The Unchanging World Of Ballet

One thing I love about ballet is that this art form has been standing still in time for such a long time. Of course new, modern works are created all the time, and the demands on ballet dancers to be more agile, stronger, fitter, and have better technique grow all the time. But basically it has stayed the same since it first evolved. We still do the same barre exercises, pirouettes and stretches ballet dancers have always done. And in five hundred years from now, we will probably still get up in the morning and start doing our pliés to warm up. Among all the fast changes going on in the world today, I think it feels reassuring some things will never change too much...

In 1936 photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt did a shoot for LIFE Magazine's December issue of that year. It featured New York's School of American Ballet, and except for the girls having different hair styles and a bit softer bodies than today's ballet dancers, everything looks a lot the same as the dance studios of 2014!

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