subject: The Ballet Tutu In History [print this page] The Ballet Tutu In History The Ballet Tutu In History
Over the years tutus have been the costume icon for ballerinas across the world. Over time tutus have been developed from their original design and branched off into many different forms and designs. From different kinds of fabrics, shapes and even weight of the tutus, these costumes are universally recognized all over the world. So how did the history of tutus begin?Dating back to the French era of the 16th century, the precursor of the tutu was originally designed for dance costumes. The costumes then were big and heavy, which limited the ballerina's movement. In 1661 King Louis XIV took the costumes from the court onto the stage when he began and developed the Academic Royale de Danse. This academy of dance had evolved the costumes into a ballerina's permanent outfit which made dancers stand apart from the normal everyday person and made them distinct and special. At first tutus were considered somewhat scandalous due to the lack of clothing on the person wearing them but that all changed when Marie Camargo made these above the ankle skirts more socially acceptable, to show off the modern dance (focusing mainly on the complicated foot work of the ballerina) at the time. When the ballerinas began adding the pirouettes to their form of dance, they started wearing precautionary panties to prevent from any possible exposure.Sometime in the 19th century, the Italians were known for their major changes to the costumes. The Italians as opposed to the French performed a more modernistic dance form of ballet which required giving tutus an extreme makeover. They required the tutus to give the ballerinas more freedom and so created a 16-layered tutu, which flowed down to the knees. This particular tutu is commonly known as the tutu Italienne, and it first appeared in famous Ballets such as Swan Lake and the Sleeping Beauty.The creation of the romantic tutu occurred during the most wonderful and romantic period in ballet history in the eighteen hundreds. The romantic tutu has two common designs. One has a skirt that comes from the waist and falls to the knees. The second skirt design for the romantic tutu has a dropped waist and begins at the hips which are called the romantic tutu with basque. The very first romantic tutu was worn by the famous ballerina Marie Taglioni around the 1800's.Eventually there was a need for a mixture of the classical tutus and the romantic ones. This mixture of designs had created an entirely modernistic (of their time) unique tutu which was later to be known as the bell tutu. This skirt was shorter than any of the other tutus and had even more layers than anything seen around that time period.In today's modern era, tutus have developed into many different unique designs. The original tutu has branched off into something so much more than a ballet costume and has become a major icon of not only the ballet industry but of main stream fashion too. From extremely bizarre designs made from plastic and wire mesh to simple ones, ballets require different styles of tutu to fit the dance because after all the show must go on.
