Here is a little bit about the history of ballet. Ballet started about five hundred years agoThey started out as entertainment for the royals of Italy and France.

The First Ballet 

The first ballet was Le Ballet Comique de la Reine, which translates to "The Comic Ballet of the Queen." This ballet was 5 hours long and was watched by 10,000 guests of the French queen, Catherine de Medici, and was made to celebrate a wedding.

First Ballet Dancers

 The first ballet dancers were members of nobility and courtiers. Beleive it or not, men were actually the first ballet dancers. Women did not begin dancing until the mid-late nineteeth century. The very first ballet school (The Royal Academy of Dance) was founded by King Louis XIV who was actually a dancer himself. Pierre Beauchamps, one of the school's ballet masters, created the five positions of the feet.

A Ballet Company

 It is a great honor to become a member of a ballet company. You must work very hard because being a member of a company means rigorous classes, long rehearsals, and late performances. A ballet company consists of 5 classes of dancers(from lowest to highest): corps de ballet, coryphee, soloist, character principal, and principal.

 First off, to be a ballet dancer you must have strength and be flexible. You will have to do lots of stretches and strengthening excercises to help you gain both.

Here is just a list of many other ballet steps and positions that you can look  further into!

• Battement fondu
• Sur le cou de pied
• Petit battement
• Battement frappe
• Developpe
• Adage
• Stretches
• The Splits
• Port de bras
• Positions of the Body
• Arabesques
• Attitudes
• Pas de couruk
• Temps lie
• Pas de bourree
• Pirouettes
• Echappee
• Sissonne
• Ballonne
• Pas de Chat
• Grand Jete
• Pointe work
• Pas de deux

Tap is a very fun way to broaden your horizons on dance. It is very lively and rythmic. Tap dance originated from slaves from Africa mixing their traditional jigs with European-American clog dances. Tapping is very fun, and it isn't as strict as ballet. You can just let loose when you are tap dancing. To find out about the shoes, you can visit my shoe advice page!

Also, tap dancing is used in a lot of Broadway shows. One of my personal favorites is 42nd Street. It is amazing to see 30 pairs of tapping feet going together and making amazing sounds.

When you tap, you must make good sounds. If you are with a group, you should all sound like one big tap shoe.

Jazz is a great type of dance. It's not strict at all and you can really let loose. It can be happy and fun or kind of moody. Jazz dance started as a mixture of European and African dances. Jazz dance takes great strength and flexibility. It is not used very often, but it is very popular for girls to take for classes.

Modern started out in the United States with dancers like Isadora Duncan. Modern is a very natural type dance and it is also kind of artsy. Later dancers like Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham devised movements and technique for modern dance. Modern dancers usually dance barefoot.

A dance studio is a place where you can take dance lessons. Most dance studios have spring/summer shows, and possibly a full-length ballet such as the Nutcracker or Cinderella. A studio might offer only ballet classes, or it might offer classes in jazz and tap too. Prices for classes range from somtetimes free-$400 a month depending on the classes you take and if the studio is professional or just teaches the basics. To find a studio near you, you can look in your area phonebook or search the internet. And if you live in the Fredericksburg, VA area I highly reccommend Fredericksburg Ballet Centre.   www.fredericksburgballet.com