Cont. History: Dancing

Learn about the History of Dancing 2

Ballet was seen as a proper arrangement of moving images to a full blown spectacle to a gala performance of its own. It inspired lavish costumes and choreography that enhanced expression of the dance by using creative, yet graceful, movements of the body. The heel-less shoes that were used (now commonly referred to as ballet slippers) allowed the dancer to make use of the rise of Pointe work to an even more sophisticated demi-pointe. True pointe-work was born out of the era of Romanticism in the early 1800s. This was at a time when ballets were focused on the emotions, as well as fantasies and the spiritual world. During this time, a ballet dancer who became a legend, Marie Taglioni, inspired a new era in the world of female ballet dancers. Ballerina Taglioni seemed to gracefully float above the surface, never quite touching the ground, and thus overshadowed the male dancers, in fact, almost reducing them to the position of moving statutes, or whose job it was to lift the female dancers. The new status for male ballet dancers was not really strengthened until the male star of the Ballets Russes, Nijinsky, became popular in the early 20th century. By this time, ballet, as we know it today, had developed with the familiar costumes, choreography, and spectacle securely in place. At the first part of the 20th century, the Ballet Russes began transforming ballet into a well respected art form, which includes not only the dance itself, but the accompanying music and decor.

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