Emma Grace Gerrard

The research file I have composed for this project has enabled me to get an insight and understanding into the world and art of ballet. The history of ballet was not only interesting but it helped to gain a brief knowledge into the background of how ballet started and how it has developed over the centuries. The research I have completed has furthermore enlightened me into why the costumes of ballet generally show majority of the leg (with the classical tutu) or at least the feet. This is done to show off the amazingly complex leg and feet movements and techniques, which also allow the audience to appreciate it.

My research into ballet costumes has also been interesting and useful because my images have enables me to see the types of costumes used in classical ballets and to gain the knowledge of the types of costumes and how they have changed through history. I found the research into tutu construction interesting as in there are other ways to construct a tutu. However I found it hard to find much on the construction of classical tutu's as there does not seem to much available and the one book I did find in the library which looked promising turned out to be written in French.

Ballets I have watched in the last 2 years including, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and La Bayadère. However I wanted to refresh my memory of the art so I watched a couple of ballet performance on DVD from the Uni library including The Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet was a modern ballet in the sense of the costumes which appeared particularly futuristic influenced. The Nutcracker was a classical ballet whose costumes were stunning.

I have furthermore looked into positions, poses and movements within ballet. This has also enabled me to understand the strain in which a ballet costumes takes during a performance and would therefore need to be constructed well to last a reasonable amount of time and to be able to withstand the impact of the dancer's complex jumps, pirouettes, being lifted by the male dancer and other movements.

Overall from my research I have gained knowledge and understanding into ballet and its costumes which has not only been interesting but has also helped me to understand my project more and the requirements from the client which was to make a classical plate tutu and the sort of movements that will be performed in the costumeb I make.