Ballet

Ballet is a dance form which started in the royal courts of Europe: the body is held mostly upright and the legs are turned out from the hips; uses five basic positions of the feet; uses French as its language. A few of the French words are: "Plie", which means to bend the knees, "Releve", to rise and to lift the heels away from the floor, "Arabesque", which is the dancer stands on one leg with the other leg extended in a straight line to the rear. The position of the arms and the height of the raised leg may vary; "Demi-Pointe" With the full weight of the body on the toes and the ball of the foot, "En Avant", to the front, "JetÐ"©", A leap in which the dancer propels himself with a push off from one leg, covers space in air, and lands on the other leg, "Pirouette", A turn of the body done while standing on one leg, the other leg being held in any one of a number tradition position. A pirouette is done on demi-pointe by the male, on pointe by the female dancer and "Saute", is a jump just to name a few. Ballet is a form of dancing for theater audiences. It is a dance form that tells a story, express a mood or simply reject the music. The technique and special skills differ greatly from those of other dancers. A ballet dancer performs movements that are unnatural for the body, but makes the movements gracefully. When performing each routine it is with perfect balance while spinning like tops without become dizzy.

In ballet there are five basic positions of the feet, numbered one to five. This technique is called the turnout. Basically, a turnout is of 90 degree from the hip socket, so that the dancer can stand with heels together and the feet extending sideways in a straight line. This is known as the first position. Including the first positions PremiÐ"Ёre (prehm-YAHR) and the other three positions are closed. Meaning the feet and legs are closed touching each other outward. In the second position Second (se-GOHND), the feet are opened out from the first position to give a space of about 30 cm (12 in.) between the heels. In the third position Troisieme (trwah-ZYEM), the heel of one foot is against the instep of the other, with the feet turned outward. In the fourth position QuatriÐ"Ёme (kah-tree-EHM), one foot is advanced about 30 cm in front of the other, and both are turned outwards. The fifth position CinquiÐ"Ёme (san-KYEM), the feet are turned outwards and placed side by side with the heel of the left foot against the toe joint of the right and vice versa.

Modern dance is an expression that is different than ballet; uses the body with a wider range of motion; the legs turned parallel or turned in; feet can be flexed and the back rounded; head is not always held erect. When performing modern dance the entire body is used to express anything that can be danced. The dancing comes from within the actual performer. There is no one to follower, no set patterns, but their own movement and style according to the dance. Modern dance themes are taken from the ups and downs of real life in its tragic as well as its humorous aspect.

There are many different modern dance techniques to name a few are: Horton base -modern, Graham-based modern and the Dunham-based modern. Lester Horton developed his own approach that incorporated diverse elements including Native