BALLET PRODUCTION Theatre History From the 16 th Century - Today

16 TH CENTURY

COSTUMING  Luxuriously designed costumes make of cotton and silk  Basic costumes Male: Tight-fitting, short draped skirt and feathered helmets. Female: Abundantly decorated embroidered silk tunics in several layers with fringe Dress was heavily influenced by Rome

SHOES  Tightly laced, high-heeled and wedged boots for male and female dancers.

STAGING & LIGHTING  From the beginning of the sixteenth century, public theaters were being built in Venice (1637), Rome (1652), Paris (1660), Hamburg  Similar to theatre the staging and lighting was simple as to the underdeveloped technology

17 TH CENTURY

COSTUMING  Imaginative and fantastical  Decorative with symbols, so the audience can recognize each character  Costumes were often large; restricting movement  Wore large head dresses, and masks to distinguish between the sexes  Only males were allowed to perform

SHOES  Shoes were heeled  Very ornate and decorated

STAGING AND LIGHTS  Started off only in courts and then moved into proscenium arch stages  Chandeliers  Candles with reflectors  Oil Lamps  The stage was lit from the sides with candles and up to 6 grand chandeliers

18 TH CENTURY

COSTUMES  Around 1720 a hooped petticoat appeared, raising skirts a few inches off the ground.  Everything became more elaborate  Massive wigs and headdresses still restricted movement for dancers.

SHOES  In mid-18 th century dancer Marie Camargo was the first to wear non- heeled shoes.  After the French revolution heeled were completely eliminated from the standard ballet shoe.  1795, Charles Didelot, “flying machine”

STAGING & LIGHTING

19 TH CENTURY

COSTUMES  Romantic tutu  Close-fitting bodices, floral crowns, corsages, and pearls on fabrics, as well as necklace and bracelets  The silhouette of ballet costumes became more tight fitting  The Italians contributed to another change--the shorter dancing skirt that evolved into the tutu.

SHOES  Permanently toe-shoed feet  Soft satin slippers that fit like kid gloves. They had a leather sole and some darning on the sides and under, but not on the tip. Would’ve been like standing barefoot.  Russians started the evolution of the harder and stiffer pointe shoe.

STAGING  Going to the theatre was transformed from a social event to an experience in observation  Started the evolution of audience comfort and safety  Also improved the audiences sight lines  Started the use of iron to support theatre columns

LIGHTS  Introduction of gas lighting.  Installation included footlights and wing lights, but lacked lighting from above.  Gaslight in the theatre was revolutionary and this new technology influenced both the style and the aesthetics of theatrical lighting.  Gaslight was very bright, it could also be controlled from a distance  For the first time light could be projected onto the stage from new angles,  Colored light was achieved by what was called a 'medium

20 TH CENTURY

COSTUMES  Ballet skirts changed to become knee length tutus. Designed to show off the point work and multiple turns  The dancer Isadora Duncan freed ballerinas from corsets and introduced a revolutionary natural silhouette  Ballet dancers became less focused on the costume and more about what would allow movement

SHOES  The birth of the modern point shoe.  Often attributed to early 20 th century Anna Pavlova

STAGING & LIGHTING

MODERN DAY BALLET

COSTUMING  Development of the flat pancake tutus Multilayered skirt that gives the impression of lightness and flight.  Smaller and more compact tutus and bodices  More technology to create costumes faster and more efficiently

SHOES  Pointe shoes have evolved by becoming harder and boxier  Two types of shoes Pointe shoe Soft canvas shoes  Have not changed much since the heels during the french revolution were eliminated, making them a very crucial historical element in ballet

STAGING  Still dance in proscenium arch theatres  Some advances to the way the theatres are set up due to technological advances  Still the same basic model of the scène proscenium from ancient Rome

LIGHTS  Technological advances have allowed for More coloured washes Disc slides with patterns in some lights Intel lights that move on control Dimmer switches Spot lights from above, man powered

MODERN POINTE SHOE

CONSTRUCTION

BOX  The box is a hard enclosure within the front end of the shoe that encases and supports the dancer’s toes.

SOLE  In most pointe shoes, the sole is constructed from a single piece of leather that is attached to the shoe with adhesive and reinforced by stitching along its edges.

SHANK  Dancers will sometimes wear different pointe shoe models for different performance pieces  Shanks are typically made from leather leather, plastic, cardstock, or layers of glue-hardened burlap. The flexability of a shank is determined by its thickness and the type of material used.

RIBBONS & ELASTIC

WORKS CITED        design/284390/The-19th-century design/284390/The-19th-century