Training
Formal ballet training has been taking place since the late 1600's. The oldest ballet school was founded in 1713 by Louis XIV of France as the Royal Dance Academy School; it is now called the Paris Opera Ballet School.
Students typically learn ballet terminology and the pronunciation, meaning, and precise body form and movement associated with each ballet technique term. Emphasis is placed on strengthening the legs and body core (the center, or abdominals) as a strong core is required for many ballet movements (especially turns), and on developing flexibility and strengthening legs and feet for dancing en pointe.
Once the foundation of basic technique has been laid, female dancers begin to learn pointework and male and female dancers begin to learn partnering and more advanced jumps and turns.
Read more about this topic: Classical Ballet
Famous quotes containing the word training:
“I’m not suggesting that all men are beautiful, vulnerable boys, but we all started out that way. What happened to us? How did we become monsters of feminist nightmares? The answer, of course, is that we underwent a careful and deliberate process of gender training, sometimes brutal, always dehumanizing, cutting away large chunks of ourselves. Little girls went through something similarly crippling. If the gender training was successful, we each ended up being half a person.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
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—Bill Cosby (20th century)
“There is all the difference in the world between departure from recognised rules by one who has learned to obey them, and neglect of them through want of training or want of skill or want of understanding. Before you can be eccentric you must know where the circle is.”
—Ellen Terry (1847–1928)