History of Dance

History of Dance

Period Dress, Costume, and Adornment

Dress for the street was very different from the ballroom, for both men and women.

Taglioni's white muslin dress from La Syliphide designed by Eugene Lami, became the 19th century romantic ballet costume. Fashionable of the period demanded dresses made in this ethereal-looking style and adorned with ribbons















Taglioni

Romantic Ballet-Why it was loved?

In the 19th Century, as more people became employed in factories and the industrial age expanded, the romantic ballet offered a brief interlude of fantasy. It transported audiences to a time in the distant past or to a faraway land, a fantastic place under the sea, a haunted forest-some where away from the realities of war, economic upheavals and the drudgery of life.

Classic Ballet-Why did it change after being so popular?

Classic music, art, and ballet have much in common and yet many differences. What makes each art form classic? In the second half of 19th Century, visual arts styles went through romnticism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, and post impressionism movements. Music for most of the 19th Century, however, remained in a romantic period from the late works of Ludwig vab Beethoven to the impressionist composers such as Claude Dubussy and Maurice Ravel. For ballet the last quarter of the 19th century became the classical era in Russia: Swan Lake is te prototype of a classic ballet.
Marius Petipa took elements from a romanticism and expanded and wove them into fantasy plot lines, point work, and partnering. His legacy of ballets has survived and been reconstructed, re staged, and re envisioned by great ballet companies and artists through out the world.
Importing European stars of technical prowess and commissioning music to match his choreography. Petipa sculpted ballet into a classic form. His resources were prodigious, with highly trained dancers and the finest sector, costumes, and music at his command. His works were performed in one of the worlds greatest theatres and the production expenses were underwritten by the czar.
Ballets expanded in extravagance to become entire evening of entertainments. They featured dazzling ballet technique and national dancers interwoven into a dramatic story told through stylises mime scenes, all supported by beautiful music, expensive costumes and elaborate scenery.