Holly Arbon

Dance HIstory to 1850

Research Paper- Ballet and Gender
December 6, 2012

How gender-role shifts affected ballet choreography

The attitude towards male dancers, as ballet was developing, strongly influenced
the emerging choreography and has carried through to the stereotypes of our modern

society. There was a point in time where the male dancer was the main performer and
they would even have men come on stage dressed as women. This developed into
having masked females on stage who kept their identity hidden to avoid public
acknowledgement. With time however the roles reversed and the women became the
main performers- oft times with women dressing up as men to fulfill the male roles. Talk
about some major role reversal. In this paper we will discuss these occurrences in
greater detail and discuss how they still affect the culture of dance today.
From the 1660s through the 18th century, we see leaps and bounds of progress
and change in dance technique and popularity. A great influence on the development of
dance as an art form, was the participation of royalty. As King Louis the 14th, 15th and
16th participated in and supported the dancing, it became a fancier endeavor. We are
often told that money follows the arts and this example clearly proves the validity of
such a statement. The influence of the Kings helped because they had the funds to
support performances, it also affected the popular choreography of the day. The
movement that the Kings were capable of and participated in were the movement
choices for performances. (Kassing) Think of it, if I am the King and I am capable of
doing very beautiful turns, I will plan to do many beautiful turns in my dance so as to
show off my skills.
The woman is introduced as a performer with the help of Jean-Baptiste Lully
(1632-1687). Lully was at the Royal Academy and made several influential changes
that influenced developing choreography and techniques. One of these changes was to
move performances from a community setting to a stage. This change brought the idea
of turnout into the codified technique of ballet training. Another influential change

brought women on-stage. With the performance, The Triumph of Love, women are
introduced to the stage. Male dancers were still the norm, but this production started
the female dancer toward a life on the stage as opposed to males filling both the male
and female roles. It was generally more exciting to watch the males dance because
they performed in pants which allowed fun jumps and beats that were masked by the
skirts of their female counterparts.
In the 18th century, dance continued to move forward; it moved a little further
away from the social events and courts, and was being displayed more regularly onstage. This change began to introduce many different ideas with music, choreography
and technique. In the theater, professional male dancers took the leading roles in the
ballets. (Quirey)
Louis Dupre (1697-1774) was one of these famous and professional dancers of
his day. Dupre danced with movement that was large, slow and majestic. Gaetan
Vestris (1729-1808) was trained by Dupre. The movement of Vestris was very
impressive, featuring jumps and the great new move, the pirouette. The skills of Vestris
earned him the title of God of the Dance.
Gaetan Vestris had a son, Auguste (1760-1842), who followed in his fathers
footsteps. Auguste became a fine dancer in the Paris Opera, his career beginning at
the young age of 12. He danced at the Opera for 35 years. (Kassing) It is clear from
the accounts about these male dancers that there was a time and a place where the
male dancer was thought to be beautiful, strong and desirable in a grander way than our
typical modern evaluation.
Continuing forward with fabulous male dancers, we find Maximilien Gardel who

danced at the Paris Opera. Maximilian crossed boundaries with his performance in the
production of Castor and Pollux. In this production, he appeared on-stage without the
typical mask. Up until this point in time, masked performances was the norm. This
included the women performers as they hid their identity during performances. The
female dancer wasnt always eager to let everyone know who it was behind the mask.
This was due, in part, to the cultural views that were not yet entirely accepting of the
appearance of females on the stage. (Reyna)
Maximilien had a brother by the name of Pierre Gardel (1758-1840) who also
became a soloist at the Paris Opera. Pierre also went on to choreograph many
beautiful ballets and became the chief ballet master at the Opera. The main positions
and highlighting roles were claimed by the men, but this is a concept that was slowly
changing.
With time, the female dancers began to creep further and further into the
limelight. One of the first appearances at the Paris Opera was by Francoise Provost.
There is not a lot of known, recorded information regarding her appearances but she
became more well known for her efforts in teaching as her pupils rose to stardom.
Provost trained the legendary Marie Salle and the revolutionary Marie Camargo.
Growing up in a performing family, Marie Salle (1707-1756) was a child prodigy.
Salle began dancing in costumes that were more flowing in nature. She began to wear
greek-inspired dresses that were draping, and she would often allow her hair to be
down during the performances. Salle was very well-loved but was viewed by many as a
rival to the popularity of Marie Camargo who was also very much involved in reforming
movement style and costuming.

The dancing style of Camargo was much quicker, with lots of attention to fancy
footwork patterns. Because her choreography was to show off her footwork, Camargo
also made some revolutionary costume changes. Camargos contributions were to
ditch the heels for a flat pair of slippers and to shorten the length of the skirt. These
great artists paved the way for female dancers to develop greater technique and to
eventually become the preferred gender to be viewed on stage.
As females became more and more frequent on the stage, we can see that
technique began to change in order to accentuate the grace and beauty of the female
dancer in contrast with the strength and power that had been present with the male
dancers. As ballet pointes were introduced, this distinction grew. One choreographer
who helped to define this difference was Charles Didelot (1767-1837). Didelot
choreographed a ballet entitled Flore and Zephyre, which featured dancers on wires in
order to portray a sense of weightlessness. The technique of using the wires allowed
dancers to dance on the tips of their toes. It was a success and various choreographers
worked to make this a part of ballet.
Marie Taglioni (1804-1884) danced La Sylphide in the 19th century in shoes that
were a sort of modified dance slipper with padding. With time the modern day pointe
shoes were developed. This weightless, effortless, floating effect that pointe dance
created was loved by audiences and incorporated into ballet classes the world over.
This technique widened the gap and the differences that existed between the
choreography performed by male and female dancers. Before the introduction of pointe
technique, the choreography for male and female dancers was very similar. With the
introduction of the pointes and simple lifts, however, Didelot made it possible to define

more exactly which steps are best danced by a woman and which best by a man.
(Lawson, 45) The female took on the more graceful role while the male counterpart
took on a role that emphasized his strength. This gender-based distinction became a
very essential element of the pas de deux. During a pas de duex, the man and the
woman are both presented and highlighted equally as dancers. When this fact was lost
sight of during the late nineteenth century, in every European country except Denmark
and Russia, the male dancer became effeminate and his part was often played by a
woman en travesti. (Lawson, 45)
With time the audience and the culture shifted to prefer the female dancer on
stage. There were even many dance critics who openly mocked male dancers who
performed on the stage, stating that they were not edifying to watch, but rather
awkward. Because of this change of preference, the stage slowly became filled with
more and more female stars. This caused a greater development of pointe technique
and ballets highlighting female dancers have increased from that time up to the present
day.
Ballet is considered to be an essential technique base for dancers in the United
States today. If you were to ask the average american about ballet- the majority would
agree that it is a girl thing to do. It stands true that choreography and costuming
generally highlights the female dancers. It is also true that the amount of girls who are
trained in ballet far outnumber the boys who are found gracing the stage. Balanchine, a
famous 20th century choreographer often said: Ballet is woman. (Hering) Doris Hering,
a Dance Magazine journalist commented that fathers are still not approving of their sons
becoming professional ballerinas, however, it is becoming more lenient.

Ballet has become and is continuing to be a female-dominated art form.

Therefore, the choreography, the introduction of the pointe shoe and the continuing
stigma about the male dancer on-stage is directly influenced. The gender-roles that a
community and culture value will strongly influences the arts, especially in the
performance and choreography of ballet.

Bibliography
Hering, Doris. "Ballet: Today and Tomorrow." ebscohost.com. Ebsco Host,
n.d. Web. 5 Dec 2012.
Kassing, Gayle. History of Dance. Gayle Kassing, 2007. Print.
Lawson, Joan. A History of Ballet and its Makers. New York, New York:
Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1964. Print.
Quirey, Belinda. May I Have the Pleasure? The Story of Popular Dancing.
London: Dance Books, 1976. Print.
Reyna, Ferninando. A Concise History of Ballet. New York: Grosset and
Dunlop, 1965. Print.