How Ballerina Tutus Have Altered With Time

The path of the tutu through time has been full of evolution and change. The tutu itself has become an icon of the ballet and dance industry. It has come to be expected and has become the symbol of dance. That being said, the original tutus were not anything like the modern tutus that people think of when they consider the dance dress. The original tutu was a very heavy and ornate costume. This dress covered most of the legs and was similar to the dresses worn by people in the Baroque era. This tutu was worn with heals and a corset. Large head pieces were worn so that people could tell who was who on the dance floor. Fortunately, this changed towards the end of the Baroque era.

The romantic tutu was developed at the end of the Baroque era as ballet became an athletic art. The tutu itself became shorter, lighter and transparent so that the dancer's legs could be seen. The corset was removed and the headpieces were made much smaller and disappeared for lesser characters on the dance floor. The shoes became the soft slippers that people now associate with ballet. The end of the Baroque era did not see the end of change for the tutu though. The classical tutu was formed as the dancers began using the point shoes and were able to do moves that made the dancer appear to float. There was a need to make the dancer look like she had a much longer leg, therefore the tutu was shortened and made to stand straight out from the hip. This revealed the entire leg of the dancer. The modern tutu is much shorter than the classical tutu, although it still sticks straight out from the hip. This modern tutu helps to maintain the line of the dancer's body and show off her athletic moves along with her artistic grace.

The reason for this tutu was to show off her hip movements that can be difficult to see from the seats. In addition, the tutu does provide the audience with the iconic piece of clothing that they come to expect. Despite the changes in tutus over the evolution of ballet, it is possible to get the tutus of each different phase of dance. These tutus are used to recall and add originality to the pieces, showing them as how they were originally meant to be presented. The while the original tutu may be gone for the most part, certain classics such as the Nutcracker will still feature them in specific scenes. It is not uncommon to see every phase of the tutu in some shows.