Ballet Production

1. Ballet Production Theatre History From the 16th Century - Today

2. 16th Century

3. 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

4. SHoes • Tightly laced, high-heeled and wedged boots for male and female dancers.

5. 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

6. 17th Century

7. 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

9. Shoes • Shoes were heeled • Very ornate and decorated

10. 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

13. 18th Century

14. 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.

15. SHoes • In mid-18th 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”

16. Staging & Lighting

17. 19th Century

18. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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

23. 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

25. 20th Century

26. 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

28. Shoes • The birth of the modern point shoe. • Often attributed to early 20th century Anna Pavlova

29. Staging & Lighting

30. Modern day Ballet

31. 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

33. 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

35. 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

37. 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

39. Modern Pointe shoe

40. construction

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

42. 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.

43. 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.

44. Ribbons & elastic

45. Works cited • http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/o/origins-of-ballet/ • http://www.e-dancewear.com/Dance_Wear_Ballet_History.html • http://cassstudio6.wordpress.com/lighting/17th-century-theatre-lighting/ • http://www.pbt.org/community-engagement/brief-history-ballet • http://www.the-perfect-pointe.com/PointeHistory.html • http://www.compulite.com/stagelight/html/history-4/history-4-text.html • http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1542181/theatre-design/284390/The-19th-century