Famous Ballerina

In any ballet studio we observer horizontal bars, approximately weist height, and wooden bars mounted along the walls. They are very important for ballet exercises and for developing dance techniques. In fact, every ballet training class for young and mature ballerinas start with basic barre ballet positions. These warm up exercises are very important for dancers as they relax ballerinas muscles. And this is just one of the benefits that barre work brings.

Typically, barre exercises make up a significant porton of the beginning ballerinas class. Young dancers who have just joined ballet studio may find barre exercises boring at first because they are slow and repetitive.  Yet, soon enough, they learn to depend upon them. 

Overall, barre exercises are extremely important in all levels of ballet training. They gradually build strength while teaching the body correct placement. Beginning pointe dancers will find them extremely useful too, as their ankles may not be strong enough to support them in the center. Barre work also prepares ballerinas for partnering, with the barre providing support that a partner would offer later, during actual partnering.

I could not pass by excellent video from Czhech ballet school.  Maybe, the music is out of tune, but young ballerinas vividly demonstrate the importance of barres and ballet stretching.  I hope you will enjoy this video too.

It seemed such a simple idea to create special shoes for ballet dancing that would be lightweight and give the appearance of dancing barefoot. However, it took centuries to implement  the whole concept before ballet slippers (or ballet shoes) began to look the way we know it now. 

Ballet slippers usually come in four colors: pink, black, gray or white and made from satin, canvas or leather with flexible thin soles. People who just start to learn about the ballet dancing usually confuse them with pointe shoes, which have their own place in the history of ballet as we know it. 

Male ballet dancers almost always wear ballet shoes, which is understandable, because they practically don’t dance en pointe.  Young ballerinas always start with ballet slippers as their young bones and muscles are not strong enough for more for more sophisticated type of footware.  It takes them not less than five years and lot of training before they can wear both types.