Ballet(by Onis_OLeia)

[Bela_theDo]

I am leaving this thread for you to host Ballet. Take it away  :)

[Onis OLeia]

Ballet

 

 

Ballet is a formalized kind of performance dance. It originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and was further developed in Russia, France and England as a concert dance form.

 

There are several different styles of ballet, and some of them are classical ballet, neoclassical ballet and contemporary ballet. The kind that I have experience with is classical ballet.

 

Here in Norway children will often start children's ballet class at age 4-5. They learn the basic ballet positions, but there is a lot of play in there too. When the children get to age 6-7, the teacher starts focusing more on the forms and movements.

 

The typical clothing for those who do ballet is a leotard and tights. An example of this outfit can be found on Wikipedia, here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Leotard_ballet.jpg

 

The first shoes you start out with is a non-slippery ballet shoe that fits well on your feet. Then later when you start learning pointe, where you dance on the tips of your toes, you wear pointe shoes. An example of the pointe shoes can be found here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/PointeShoes.jpg

 

There are five basic positions in classical ballet. You can see an example of the positions here: http://www.idahorhythm.com/images/allfivepositions_1_.gif

 

 

Many of you have probably heard of the Swan Lake ballet. This is a ballet that was composed in 1875-1876 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. This ballet is one of the more complicated ones to learn, and it is quite long. It is also very beautiful to watch.

 

 

* * * * * *

 

The reason there are links instead of images in this article is that the pictures are not royalty free. This means there is a copyright on them. Linking to them is not prohibited, but putting them directly on the site would most likely be too close to the edge of copyright laws. So, click the links.

[Bela_theDo]

I did ballet for some time as well... at some point it got so hard for me,so I stopped. It is definitely more beautiful to watch then to dance in my opinion. Watched Swan Lake several times,and I would highly recommend those who havent watched yet.

[Onis OLeia]

The reason I stopped dancing was not that I didn't want to go on. It was because I was very ill at the time. It would be awesome to go back to it, if only just for the fun and strength you get from dancing ballet. There are very few, if any, places where you can dance classical ballet here in Norway if it's not to go on to a show. That's sad really, that if you are not among the ones good enough to go professional, you often stop after high school.

[Bela_theDo]

That is a shame,really.I wish I kept going on too,but it is because I lost all my flexible shape before I even went to high school. So that,it was so hard for me to go on anymore. So ,I just switched to other types of dance. But ballet has a special place in my heart.

[alannalynn]

Ooo! Cool! I learned some ballet and the steps when I was in colorguard. I think I still remember them all. :)

[Panchi]

I once did a ballet in Kathak. It was narrating a story and was done with naked feet.

[Dahmir]

I think Ballet is a wonderful form of dancing. Very graceful and beautiful to watch.

 

Thanks Onis for the information.  ;D

[Kathleen]

Last Day of the Event. It came so quickly, I hope you all enjoyed it! Feel free to throw in your last minute comments to any conversations!

[Talya]

I have to say I love ballet, but I tend to go for the Classical Ballet as that is the style i learnt when young. I did it for over 8 years. If I had seen this before I would ahave got a picture out of me, lol.

 

My favourite Ballet is The Nutkraker Suite, I have seen Swan Lake in London, it was well done, but not as fun as Nitkraker. Giselle was also good when I saw that!

[Kathleen]

I haven't seen any ballets but I would love to!

[Egwene Aes Sedai]

Ive been told that I did Ballet when I was 5 but only went to 3 lessons, aparently I screamed every time my mum left me there. My sister did if for a good 6 years but got bored of it.

I do love watching Ballet, the costumes and the music. My fav story is Swan Lake.