Ballet Style Over the Ages: 1900s and beyond!

Hello everyone!

October is bursting with festivals! All dramatic, all dazzling, and all requiring only the best costumes... kinda like your favourite art form! 🩰

That’s why this month, we’ve been twirling through time to see how ballet costumes and styles have evolved over the centuries. 

And now, as we inch toward the end of October (and the most iconic costume party of them all: Halloween 🎃), it’s time to wrap up this month’s series with a flourish!

(drumroll, please... 🥁)

We’re heading back in time one last time (😭) to the beginnings of modern ballet in the mid 20th century where tradition met innovation and ballet reinvented itself once again. Then we'll look at the present and set our sights on the future of ballet too!

Quick heads up: modern ballet is essentially a combination of three things:

1. 🏛️ Preserving romantic and classical ballet: You know, the classics, Swan Lake, Coppélia, La Bayadère, Sleeping Beauty, all those timeless ballets that still dominate the stage today. These are preserved and performed worldwide, keeping ballet’s heritage alive while inspiring every new generation of dancers. 
2. 🏃 Neoclassical ballet: A 20th-century revolution led by George Balanchine, this style kept traditional ballet technique but stripped away the frills, so no big plots, no fancy scenery and no heavy costumes. It’s fast, athletic, abstract, and all about movement as art. Every line, lift, and turn is pure geometry in motion.
3. 🪩 Contemporary ballet: This one says, “Okay, rules are great… but what if we bent them a little? Contemporary ballet fuses classical technique with modern, jazz, or even street dance elements. It experiments with turned-in legs, floorwork, improvisation, and emotion-heavy choreography. The music? Could be classical. Could be pop. Could be silence.

Together, these three strands make up the ballet we see today: timeless and ever-evolving.

So, power up that Time Machine because we're going allll the way back in time to the 1900s where neoclassical and contemporary ballet began and got a super update. ⚙️

But, wait!!

Refresh your memory with this short ballet history lesson before we take off: https://theballerinaprojectindia.blogspot.com/2024/05/exploring-ballet-its-meaning-and-history.html

Ok, NOW we can go back.

WHOOOOOSHHH! 🌪️✨

Exploring motion

If Romantic ballet was all about emotion and Classical ballet was about perfection, modern ballet is about motion and exploring how the body moves.

Neoclassical and contemporary choreographers wanted to free ballet from its own rules. That means no fairytales, predictable steps or elaborate silhouettes, only movement speaking for itself. 🎨

The stage was now a blank canvas. Dancers became brushes dancing across the stage, painting the canvas with each bold movement, and bringing a new meaning to dance. Every gesture meant something and even stillness was powerful.

No glitter, no glam

Gone were the sparkles, tutus, and royal grandeur. Modern ballet stripped away the layers, literally and metaphorically. ✨

Costumes became simple, minimalist, and functional. Leotards, tights, plain skirts, weird costumes, and clean lines replaced the elaborate designs of the past. Sets faded into the background or disappeared entirely, because this time, the focus wasn’t on what you saw… but how it made you feel.

One example of this sort of ballet is the Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky which is a ballet about a tribe performing a human sacrifice that they believe will bring about the change of seasons. It was one of the first modern ballets and it understandably caused a huge commotion when the refined, elegant, dressed-up audience watched this unexpectedly awkward and grotesque ballet.  🍃

Light and shadow became the new stage décor. Movement and music carried the story.

Ballet no longer needed crowns, castles, or costumes to be powerful, because it was now movement with a purpose and a redefined art form. 🎭

Ballet with pop, jazz, and everything else

In ballet, loosening rules meant breaking a lot of boundaries too. Choreographers began mixing classical technique with everything from jazz and modern to pop, electronic, and even silence. 

This new fusion was an exploration into expression without limits and it opened a new world of possibilities. Ballet no longer had to fit into one box or follow one rhythm. Dancers could move to a heartbeat, a drumbeat, or no beat at all. 🎶

And the music? Anything goes as long as the audience can feel the emotions, vividly.

Modern ballet was less about breaking traditions but about expanding them.

Dancing into diversity

As ballet entered the late 20th and 21st centuries, something huge began to shift the stage finally started (that's the key word) opening up to everyone. 

For centuries, ballet had been wrapped in the same mold: thin, tall, white, European, and rigidly traditional, but modern ballet started breaking that image apart, step by step. 

Companies around the world began embracing dancers of all backgrounds, body types, and cultures. We started seeing ballet performed in sneakers, on streets, on beaches, and in community centers, not just your usual grand theaters. The world was finally realizing that ballet didn’t belong to one group of people, but anyone who wanted to move and express themselves. 🩰

Diversity in ballet wasn’t just about inclusion... it was and still is about changing the art form itself. Choreographers began blending styles and influences from across the globe. Classical lines met African rhythms, Indian hand gestures, Latin flow, and street-style power. Ballet wasn’t just a European art form anymore. 🌏

And honestly? That’s what makes it more beautiful than ever.

There's still a lot of work to be done though. Major ballet companies across the world are still not diverse enough, and a lot of potential ballerinas still face discrimination because of how they look. It's improving, but it needs to be a lot quicker and more effective to actually make a difference.

Ballet as a Science

As ballet twirled into the modern era, it wasn’t just the music or movement that evolved but also the science behind them.

For centuries, ballet technique was passed down like tradition but the science behind it wasn't exactly... strong, so a lot of it really just focused on simple steps plus some side tricks if the ballerina doing them was strong enough. Now, thanks to sports science, biomechanics, and anatomy, we do know how exactly the body works and how we can use it to the best of its abilities. 🧠

Modern dancers train smarter, not just harder. They understand how muscles, joints, and balance actually function which allows them to jump higher, turn cleaner, and stay injury-free for longer. Warm-ups are strategic and target specific muscle groups to get them warm and moving. Everything becomes a science

And the tech? It's a game-changer.

From LED lighting and motorized sets that bring stories to life (without accidentally setting anyone on fire like gaslights), to fabrics like nylon, spandex, and moisture-wicking mesh that make movement easier, ballet is finally catching up with modern innovation. Pointe shoes are being redesigned with ergonomic padding, recycled materials, and shock-absorbing soles. Even studios are upgrading with Marley floors that protect dancers’ joints. 🔬

All of this means ballet isn’t just more beautiful... it’s more accessible.

Dancers from many walks of life can now afford, train, and perform ballet without being held back by pain, injury, or cost. Science has turned ballet from something elite and exclusive into something that is just a bit less destructive for the human body. 💪

Balletcore takes the world by storm

And then came balletcore: the aesthetic that pirouetted its way out of the studio and into the world of social media.

You’ve seen it: wrap sweaters, satin skirts, pink tights, leg warmers, hair buns, and that 'I just came from ballet class' vibe. Suddenly, ballet wasn’t just a performance art but a whole aesthetic that screamed feminine, chic, and very pink. 🎀

But balletcore isn’t just about the incredibly inaccurate yet pretty clothes. It’s a quiet celebration of the beauty, discipline, grace, and artistry behind ballet. It’s people embracing the strength and softness of ballet in their own way, whether they’re dancers or not. 🌸

Fashion runways, streetwear, and even gym outfits began borrowing from ballet’s clean lines and timeless elegance. And online? Balletcore blew up. Social media turned daily class routines, pointe shoe prep, and rehearsal videos into a global phenomenon, showing that ballet isn’t distant or elite anymore.

It’s everywhere. It’s aesthetic, it’s art, it’s lifestyle.

And... the future?

So… what’s next?

Ballet has survived five centuries of revolutions, wars, fashion trends, and TikTok, so it’s safe to say it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. But it is changing... a LOT. 

The future of ballet looks more inclusive, innovative, and interconnected than ever before. Dancers today are redefining what “the perfect body” means. They come from every background, every shape and every country and they’re proving that grace has nothing to do with size or skin tone. 🩰

Technology will keep playing its part too. We're just brainstorming here, but think holographic performances, AI-assisted choreography, virtual studios, 3D-printed pointe shoes, and interactive lighting that responds to movement. 💡

But beyond the tech, the heart of ballet’s future lies in its people. In dancers and audiences who want authenticity, connection, and meaning. Ballet is no longer locked inside grand theatres; it’s streaming online, popping up in streets, schools, and unconventional spaces around the world where it's actually helping people learn new skills that are useful in regular life too.

The future is probably going to wildly different and beyond anything we've imagined but at its core, ballet has always been about one thing: turning discipline into beauty, and movement into emotion. 🥺

That’s something we're not going to see changing anytime soon. (hopefully)

And that's all for this month!

What just read is just the slightest glimpse into the world of modern ballet. If this fascinated you, go down an Internet rabbit hole and learn more. 🕳️🐇

If you want to watch this IRL, head over to YouTube and watch some of the incredible performances available there.

We hope you enjoyed reading this whole series! Let us know in the comments about what you thought about this month's series, any questions and what we should do next week too.

Bye!

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