Ball and Ballet

          Let us compare the two words: ball and ballet. One can notice immediately that these two words have one root, the same root. Both words came from the Italian word “ballo”, “balletto”, which means to “dance”, to “jump”. Indeed, the ball and ballet are related to each other. It associates with the main thing - dancing. That's why kings and other illustrious amateurs could participate in the ballet. And besides, any special equipment for the ballet is not required. But what kind of shoes did they use to while dancing? Louis XIV, the creator of French ballet, danced in shoes with buckles and high heels, which he and his courtiers casually wore every day. Not on toes! They often danced ballet in sandals made of special leather for foot-shaped, fastened to the sole with special straps holding the shoes on his feet.
         But where do we start the story of “rising to toes”? It begins with the era of romantic ballet, that is, in the first third of the XIX century. At this moment ballet flats were in fashion, they look like silk slippers on ribbons, which were suggested to the world by Napoleon's wife Josephine. But Maria Taglioni was the first French ballerina who put on pointe shoes for the first time in 1830. She put the French pointes in the ballet performance of “Zephyr and Flora”. Maria Taglioni put hard pads for the fingers and stood on her toes without the aid of a partner.
         However, it was not easy to dance on pointe. Ballerinas and dancers have to learn to dance on pointe studying assurance (the ability to maintain balance in different positions while standing on the fingertip two or three beats). This is the art of ballet which dancers have to master for many years.
Nowadays, pointe shoes have not lost their relevance and their manufacturing technology is close to the factory, although manual labor predominates.

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