What is Ballet?

Vadim Muntagirov, Daria Klimentova and the English National Corps de Ballet in Swan Lake.
Photography by Helen Maybanks.

A quick Google search gave us these answers from...

• The Australian Ballet- "Ballet is exciting to do, and to watch. It is an entertaining theatrical art, performed on stage to an audience. Ballet is about art, but it is also about life."
  https://www.australianballet.com.au/education/about_ballet/what_is_ballet

• The American Ballet Theatre (about their dancers)- "Their bodies are instruments of profound drama. Trained to deliver emotion through intricate yet beautiful movements and choreography. Precision. Grace. Versatility. That is where their talent lies." http://www.abt.org/dancers/default.asp

• The English National Ballet- "...we reach for innovative collaborations, creative excellence and bold ways of honouring, but adding to, traditional ballet. We dance to conjure wonderful, beautiful visions and because we have something to say." http://www.ballet.org.uk/about-us/

Marcelo Gomes and Sascha Radetsky from the American Ballet Theatre

'What is Ballet?' is a very broad question that is hard to answer in a short sentence. There are so many aspects to ballet that, when trying to think of a simple answer to put in this blogspot, more questions came up instead! Ones such as 'Where did ballet first originate?', 'How has ballet developed over the years?', 'What goes into the production of a ballet performance?', 'How do you train to become a ballet dancer?', 'What should you expect from your child's first ballet class?' (as you can see from our previous post, we have already started to touch upon the grooming aspect of ballet with 'How to put your hair into a BUN!')

Over the next several blog posts we hope to give you the answers to some of these questions, plus any more we think of along the way! Hopefully while reading these nuggets of information you will be inspired to do some further research, go and see a performance, or even join in a ballet class or two yourself!

Australian Ballet rehearsal of Wa, Feb 2008.
Photography by Dallas Kilponen.