Figure 1.--

The development of dance wear amd costumes are inextricably intertwined with the development of the dance itself. Many ballet articles are now used by dancers in other disciplined, but they were developed as part of the development of ballet. Other articles are destinctive ballet gear such as the point shoe and tutu. Royal patronage and even the French Revolution played important roles in the development of ballet and dancewear.

Origins

Ballet developed in the aristocratic courts of Western Europe, primarily in Italy and susequently France. Ballet was initially a combination of professional acrobatics and folk dance and combined with the aristocratic grace of the courtier. Prior to Le Ballet Comique de la Reine, such performances had been seen in the Italian court since the Renaissance.

Italy

The earliest know ballet peformance was staged in Milan at the wedding of the Duke of Milan to Isabel of Aragon in 1489. Some observers point to 1581, when Catherine De Medici, to please her son Henry III, arranged an extravaganza for the wedding of Duc de Joyeuse to Maragarite of Lorraine. The name of the first ballet was Le Ballet Comique de la Reine, The Comic Ballet of the Queen. Ballet became a favorite pastime for the monarch and his court. Modern ballet clearly originated in Italy where it was employed as a court spectacle. In its infancy it consisted of song, recitation, music, and dance.

France

Classical ballet is movement based on the traditional technique of the 17th and 18th century French ballet and the 19th century Italian School. Ballet was carried to the French court during the time of Catherine de Medicis, Queen of France (1547-59). The growth of court luxury under Louis XIII and Louis XIV provided the opportnity for ballet to grow in importance and it became a favored diversion. It was during the reign of Louis XIV that ballet was first performed on the public stage. Louis XIV created the most dazaling court in Europe and refinements in dance was one of the many aspects of this.

Early Dance Wear

As ballet was first developing in European royal courts there were no costumes specifically designed for dancewear. The clothes worn at tghe time look to us today as costumes, but of course that is not how they were looked on at the time. Rather the dancers simply wore their normal clothing which could be quite elaborate. Men clothing at the time was not really suiyable for dancing. They might might wear heavily brocaded tunics and coats which were thus stiff and unyielding along with knee breeches, wigs and even swords belted to their waists. Women might wear clothing even less suitable for dancing. There clothes might include stiffly laced long-sleeved bodices and panniered skirts. Such restrictive, cumbersome outfits of course allowed little possibility for elaborate athletic body movement. Thus dance steps had to be quite simple. Dignified steps in early dance were in part required by the restrictive clothing that dancers wore.

Costumes Appear

Gradually by the 16th century dance steps became more refined. Other aspects of modern ballet such as elaborate costumes began to appear as dancing became increasingly theatrical. The "ballet de cour" (court ballet) came to feature elaborate scenery and beautiful costumnes as well. Rituals such as precessions, poetic speeches, music, and dancing came together to create early ballets. The first recognized ballet known to us today was "Le Ballet Comique de la Reine" which was performed in 1581 at the wedding of the queen of France's sister.

Louis XIV

Modern ballet first emerged in France. A major step in the development of ballet as a disciplined art form was the personal interest of French King Louis XIV. Louis was the most powerful king in Europe. He laubnched a series of aggressive military campaigns to expand France's borders. Louis is better known as the "Sun King" and he sought to dazzle Europe with the splendor of his court and spectacular dance productions was part of the court desplay. This was not merely for show. Louis wanted to make sure the important French nobels were with him at Versailles rather than making trouble in the provinces. Louis took a special interest in dance. He even had a dance master, Beauchamp, and trained daily with him. One of the roles he was famous for dancing was the Rising Sun which is what originally gave rise to the term "Sun King". Louis was also responsible for the Academie Royale de Danse.

Academie Nationale de Musique et de Danse

Louis XIV established the Academie Nationale de Musique et de Danse in 1661. At the Academy, Louis' dancemaster, Beauchamp, for the first time structurally codified the basic ballet steps and recorded them. These basic steps which he recorded are the same steps which today are the basis of classical ballet. Louis' interest in dance and establishment of the Academie Nationale promoted the emergence of the first truly professional dancers in Europe. These skilled, highly trained dancers permitted the development of much more complex ballet techniques than had ever before been attempted.

Opera Houses

Ballets were initially court dances performed at the royal courts. The French court became especially known for these ballets. King Louis XIV in 1669 opened Europe's first opera house in Paris. Ballet was first seen publicly in the theater as a feature in an opera. The first opera produced with a ballet component was "Pomone". The dances were created by Louis XIV's dancing master Beauchamp.

Popularity

The public performances of ballet beginning in 1669 proved a great siccess. Promoters increased the number of performances to meet the public demand. Courtiers who dancied as a hobby or daliance were not interested in fancing publically. Thus it was professional dancers who performed in the public opera houses. The Academie Nationale de Musique et de Danse was tirning out well trained professionals who had undegone a diffivcult and demanding training prpgram. The quality of dance was thus much improved over the court dances. The actual physical movement of thees eraly professional dancers was severely limited by their lavish costumes, wigs, and headpieces. The dancers were litteraly weighed down. Another problen was teir footwear. They wore the popular court shoes of the day which were shoes with small, almost tiny heels. These shoes made it difficult to dance with pointed toes.

Women Dancers

Women had participated in court ballets. Performing in public was a different matter. Women in Europe did not dance in public performances. They also did not perform in plays. The parts for women in Shakespere's plays, for example, were performed by boys and men. Womem first performed pubically in France in 1681. These women dancers began to incorporate quick foot movements and multiple pirouettes into their dances. The resulting whirling skirts resulted in women dancers wearing "caleons de precaution" (precautionary drawers) so as to keep their legs modestly covered. Even when praticing, dancers wore elaborate clothing. It was often difficult to determine if the dancers were at an active social gathering or warming up and practicing. Leotards and tights of course were not yet available for dances. Women dancers were especially hindered by their clothing. Even worse their long skirts covered up their often elaborate footwork.

Shortened Skirts

Marie Camargo in the early 18th century was the first woman dancer who dared tackle the problen that women faced wth long skirts. She shorten her skirts. Actually not by very much--to just above the ankle. Her audiences were shocked, but this enabled them to see and appreciate the intricate footwork and dramtic complex jumps that she had developed. In fact they often were as dramatic as those performed by the male dancers. Not to be outdone, a rival, Marie Salle, further shocked Parisian audiences by discarding cumbersome petticoats that ebveloped dances and perform in a rather flimsy muslin dress. Perhaps because of these developments, women dancers in the 18th century became as important if not more important in attracting audiences.

Ballet Companies

The growing popularity of ballet gave rise to a new phenomenon--the baller company. This was a major development in the history of ballet. A ballet comapny is a group of dancers who train and opractice professionally. It allowed dancers to practice and learn complex ballet routeind together and opportunities for younger dancers to develop professionally. The first true ballet company worked out of the Paris Opera beginning in 1713. Soon other companies were organizing in other important French cities.

The French Revolution

The French Revolution at the end of the 18th century also brought about changes in dancewear. The new French Republic looked to the democraric ideas of Greece and Rome. Soon fashion followed the political turns. Dancers began wearing simple, lightweight, clinging robes inspired by classical models. These styles became fashionable for women, bith dancers and for ordinary wear. The tansition to Napoleon's Empire had only minimal affect at first. The idea became the Roman Empire rather than the Roman Republic. These dresses became known as Empire dresses and the style became popular throughout Europe, even in the monarchies fighting the Revolution and Napoleon.

Tights

A major inovation tool plave in dancewear during the late 18th cerntury. A costume maker and designer at the Paris Opéra named Maillot invented tights. This new garment had a revolution in the world as dance. Used at first fir practice, dancers were no longer incumbered by heavy restrictive clothing. Tights permitted a degree of freedom that dancers had never before experienced. Thus dancers and choreographers could develop dance techniques taking advantage of this freedom of movement. Dances were no longer limited to simple elegant steps, but complex as well as dramatic athletic movement became possible, allowing ballet to move far beyond its previous limited boundaries.

Carlos Blasis

The dramatic new developments in dance were promoted by one iof the grat dance teachers of all time--Carlo Blasis. He published a ground breaking technical manual for dance, the Trait Elementaire et Pratique de la Danse in 1820. The mannual included drawings (photography had not yet been developed). Blasis himself posed for the drawings himself, dressed only short pantss and ballet shoes to show the required body posture for each movement. Blasis was not promoting wearing shorts as practice wear, in part becaide dancers in the winter might catch colds. As a dance teacher, however, he was interested in practical for ballet practice and designed practice garments that revolutionized the clothing worn in the dance studio. Blasis insisted his female pupils wear practice outfits composed of a "... bodice and skirt of white muslin, a black sash being worn around the waist". The male dancers he insisted wear "... a jacket which fits the shape close, with trousers, all of white cloth; round the waist a girdle of black leather is worn, confined and tightened by means of buckles, thus giving support ...." (After the French Revolution, knee breaches, a symbol of the Ancien Regime had begun to be replaced with long trousers and this trend was especially noticeable by the 1820s--even for gentlemen in polite society.) For Blasis it was important that "The dress of dancers should always sit close to the shape, and fit perfectly well, that no part of the outline of the figure may be concealed; care being taken that the dress be not so tight as to confine or embarrass any of his movements or attitudes." Not only were the dancers in such garments freeer to execute complex and demanding steps, but the teacher could better assess body posture and the execution of the required movemnents.

August Bournonville

There were other advocates for simple practical practice garments. One of the most important was August Bournonville--an important Danish choreographer. He was a strong proponent of practical dancewear. He had been elated with the Paris Opéra dancewear requirements when he danced there in 1826. Long, loose trousers were replaced by knee breeches and silk hose. Long trousers in fact hid many technical faults that needed to be corrected in practice. Bournonville also created practice wear. He is best noted for his "Bournonville slipper" worn by male dancers and an important step in the development of modern dance footwear. They are still worn in productions of his ballets. Bournonville slippers are black and have a white, V-shaped vamp in the front. This helped give thge impression of a long and pointed foot, a ballet ideal.

The Romantic Movement

After the fall of Napoleon in 1815 a new artistic movement began to develop. By the 1820s the romantic movement was in full swing. Romanticism emerged in art and literature. Its high priest was the poet Lord Byron. Dance was also affected by romanticism. By 1830, ballet as a theatrical art truly came into its own. Influenced by the Romantic Movement, which was sweeping the world of art, music, literature and philosophy, ballet tool on a whole new look. The ballerina ruled supreme. Female dancers now wore calf-length, white bell-shaped tulle skirts. To enhance the image of the ballerina as light and elusive, the pointe shoe was introduced, enabling women to dance on the tips of their toes.

Paris Opera

By 1844, it was reported that the dancers of the Paris Opéra were appearing in ballet class in the following attire: "The girls are bare-headed and decolletes; their arms are bare, the waist confined in a tight bodice. A very short, very bouffant skirt, made of net or striped muslin, reaches to the knees. Their thighs are chastely hidden under large calico bloomers, impenetrable as a state secret. The men, without neckties, with throats bare, wear short vests of white material and breeches reaching half way down the leg, fastened at the waist by a leather belt." The bouffant skirt mentioned above was an early version of what we know today as the Romantic tutu, which is worn in such ballets as La Sylphide and Giselle. The puffy, multi-layered skirts reached well below the knee in the 1870s and are familiar to us from Edgar Degas' many sketches, paintings and sculptures immortalizing the female dancer.

Victorain Sensibilities

Victorian sensibilities caused a return to very elaborate dancewear. On stage in the 1890s, dance spectacle at its most lavish reigned supreme. Off stage in the rehearsal room, ballerinas wore quite complicated outfits: "First came a chemise tied at the waist with a little ribbon; then a little corset, laced up tight; then cotton panties and long cotton stockings fastened with suspenders and over these bloomers; then a white batiste bodice, sleeveless, with a ruffle around the neck and the double tarleton skirts of the tutu. A neat sash around the waist completed the picture." How dancers could possibly move in such outfits is impossible to fathom. It is easy to understand why dancers in old photographs are revealed with bent knees, flabby thighs and heavy leg muscles; teachers simply could not correct the technical and physical flaws that were hidden under all these garments. Of course, it was fashionable and desirable at the time for all women to be nicely rounded with voluptuous curves.

The Tutu

The bell-shaped Romantic dress of the mid-1800s gave way to the tutu at the end of the 19th century. Connoisseurs of ballet, the Russians wanted to see the new technical feats and fancy footwork of their ballerinas. The new long, floppy, 16 layer tutus reached to the knee and allowed the female dancers much greater mobility in such technically demanding ballets as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Paquita. The late George Balanchine's athletic choreography later led to the creation of the shorter "powder-puff" tutu that is worn in Symphony in C. These tutus allow the entire leg to be seen.

Isadore Duncan

It was in the early years of the 20th century that dance clothes began to change to those that are commonly used today. Isadora Duncan, one of the first innovators, was considered to be an extremist when she discarded shoes, stockings and tutus and danced on stage in bare feet and flimsy Greek tunics. But soon many classical ballerinas, including Anna Pavlova, began to wear the practical, uncluttered tunic for rehearsals. At the same time, musical comedy and revue dancers started to practise in bare legs, while others adopted the trendy one-piece bathing suit, made famous by the long-distance swimmer Annette Kellerman, and/or rompers.

Leotards

Modern dancers, on the other hand, wore the new leotard for their practice wear. Invented by the trapeze artist Jules Leotard, the original leotard consisted of a close-fitting suit of knitted jersey, which reached to the wrists and ankles; the woman's version came with a short fringed skirt. Today, the leotard is the accepted uniform of dancers around the world and is designed in many attractive patterns, colours and materials.

Leg Warmers

Bare legs were never very popular with dancers for practice sessions since the leg muscles must be kept continually warm. Today dancers wear not only leotards and tights but also wool leg warmers and/or plastic pants over their tights in order to keep their muscles warm and supple.

Choreographers

Many 20th century choreographers have chosen to have their dancers appear on stage in these close-fitting outfits in order to accentuate the lines and movements of the body.

Practice Costumes

Over the past 300 years of theatrical dance, there has always been a close parallel between stage and rehearsal dancewear.