most of the steps and moves of a ballet dancer.

Article Source: Main Articles

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 more articles on Ballet why not visit: www.balletat.com/articles
This article is available as a unique content article with free reprint rights.

This article may be reproduced wholly or in part without written permission provided the byline, resource area, and any hyperlinks remain in order to give proper credit to the author.

Internet search engines and directory listings are imperative to your sites existence and success. Submit Your Website to the Searchen Networks directory and search engine to achieve authoritive inbound links.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5