a crash course in everything ballet
hello! my lovely friend @sungbeam asked me to tell them about ballet, and well, there's way too much to say. this post is divided into sections for reference. like i said, there's a lot to learn about ballet, so this post will be quite broad in terms of topics and some things i say will be based on my own experience. i'll link other good places to look if you want to learn more! if i make any spelling mistakes, rip because i suck at putting accent marks correctly.
please remember i am not a professional but i have danced at a ballet school for about 15 years, and i draw on those experiences. i also identify as female, so a guy's experiences might be a little different than mine. also we're pretty much focusing on classical ballet here.
the origins of ballet
ballet originated in the italian renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries.
it eventually spread to the court of louis xiv in france, so that's why ballet terms are french yay
the basic principles of ballet
aka the broad stuff you want to keep in mind
one is turnout - the legs rotate from the hip socket, and the feet follow.
in general, ballet calls for graceful lines
we also use port de bras - which literally means carriage of the arms (this is how you use your arms in ballet)
i'd say in general ettiquette is a large part of ballet (like curtsying to your teachers at the end of the class and such).
some basic steps of ballet
before we start with actual steps it's important to talk about the 5 basic positions, very cleverly named first, second, third, fourth and fifth position! (honestly we don't use third that much but just ignore that)
above shows how the feet are placed in each position, as well as corresponding arms.
if you don't know these, you won't get very far because harder steps often use these as a foundation/pass through the position.
OK on to some steps!
i don't wanna bore you for too long because ballet has many steps so please check out a post like this for more
plié - to bend. in demi plié the knees bend slightly but your heels stay on the floor, meanwhile in grand plié, the knees bend a lot more and in almost all positions your heels will naturally lift off of the floor.
tendu - tight/stretched. the working leg extends until only the tip of the toe touches the floor
releve - to rise. can be done on one foot or two, at the end the heel should be high enough so that all body weight is on the ball of the feet.
i can sit here and say how these steps should be done but i really suggest watching clips of the actual step
the ballet class experience
first up, what do we wear?
the exact dress code can be different per studio but generally from what i've seen, females wear a black leotard over pink tights and males wear a white shirt, black tights and sometimes a dance belt. (males and females both wear ballet slippers, although for us it's pink and the guys it's black)
or if it's a pointe class you'll see the girls with their pointe shoes on, more on those later
i'll be honest i didn't pay attention much to what guys wore until recently because i've only had about one in my classes consistently.
at my level, a lot of us wear street clothes such as sweatpants and jackets over our ballet stuff when we're cold (or just too lazy to take it off).
trashbag pants are quite a popular style.
for hair, it's up in a bun for girls
now for actual class stuff!
depending on what teacher i have, they either have us start at the barre or on the floor for warm-up stretches
alright maybe i should explain what a barre is
no, not like a bar with wine, a barre runs along the wall or there are portable barres, and you hold onto them for support
the point is that if you use the barre to find your balance, it'll help you when you don't have the barre with you anymore
barre consists of exercises like pliés, tendus, dégagés, frappés, etc
then there's centre (where there's no barre)
centre consists of combinations like adagio, tendus, pirouettes, petit allegro (little jumps) and grande allegro (big jumps).
we usually do stuff in small groups for centre, usually staying around the center of the room, going from the back to the front, or moving diagonally from one corner to another
last is usually a révérence, meant to wrap up class and show respect to the teacher (and piano accompanist if there is one)
the point of pointe
yes i had to make this stupid pun, anyways let's learn more about pointe shoes!
they are not just something you buy with no thought, you should be given approval by your teacher before getting pointe shoes.
in my opinion, people should be at least 11 before starting pointe technique because of the fact that the bones are still growing and hardening and it's good to be careful
regardless, receiving pointe shoes is a large milestone for dancers as it demonstrates that the dancer possesses a certain level of maturity
also i've gone to a professional pointe shoe fitter whenever i've needed to get new pointe shoes, don't buy shit off of wish.com like an idiot, that's how you get shoes that don't fit.
anyways let's get onto the anatomy of the shoe
usually dancers sew ribbons and elastic on themselves (each dancer does it somewhat differently due to personal preference)
let me just take this opportunity to say that contrary to popular belief, pointe shoes are not made of wood or metal LMAO
the outside is satin, the box is usually layers of fabric, cardboard and glue packed together, the shank is usually made out of cardboard layers and then the sole is a thin layer of leather.
an important aspect of being en pointe is being over the box (but not too over the box)
this blog post shows the difference between not being over your box and being over. in the top pic, see how the front of the platform is off the ground? that is considered not being over the box.
sometimes because of flaws in a dancer's technique they won't be over the box completely when they need to be, but it can also be due to the shoes being badly fit as well (as the post above states)
it's important for the shank to not be too stiff nor too soft, usually we bend the shoe when we initially get it to help "break in" the pair.
of course, the shank softens naturally the more we dance in the shoes, and when it's too soft we call a pair of pointe shoes "dead" and it's really not fun dancing in a dead pair
alright so you might wonder if it hurts?
well dancers do some stuff to mitigate the pain slightly.
we put certain things on our feet, like toe pads or even using toe tape so to protect from blisters
professionals do some crazy hacks on their pointe shoes lmao you wouldn't even believe it
now how long do these things last anyways?
i'm not a professional who goes to long rehearsals and does all the stuff they do, from what i've seen the girls at my studio can usually use one pair for months
meanwhile for professionals, depending on the pointe work they have to do the pair might only last a few hours
yea professional ballerinas tend to go through a lot of pairs per season
performances
preparing for a performance is fun but quite exhausting
for my studio, we do two productions per year (a spring show and a nutcracker)
after a cast list goes up, we start to work on the choreography, learning the steps and then cleaning once we know the steps
cleaning a dance basically means getting to a point where the steps are executed precisely
as we get closer to a performance we usually do entire scene rehearsals outside of class to get a greater sense of how our choreography fits into the whole production
there's usually one blocking rehearsal and one dress rehearsal and (edit: in) the theatre we use
blocking is just to get used to the space and what not
dress rehearsal is ran with costumes now that we've been able to practice a little on stage
also lemme talk about some stage terms to help people
did you know that part of the stage nearest to the audience used to be lower than the part further away (obviously most stages are not like that today)
so the part of the stage that would slope down is called downstage and the part that is at a higher elevation is upstage
and when someone says stage left and right that is from the dancer's perspective, facing the audience
the wings are offstage, used by dancers preparing to enter. props are also usually stored here
on performance days there's usually a class held before to warm up
during the actual show it's quite hectic backstage and whatnot
sometimes costumes are altered last minute
there are always stagehands moving stuff (we love them)
i remember girls with huge tutus would fold the sides up like tacos as they passed by people so that they'd be less of a nuisance
after all shows are done, the older dancers usually help take stuff down, for some productions since we bring the backdrops so we gotta help take them down lol
oh yea and we gotta untape the dance floor we bring
overall i would recommend watching dancers vlog their show experience, it's quite interesting to watch
is there a difference between what guys and girls do in ballet?
the answer is yes, although to be honest there are girls that can do what guys do and vice versa.
pointe is a technique largely used by females, although a common role where guys wear pointe shoes (for the jokes) is the stepsisters in cinderella.
some of the women are part of the corps de ballet, which are expected to act as one body (examples include the snow corps de ballet and the flower corps in nutcracker)
i think the guys are expected to be quite proficient with jumps (lmao the one guy in my level at my studio is always practicing his tour en l'air jumps)
a pas de deux is a dance for two, the guy usually lifts and supports the girl as and she turns and jumps and all that.
well-known ballets + the variations
variation - solo dance
the nutcracker is def well-known and a lot of companies perform it around christmas, i swear every ballerina has wanted to either be sugar plum (her variation and the pas de deux are pretty iconic) or clara when they were younger
a lot of people are familiar with swan lake and that’s prob the image that comes to mind when it comes to ballet (a swan). also search the dance of the little swans, my friends and i learned it and boy was it hard, we looked goofy as hell
the romeo and juliet ballet is also a classic, the source material is self-explanatory but since i don’t care much for shakespeare i won’t be saying much about it
i don’t think i can really make this list without talking about sleeping beauty, the rose adagio that aurora has to do takes a crazy amount of balance. also i really like the different variations the fairies do.
call me biased but the kitri act 1 variation from don 1 is so damn cool (another one of the classics!)
i also mentioned cinderella earlier! also a classic.
if you have reached the end of this, thank you for reading all that i have to say! drink water and stay healthy!
12 notes
·
View notes