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The Origins of Classical Ballet
by Nadya Petronas
http://www.balletat.com

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.

Contrary to belief, ballet as a dance form originated in
Italy during the Renaissance period of the 1400s. Most
people associate ballet with France owing to the fact that
ballet steps have predominantly French names, such as the
plie. France is where ballet as a dance form was developed
and the first ballet company 'The Queen's Ballet Company'
came up 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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