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| At the Barre |
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The roots of classical ballet go back 500 years. It began in the courts of Italian noblemen and soon spread to the
French courts. Performers danced, sang and recited poetry to entertain guests at celebrations. The first real ballet, where
mime, music and dance were combined in one performance , was called The Comic Ballet Of The Queen. It was staged in 1581 at
the French court. Louis XIV of France founded the first ballet school, called the Royal Academy Of Dancing, in 1661. A ballet
master at the Academy, called Beauchamps, established five positions of the feet. These are still the basis of all ballet
steps. Other steps came from Elizabethan and folk dances. The more acrobatic steps developed from that antics of street players
and circus performers and from the Italian theatre called, La Commedia del Arte. When ballets were first performed, men played
the female parts, disguising themselves in wigs and masks. Women were allowed to dance in public after 1681. However, they
had to wear lots of bulky clothes which hampered movement. The possibility for spectacular footwork emerged when Marie Camargo
daringly shortened her dress above her ankles in the 1720's.
~*Classical Ballet*~
Early ballets such as Giselle and La Sylphide
were created during the Romantic Movement in the first half of the 19th Century. This movement influenced art, music and ballet.
It was concerned with the supernatural world of spirits and magic. It often showed women as passive and fragile. These
themes are reflected in the ballets of the time, called Romantic ballets.
~**Romantic
Ballet**~
Ballets created during the latter half of the 19th Century,
such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty represent Classical Ballet in the grandest form. Their main aim was
to display the techniques of Classical Ballet to the full. In these ballets, complicated sequences which show off demanding
steps, leaps and turns are fitted into the story.
*~Modern Ballet~*
Ballets created during this century are called Modern
ballets. They do not always have a definite story line. They have a theme, though, and concentrate more on emotions and atmospheres
and attempt to arouse feelings in the audience. Different people might react to them in different ways. Romantic, Classical
and Modern ballets all follow the techniques of classical ballet.
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