Hello dancers and welcome or welcome back to Dancer's Feed. Today we are going over the history of ballet. More specifically, we're going to be speaking about the different time periods from when ballet was first established to present day.
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Ballet is a classical dance form characterized by grace, beauty, and precision of movement, and by elaborate formal gestures, steps, and poses. Let's take a look at some pictures of ballet dancers. Notice the different poses of these dancers.
They show flexibility, grace, and strength. Three words amongst many others to perfectly describe ballet. Before ballet became one of the world's most well-known art forms, it was much simpler, like shown in these pictures. So, let's go through the ages of ballet.
Imagine you were in a ball or a pageant in the royal courts of Renaissance Italy. Here, you would see party guests and royal family members move to classical music. Movements were graceful, yet small, due to the heavy costumes and heeled shoes. Domenico de Piacenza and Bergonzio di Botta were also present. were two choreographers who helped produce some of the dance pieces seen during this time period.
But the reason behind the spread of ballet to other European countries was due to Catherine de' Medici, who married into the French royal family and brought over the Italian dance style to France. Before we get into the next time period, here's a fun fact. Domenico is responsible for the word ballet because his pieces were often referred to as balletti, which comes from the Italian word ballare, which translates to to dance. The Baroque period is when ballet became more structured and began to tell stories by the use of facial expressions.
This was thanks to King Louis XIV, who loved ballet and is pictured here to the right. He and his choreographer, Pierre Boucan, began recording specific movements down on paper which included the five feet positions we still use today. A fun fact is supposedly the first ballet in France is said to have had an audience of 10,000 people and have lasted from 10 p.m to 3 a.m. That is a lot of dancing. Pictured below is the Palace of Versailles where the ballets took place and where King Louis XIV and the other royal family lived.
During the Romantic period in the early 1800s is when ballet technique became more light and airy. This had a lot to do with Charles Delu's invention of pointe shoes in the pre-Romantic period and the choreographic structure of Filippo Taglioni, father of one of the most popular ballerinas during the Romantic period named Marie Taglioni. During the Romantic period ballet continued spreading around the world and became one of Russia's favorite dance forms. Another fun fact is Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elesser, another prima ballerina during the time, were virals but Marie Taglioni was more popular because she was one of the first ballerinas to dance on point and plus she came from the Taglioni family.
In the late 1800s ballet's technique became more advanced with bigger leaps and more intricate turning sequences. Marius Pepita was known as the father of classical ballet where he combined Russian and French styles together with tailor-made music. Another fun fact is that Marius Pepita worked closely with composer Peter Jorik Tchaikovsky to create the scores for Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
The neoclassical period became popular in the U.S. when Russian choreographer George Balanchine came and settled in New York City. Here he founded the School of American Ballet, which later fed into the professional dance company called New York City Ballet. He created ballets with abstract plots and showcased new positions and sharper movements, and the dancers wore very minimalistic and simple costumes. A fun fact is that Apollo was the first neoclassical ballet choreographed by George Balanchine, which was about Apollo, the Greek god of music. Shortly after the neoclassical period came the contemporary ballet period, which we are presently in.
Contemporary ballet consists of more flexibility and looser movements with a mix of modern dance technique. Twyla Thorpe and Christopher Wilden were two of the first who choreographed contemporary ballet pieces. And a fun fact about professional contemporary ballet dancers is that they don't only train in classical ballet and modern technique, but they also cross-train by doing Pilates and gyrotonic exercises.
Pictured above is a gyrotonic pulley tower system, which people use for exercising. So, here is a list of famous ballet companies around the world in no particular order. The Royal Ballet, which is located in London, England. The National Ballet of Canada, which is located in Toronto, Canada.
Teatro La Scala, which is in Milan, Italy. Paris Opera Ballet, which is in Paris, France. National Ballet of Cuba, which is in Havana, Cuba. Bolshoi Ballet, which is in Moscow, Russia.
American Ballet Theatre, which is in New York City. the Australian Ballet which is in Melbourne, Australia, Mariinsky Ballet which is in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Dutch National Ballet which is in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. And here is a list of famous ballets that are still performed around the world.
La Sylphide, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Jules, Symphonic Variations, Episodes, and Push Comes to Shove. For more information please go to the blog at www.dancersfeed.com. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you learned a lot.
More videos like this are coming soon, so stay tuned for more history lessons. Thank you so much, everybody. I will see you next time.
Bye, dancers!