The Origins of Classical Ballet

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.

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.

Women were the feature of the romantic ballet, and ballerinas were even coming out of the United States. During this time ballet was also very popular in Russia and Denmark. However, in France the ballet was seeing a decline. Throughout this time ballet was seen as being very other worldly, with the ballet steps being very mythical and not resembling the way a human would move.

As the 20th century advanced, ballet definitely became more representative of how humans actually move. This was due in part to the popularity of other dance forms. These changes continue today, as ballet often includes other dance styles when it's performed.

Some ballets today have even gone so far as to combine another style of dance into the ballet. In 1944 a ballet was introduced called Fancy Free that used jazz dance with the ballet steps to create a revolutionary ballet, and it was well received.

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.

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