subject: Kinds Of Ballet [print this page] Ballet has changed very greatly since it began four hundred years ago, but some of the old ballets are occasionally seen in theaters today. Some of them had no real story, but were like acting out various ideas, such as a boy and girl making love, or jealousy, or other human actions and emotions. There were some characters that were used over and over in many ballets by different composers and writers. They were named Pierrot, Harlequin, Columbine, Pantalon, and others, and were taken from a kind of show they had a long time ago called pantomime. Many of the things that were started long ago are still in use today. Dancers no longer wear masks, but the kind of little skirt they used to wear is still worn today. It is called a tutu, and there are two kinds, the classic tutu, a short skirt made of many layers of white cloth, and a romantic tutu, made the same way only longer. The classic tutu comes down to just above the knees, but the romantic tutu comes down to the ankles. There are three kinds of ballet: Classic Ballet, where dancers wear the old costumes, and where the dancing is done on the toes (the girls do, but not the boys), with all of the classic positions; Romantic Ballet, which is almost like classic bailer, with some things extra; and Modern Ballet, in which the dancers wear whatever kind of clothes they need to make them look like what they are supposed to be in the story.
