The Purpose Of Dance In The 16th Century

The past three weeks have change my perspective on ballet forever. Seeing how ballet changed from the 16th century all the way to present century was mind blowing. I saw many differences throughout the centuries, for example the purpose of dancing in the 16th century was for political significance and for the use of propaganda. In the 16th century and part of the 17th century the dancing was reserved for the noble class and the royalty. In my perspective I always saw ballet dancing as girls dancing to classical or rhythmic music and wore tutu's. The reality was actually quite different, in the 16th and 17th century the primary numbers of dancers were noblemen and saw only a handful of women in the better part of the 17th century. I was most
intrigued by the costumes designs, in all the centuries that we covered in class the tutu doesn't make an appearance until the 19th century. The dancers before wore full body cover dresses which prevented them from getting all the freedom that they desired. As the centuries moved forward the dresses got shorter and shorter, until the 19th century where the tutu finally made it debut. I am glad that i was able to learn about what ballet actually is, rather than learning from people who don't have a cule on what ballet is or how it was formed.