Welcome to my page of interesting ballet facts! Actually, not all of them are ballet facts, but the majority. I hope you have fun reading these facts. I got them out of a book called My Ballet Book which my cousin gave to me a few years ago. And now......on to the facts!!!!
Ballet began 500 years ago in Italy as a form of court entertainment and later spread to the courts of France. The first full-scale ballet, Le Ballet Comique de la Reine (The Comic Ballet of the Queen), was staged in Paris on October 15, 1581. Written for the court of Hanry III of France, this lavish entertainment included songs, speeches, mimes, and dances and lasted almost six hours!
There are four levels of dancers in a ballet company. At the bottom is the largest group, called the corps de ballet, which performs as a unit in ballets. Next are the corphees who lead the corps de ballet and sometimes dance a ballet's smaller parts. Ahead of them are the soloists, who dance alone. And at the top are the principals who dance the lead roles. Great principal ballerinas are often referred to as prima ballerinas; great male dancers are called premier danseurs.
Ballets five basic foot positions were devised in the 18th century by Pierre Beauchamps, ballet master to King Louis XIV of France. Beauchamps created the positions so that a dancer's weight would be evenly distributed over her feet for any body position.
The Nutcracker was first performed in 1892 by the Imperial Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg. Choreographed by Lev Ivanov, with music by Peter Tchaikovsky, the story for this famous ballet cam efrom a tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a German author interested in witchcraft and black magic. In some productions, the main character, Marie, is called Clara.
An early 20th century American dancer named Isadora Duncan had a huge influence on dance today. She believed in simplicity and joyful, natural movement. Because of her, costumes became lighter and freer, dancing more spontaneous and emotional. She also did much to improve dance's public acceptability.
The rosin you rub on your shoes before ballet class to prevent slipping is a yellow powdered crystal that comes from the hardened sap of pine trees. Cellists, bassists, and violinists rub rosin on their bows to help them play better, and baseball pitchers use rosin to improve their grip on the ball.
Many ballet theaters have a small blue light mounted high on the back wall behind the audience. Its purpose is to give dancers something to "spot," or focus on as they perform pirouettes and other difficult turning movements.
George Balanchine, the great choreographer and dance master for the New York City Ballet, thought that two of the finest male dancers he ever saw were Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, whose dancing was almost solely limited to Hollywood films.
Most large ballet companies require the services of a wide variety of craftspeople, including costume makers, setmakers, electricians, shoemakers, and carpenters. The craft shops of Russia's famed Bolshoi Ballet employ over four-hundred tradespeople.
Pointe shoes are handmade. Their toe boxes are painted or "blocked" with glue, then baked in ovens to stiffen and strengthen them. Some professional dancers can go through 20 pairs of ballet shoes a week; in fact, some can wear out a pair of pointe shoes in one hour. On average, England's Royal Ballet troupe goes through 15,000 pairs of pointe shoes a year!
In the very early ballets, dancers wore masks and heavy costumes that were difficult to move in. Women weren;t allowed to dance in public until 1681, and it wasn't until the 1720s, when a dancer named Marie Camargo shortened her dress above the ankles, that ballet footwork became more elaborate.