Classical Ballet Essay

Classical ballet is known for its rigorous technique, flawless precise movements, and its ethereal aesthetic qualities. The journey in perfecting this art form takes a plethora of hours of labor and discipline. A ballerina’s technique is not a natural instinct; it is a meticulous undertaking that must be trained and educated by a lineage of dance masters and teachers. In order to gain technical skill in classical ballet, teachers must lay a basic foundation in order to progress. In the world of classical ballet, this important “foundation” is called barre. Barre work is extremely important for many reasons. It teaches the basic steps of technique, perfects the quality and dynamics of movement, controls how a dancer thinks, and teaches the

Barre not only teaches ballerinas how to properly produce the steps on the human body, but how the dynamic and quality of the movement should feel on the human body. For example, barre teaches the students to brush through their feet when moving through a glissade. It breaks down the basic movements of a plié to a tendu, a tendu to a degage, and a degage to a battement into the air with both legs straight and pointed, back to a degage, tendu, plié while perfectly rolling through the feet while keeping the proper alignment. This step is constantly being used in center floor work. By learning the proper dynamic quality, a dancer is able to perform the movement to their greatest ability. However, glissade is only one movement out of a mass amount of vocabulary in classical ballet and every movement can be broken down all thanks to barre. Numerous people can learn how to perform a step in classical ballet but in order to perfect technical skill only a few can truly accomplish the proper dynamic quality. Dynamic quality is the way in which shape of movement is executed. From the view point of view of Rudolph Laban effort’s theory there are four main factors that make up the dynamics of

By starting training at the barre it allows their students to clear their heads of external outside problems and focus on the class and training ahead of them. Not only using barre as a tool for progression for technique, it can help the student’s progress in the way they process and think about why they’re moving. During time at the barre teachers can facilitate and target critical thinking throughout the lesson plan. Students understanding the importance of why their body is properly moving the way it’s moving is critical. Knowing the reasoning behind why a demonstrating a plié turns movement for movement sake into an art form. Classical ballet as a whole is a physical and mental experience that takes the dancer into another world. Using the barre as an open door for dancers to explore and discover themselves and their bodies is what turns a dancer into an