Ball Dance History

From century to century and country to country, ballet has traveled, leaving behind a rich and artistic past, worth talking about to this day. Starting in Italy in the 1400’s, ballet has traveled all throughout the world. Improvements to the dance style and stunning dancers have been brought forth from the countries ballet has traveled through. Throughout ballet’s history, choreographers have put there own twist on this specific genre of dance, leading to new dance types, new ways expression, and ways of performing. What makes the history of ballet so interesting to many people is how much it has changed over the years and how it has impacted several generations. Watching ballerinas perform today would be much different than watching ballerinas

Gifted female dancers were able to save the art form and bring it to a new level. The Romantic Era did not come right after Ballet D’action, but there was a time of transition between both times, known as the Transition Era; during this time, ballet was losing a bit of it’s popularity in Europe. In the early 19th century was when the Romantic Era occurred, and with this new era brought improvement, most of which was due to the pointe shoe. Because pointe shoes are mainly used by females, male dancers did not have as much focus put on them and were thought of as less than the women. As Jennifer Homans says, “If men distorted ballet in the aftermath of the French revolution, women preserved it. They were not wild or athletic; they were dramatic and enchanting” (132), which means that many people believed men dancers held ballet back from its full potential, while the women were able to enhance the dance style. Two ballets created to showcase this new form of ballet were “Giselle” and “La Sylphide.” Shortly after the Romantic Era was the Classical Era (not to be confused with the Classical Period, or Ballet D’action) which was when Romantic ballet was taken to a whole new level choreography-wise. Ballerinas became much more skilled at pointe, so steps with more complexity developed, such as performing 32 consecutive fouette turns (first done by

They create an illusion of lightness and give a sense that the ballerina is floating on air” (http://www.pbt.org/community-engagement/point-pointe-shoes). Before the invention of the pointe shoe (shoes that let female dancers rise onto their toes to perform ballet) , dancers (including those of the Royal Academy of Dance) would wear heeled ballet slippers that were difficult to dance in. In an era where people were always looking for change and improvement, these shoes did not stick around long, and the heels of these slippers were eventually removed. Ballet experienced a much more impactful change in 1795, when a man named Charles Didelot created a machine that used wires to lift dancers up on their toes, which was something that audiences really enjoyed. While Didelot’s machine was a huge improvement to ballet, it was overshadowed when Paul Taglioni, father of the dancer, Marie Taglioni, was believed to have invented the pointe shoe; Paul Taglioni made pointe shoes for Marie because he wanted to find a way to make her stand out, as she was put down for being short. Marie is believed to have been the first to dance en pointe (term used for dancing on the toes) without the wires of Didelot’s machine. Invention of the pointe shoe brought an entirely new aspect to ballet, but early pointe shoes