The art of ballet | Teen Ink

The art of ballet

August 4, 2020
By Anonymous

                      Ballet first started in Italy during the 15th  century; it was practiced as something to cherish even back then, because of the beauty and elegance that it portrayed. Ballet, one of the precious forms of art on this planet, is combined with formal dance techniques that involve costumes, scenery, and music. It uses dance, music, stage design, and poetry to make a dramatic storyline. 

               Ballet is one of the main known forms of dance in the world that everyone knows about. Catherine de Medici introduced the dance to the french in the 1500s and started to combine it in court life in France. The term ballet came from the italian word ‘’ Ballare,” which stands for to dance or to jump. Throughout the centuries, it had turned into a concert dance form in France and Russia.

               King Louis the fourteenth had one day found the Academie Royale De Musique, which became the first professional ballet company. In the beginning ballet was not soft and delicate, but filled with dramatic effects. The movements were so difficult that the dancers made it look effortless. Ballet was used as random entertainment that people would have at their wedding, or something to go and see when bored.

         When Ballet came to France, it became more formal  because  of the great Pierre Beauchamp. He  was a french choreographer, dancer and composer, and he invented the Beauchamp Feuillet notation. Pierre Beauchamp invented the five positions of the feet and arms, and those include the basic first, second , third, fourth and fifth position. All of  the different positions are sillity the same but they create different dramatic movements. The pointe shoe, also known as the devil , was created in the 19th century. The elegant and delicate atmosphere present in Ballet appealed to more feminine ideals and thus, it became more popular with females. That meant that there were more female dancers than before, and so the pointe shoes came out to make everyone look the same as part of the ballet formal code. The first ballet slippers were actually not pointy shoes, but heeled ballet slippers which had heels in the back, They were replaced with pointy shoes, as the heeled shoes made it difficult for dancers to jump and turn.

     The heeled slippers slowly turned into non heeled pointe shoes. One of the ballerinas during the 15th century  had decided to change things up and take off the heel, everyone had loved the concept of none heel pointe shoes so much that ballet dancers started wearing  ballet slip on slippers , which are now used as warm up slippers before using pointe shoes.  Ballet is a diverse style of art there are many different styles of ballet some of them are different depending on the country.

            One of the styles is Classical Ballet, one of the first styles of ballet that every other style of ballet takes a little piece from. Neoclassical Ballet one of the most modernist styles of ballet the techniques and vocabulary are different from the original ballet. 

      Contemporary Ballet includes jazz techniques with a twist of classical ballet in it, the music is different because they no longer use classical music but instead they use current music and uplifting beats. romantic ballet has been around since the 19th century, it  still uses the same style as classical ballet, the dance is more secualize because the dancers are telling a story with their partner and they have to show chemistry.  


Ballet costumes were not a thing in the 15th century, men would just wear their suits while women had to alos wear their heavy dresses on stage while trying to look graceful. Traditional ballet costumes started to becoming permanent when, Marie Salle a french ballet dancer that was born in 1707, had decided to rip her long dress to make it shorter dancing in a dress was already hard enough , dancing in a long one is tortures Marie Salle had changed the ballet world without her knowing it just by ripping  a dress. Maries actions changed the rules for good because after that other dancers started doing the same thing, and they never went back since.

         The world of ballet has come so far  from what it used to be. Even though it has been modernized, it will forever be known as magical and be  described as waves crashing  through the night. 


The author's comments:

I choose to write about this piece because, I love every form of art including ballet .


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