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The art of ballet dance is actually very old. It takes a disciplined and athletic body to perform the beautiful movements that tell us a story. Performances usually take place in a theater. Many young girls fantasize about becoming stars in the ballet world. In actuality it takes a lot of hard work and many years if they make it at all. Since so many French names are given to ballet postures, for instance the plie, most people think that the dance itself began in France. Actually ballet is known to go back as far as 15th century Italy. These movements performed during the Renaissance led to the French development of ballet as we now know it. The Queen's Ballet Company was the very first and was located in France. By the mid 1600s ballets consisted of not only beautiful dances, but extravagant costumes, sets, and props as well. Professional ballet continued to grow, and it was very popular with royalty. For the next few hundred years the ballet's costumes continued to become more intricate, and toe dancing was introduced. The block toe shoes were not yet invented and so the dancers could only hold their positions for a second or two. La Sylphide is credited with introducing the romantic style of ballet in the 1800s. This style used the toe dancing technique extensively and brought about many changes to ballet. However, to answer the question posed by many, the traditional tutu came from the ballet Giselle where the tutu was worn by all the ghostly spirits. Romantic ballet featured many women dancers. Some ballerinas came from the United States. Ballet was also embraced in Russia and Denmark, but was actually declining in France. During these years ballet was considered ghostly and mythical, unrelated to natural human movement. In the twentieth century however, ballet began to see a shift where the moves started to resemble human movement, thanks in part to the many different styles of dance that were becoming increasingly popular. This change has continued until today where many ballets incorporate different styles of dance as inspiration. One of the first instances of this was in 1944 when the Fancy Free was introduced. This revolutionary dance combined jazz dance and ballet steps. It was an immediate hit. While traditional classical and romantic ballets are still performed, taught, and enjoyed today, ballet has evolved with the times, and still has a huge following. Ballet is a beautiful expression of what the human body is capable of, and while most of can never dream of performing many of the steps and moves that a ballet dancer can, we still enjoy watching the magic of the ballet.
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