BALLET AND ITS DANGERS

by Amy Walz

Ballet is a wonderful art form that can uplift the spirit and the soul. However, it is very dangerous!

Some ballet dancers can and do have long satisfying careers and then go on to teach into a ripe old age. However, they are the exception rather than the norm. Most often and, in fact very commonly, dancers become injured near the end of their training (which can last up to eight years), and are never able to complete it and enter into the professional arena.

Of those who continue on, some are injured a year or two or three into their profession.

Classical ballet has it's origins in the

in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries. Early ballet was participatory, with the audience joining the dance towards the end.

In the late 17th century, Louis XIV founded the Paris Opera within which emerged the first professional theatrical ballet company the Paris Opera Ballet. The predominance of French in the vocabulary of ballet reflects this history.

Theatrical ballet storytelling eventually became an independent form of art, although still frequently maintaining a close association with opera, and spread from the heart of Europe to other nations.

The word ballet comes from French and was borrowed into English around the 17th century. The French word, in turn, has its origins in Italian balletto, a diminutive of ballo (dance). Ballet ultimately traces back to Italian ballare, meaning "to dance".

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