Character ballet is a form of dance that combines ballet with ethnic folk dancing. It is included in some but not all popular ballet syllabi. Character begins in the RAD syllabus in Grade I, and in the second year of training in the Vagonova syllabus. It is not ballet per se.... it is an "ethnic" type of dance, there is Polish, Hungarian, Spanish, and German character dances...mostly it is the Easten European countries, however their are other countries that have their own character dances. It is done in heeled shoes and long for the ladies, and boots for men.
Character is not as classical as regular ballet and has rhythms all its own, such as mazurkas and tarantellas. It runs like a ballet class in some ways, with work at the barre, in the center and some exercises travelling across or down the floor.
A lot of the steps you see in ballet are in character, such as plie, ran de jambe, fondue, tendue, et cetera. The rhythms are different-- plies are demi plies; done in paralell and then turned out, and insted of going down for two counts and up for two, it is quicker-- one count and one count--with the accent on the 'up." The basic character port de bras has the palms and forearms facing up, going up through first, out to second position, then turning the hands over and placing them on the hips.
I hope I could have helped give you a clearer picture of what character dancing is. If you still have any questions, please ask me and I'll try my best to help!
