(WT #2)The Art of Ballet (Day 3)

Believe it or not, Ballet has slowly changed over the years. This form of dance can be traced back all the way to the 1400s, and at first served as a form of entertainment for rich noblemen. Ballet began not in Paris, as most people assume, but actually in Italy. It was not until King Louis XIV, however, that the dance form began taking off. He began the first professional Ballet Company, the Royal Academy of Dancing, that trained dancers to perform for the Royal Courts.

[image=http://www.het-muziektheater.com/educatie/images/ballet-ouisXIV.jpg]
Picture of what Ballet Dancers hundreds of years ago looked like.

Well... I could go into a very indepth history of all this, but I won't. So let's fast forward to the present.

Obviously, Ballet in society today, is very different from when it first started out.

[image=http://trumantoday.truman.edu/nutcracker3.jpg]
Compare above picture with the first image to see what I mean.

Ballet takes many years to master. It is essential that students begin training at a young age. (Ideally, around 7 years. Children younger than that can injure their bodies if they begin serious ballet training because their bones, muscles etc. are not developed enough.) Advanced dancers practice from anywhere from three to six days a week. Eventually, if an individual wants to pursue a career in dance, they try out for companies such as The Royal Ballet (London) New York City Ballet etc.

An interesting side note:

[image=http://www.treasure-house.com.au/pointe.jpg]

Ballet dancers dance on their toes right? Yes...but not without essential help from specially made shoes--pointe shoes. The front part of the shoe is not actually soft, but made of hard wood and glue. This gives dancers the support they need to rise up on the tips of their toes. Men do not wear pointe shoes. It's a woman thing. (Yeah, they put us poor girls through all the pain but not the men...grrr... ) It is recommended that dance students stay off pointe until at earliest 10 or 11 years of age.

Well, that's all for now. I'll go in more depth some other time if you're all interested...

 

Nice.

You see, I don't normally talk to people that know about ballet, so it's interesting to read a little about it this way.

 

Ballet is actually a very interesting subject to read up on. There are so many things to talk about...

Anyway, if you guys have any specific questions about Ballet, just ask and I'll try to answer.

~*Senoj*~

 

My grandma was a ballet dancer, and a very good one at that, until she hurt her knee. She taught children for a while and even had to stop that. Now my little cousin does it and seems to be a natural. The Royal Ballet Company was very interested in her when they did the evaluations of students at her school. She got a perfect score and they were asking all sorts of questions about her.