Costumes for ballet

As every other dance ballet has developed some specific types of costumes  which are worn by the dancers and are the best approach to reveal the movement of the body and sillhouette in order to look beautiful on stage. I will focus this article mostly on the tutu skirt  and its variantions, the cloth element which is considered to represent ballet as a dance.

•  Romantic tutu which was actually the first tutu created in 19th century during the Romantic ballet era, as I already mentioned in my historical article. It was worn by the famous ballerina Marie Taglion in La Sylphide performance, 1832. The romantic tutu is a skirt with three-quarter lenght, belt-shaped. The matherial it is made of is tulle. It is free flowing between the ankle and the knee of the ballerina. 

• Classical tutu has two vartions - bell and pancake. Both are really short and stiff skirts. The Pancake Classical tutu extends outwards from the hips into a pancake shape. The Bell Classical tutu fitted bodice, it's longer than the pancake classical tutu and its shape is more slight (like a bell). The pancake skirt has more layers and for that reason usually requires a wired hoop.

A pancake tutu worn by Aurora in Speeping
Beauty, Royal Ballet

Classical bell tutus in "The Dance Class"(1874),
Edgar Degas painting

• Balachine/Karinska tutu is also really short. This skirt has less layers than the Classical one. It looks similar to the pancake tutu but has a softer flow and does not require a wired hoop. 

Balachine/ Karinska tutu originally designer for George Bizet's Symphony in C

• Platter Tutu is a skirt with almost flat surface which straights from the waistline of the ballerina. It is also very similar to the pancake tutu.

Platter tutu in "Sleeping Beauty'", American ballet theatre

All the different types of tutus are still created for variety of ballet performances. It depends mostly on the costume designer's vision for the dance. The Romantic one is showing less of the body of the dancer and her moves so I'm considering it as least possible for my practical work but on the other hand, I'll surprised to discover that most of The Nutcracker performances use exactly a Romantic tutu to represents to dress "the snowflakes".

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet_tutu

http://oliviatothepointe.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/history-of-tutu.html

http://blog.diavio.com/2012/03/26/tutu-anyone/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Degas-_La_classe_de_danse_1874.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexandra_Ansanelli_Aurora_Sleeping_Beauty_Royal_Ballet.jpg
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/560979697306484052/