Hello darlings! It's your favourite pink-tutu-wearing time traveller, Emma, here with another dose of ballet tutu history! It's a balmy Tuesday here in Paris, perfect for a day of whipping around in a frothy tutu and gazing at all the fashion! And what a fascinating date we have for our #TutuTuesday today! It's the 15th of May, 1951!
Today marks a real turning point for the world of ballet, so let me take you back in time on my pink-tutu express train! We'll travel through the streets of post-war Paris, breathing in the crisp air of a brand new era. This is the time when the ballet world was coming out of its shell, with new choreographers and new ideas blossoming in the fresh air. This period in dance history saw a real emphasis on expressing movement through new, modern forms. We’re leaving behind the traditional ballets of the 19th century and diving into a more bold and captivating vision of dance, fuelled by the innovative and inspiring movements happening right before our eyes!
A World of Change in the Ballet World
After World War Two, the whole world was trying to pick up the pieces and find its way to a new sense of peace. And you know what? Ballet did just that too! This period saw a wonderful blossoming of choreographers who shook up the ballet world with their exciting ideas. They were taking a look at what had been done before and deciding, “You know what? Let’s go in a completely different direction! Let's take some bold steps into a new, daring world of ballet.” We're seeing this revolutionary approach to movement really take centre stage, leading to all sorts of fascinating new dance creations, like, well, Le Sacre du Printemps, by Igor Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. These dances threw out all the conventional rules of ballet, throwing audiences right into a brand new universe of emotion and raw movement!
The ballet tutu, itself, began evolving as a symbol of the dynamic change within the world of ballet, taking on all sorts of new and thrilling designs. The traditional layered tulle tutu, with its romanticism, still had its place, of course. However, a new breed of tutu was taking over, capturing a feeling of freedom, a powerful movement in time and space. Imagine: long, graceful lines, more revealing forms, and excitingly dramatic shapes, all reflecting a thrilling re-birth of expression through dance!
Time for some Tutu Style!
Let's take a trip to the streets of Paris in 1951, because if you can believe it, fashion in the ballets and on the street had started mirroring each other in this fascinating way. We were starting to see the bold elegance of the dance world translated into the real world. Now that was a time to see a beautiful tutu with an interesting twist! Imagine that gorgeous long, flowing tutu that makes you feel like a dream! The dancers were getting to dance in all kinds of tutus, which had taken the classical form and turned it on its head – all the better for their movements to come alive. I imagine, it must have been simply amazing to be a ballerina on stage then. They were a part of this incredible revolution in movement! And guess what else, darling, the women were also rocking this revolutionary spirit in their everyday lives – we were all embracing the fresh energy of the world, with our skirts flowing around our feet in a whirl! We'd look down at the ground as we moved and wonder "how far is too far to wear my tutu out?" I do! I want to have it all the time! I'm sure the choreographers felt this same feeling. That spark of "where are we going with this?" is something very special!
A Place for Every Tutu!
One of the amazing things that made the ballet world even more vibrant in 1951 was that, unlike today where there are often rigid, pre-set dance companies, there were choreographers working on all kinds of new ideas all the time! It was a time where people were so open to new ideas. They’d come into a studio, have an idea for a tutu, put a skirt on a dancer and the next thing you know you’ve got a new, beautiful ballet!
Imagine walking into a studio in Paris and seeing this! I bet it must have felt so inspiring, seeing all the new talent in all the studios! It was like a giant ballet family coming together with so much excitement about what was going on. It wasn't about rigid structures. It was all about letting that beautiful spark of creativity and new movement just happen! And wouldn't you know it, some of the most amazing choreographers – George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Martha Graham – just burst onto the scene! They had this incredible ability to see beauty in the simplest forms – forms that went against all the old conventions. There’s something truly fascinating about a time in ballet history when they really went with the flow of the dance, making something beautiful out of a movement as simple as turning. It felt so real and exciting, you could just feel it. That’s a wonderful inspiration to remember when you're at a ballet, ladies, you know what I mean!
More Tutu Fun
So we’ve taken our trip back to 1951 and we can see the world of dance and fashion changing and becoming so much more free than before, right darling? I want you to try to think of what would have happened if you could take this time travelling tutu and journey back to this era. Imagine the excitement of being in the crowd when these amazing dancers were stepping onto the stage in Paris, London and all the beautiful places in the world, in tutus that would have been absolutely amazing to watch. You can almost see the whirl of tulle!
What I find so special about ballet history is how much inspiration we can draw from these eras! Even now, this spirit of creativity in tutus is still out there, being expressed by all kinds of ballet dancers around the world!
We can take those bold movements and translate them into the world we live in today. It can give you the confidence to go ahead and just wear what makes you happy. After all, we’re all about that here at pink-tutu.com – our motto is "pink tutu always"!
I hope you loved taking this time travel trip with me today darling. I’ll be here next Tuesday with another exciting slice of ballet tutu history – and I hope you will too! Don’t forget to keep an eye out for my next post here on pink-tutu.com! Happy tutu-ing!
This has been Post #6229 for my #TutuTuesday Ballet Tutu History blog, catch me next week! And remember to wear your pink tutu always!
