Ballet To Pointe Research Paper
The transformation of ballet to pointe
Many people take the modern ballet and the luxury of being able to watch beautiful dancers float across the stage for granted; not taking the time to think about all the reformations it has undergone in its history to take it from a male dominant basic dance form to the ever so elegant female dominant style now referred to as “pointe”. The elegance seen on stage today, however, was not easily earned. Some of the key aspects of this transformation were the changes in costume, technique, and gender dominance.
Ballet originated in the early 1400’s and were described by an Italian named Domenico di Piacenza(history of ballet). Men were fully dressed in wigs, blouses, jackets and bloomers. While women wore …show more content…
The first person to wear these was King Louis XIV (Reflections). His desire to show off the golden sun buckle on the inside of his shoe led to the development of the common first five positions seen in ballet today (ballet terms). In the 1700’s the soft ballet shoes started to evolve. These were made of leather soles and usually pink silk and fit like a child’s glove. The first pointe shoes were not structured like the ones worn today, rather they were only darned on the sides and bottom (reflections). Because of this, dancing en pointe was much like dancing barefoot. Around the 1800’s the modern pointe shoe went into development. Satin, leather, paper and paste were and still are the primary components of a blocked pointe shoe (history of ballet). The change in shoe forced many other changes to be made to the traditional ballet, basically reforming the whole …show more content…
Due to the changes made in costumes and shoes, reforms were needed in style and technique to avoid any lag (hit the stage). Technique change was ultimately made when Marie Camargo decided to cut her skirt up above her ankles (ballet 101). And when she went up on pointe, she set the ballet world upside down. Ballet reformed from a classical, immutable, almost boring style of dance to a faster, story based, elegant style of dance. The big costumes that used to weigh them down no longer did so, giving the performers the freedom to move across the stage at their own will and even inspired some of them to try more daring things, such as leaps and lifts (everything pointe). Of course, this opened a lot of doors for more female dancers. The grace and weightlessness of female performers as they danced across the stage was what led to the biggest change in ballet thus
Many people take the modern ballet and the luxury of being able to watch beautiful dancers float across the stage for granted; not taking the time to think about all the reformations it has undergone in its history to take it from a male dominant basic dance form to the ever so elegant female dominant style now referred to as “pointe”. The elegance seen on stage today, however, was not easily earned. Some of the key aspects of this transformation were the changes in costume, technique, and gender dominance.
Ballet originated in the early 1400’s and were described by an Italian named Domenico di Piacenza(history of ballet). Men were fully dressed in wigs, blouses, jackets and bloomers. While women wore …show more content…
The first person to wear these was King Louis XIV (Reflections). His desire to show off the golden sun buckle on the inside of his shoe led to the development of the common first five positions seen in ballet today (ballet terms). In the 1700’s the soft ballet shoes started to evolve. These were made of leather soles and usually pink silk and fit like a child’s glove. The first pointe shoes were not structured like the ones worn today, rather they were only darned on the sides and bottom (reflections). Because of this, dancing en pointe was much like dancing barefoot. Around the 1800’s the modern pointe shoe went into development. Satin, leather, paper and paste were and still are the primary components of a blocked pointe shoe (history of ballet). The change in shoe forced many other changes to be made to the traditional ballet, basically reforming the whole …show more content…
Due to the changes made in costumes and shoes, reforms were needed in style and technique to avoid any lag (hit the stage). Technique change was ultimately made when Marie Camargo decided to cut her skirt up above her ankles (ballet 101). And when she went up on pointe, she set the ballet world upside down. Ballet reformed from a classical, immutable, almost boring style of dance to a faster, story based, elegant style of dance. The big costumes that used to weigh them down no longer did so, giving the performers the freedom to move across the stage at their own will and even inspired some of them to try more daring things, such as leaps and lifts (everything pointe). Of course, this opened a lot of doors for more female dancers. The grace and weightlessness of female performers as they danced across the stage was what led to the biggest change in ballet thus