I assume that the balletcore crowd is a bunch of uninformed people who don’t truly understand and know ballet as an art form and sport. They’re literally only into it for the aesthetic.
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Yeah, that’s the gist of it.
That said- I’ve never seen a pointe shoe listing, even on wish (those shoes being arguably not real pointe shoes), that doesn’t include very visible warnings about their inherent dangers and not to use them without proper training.
The other thing that makes this kinda hard to talk about is balletcore in and of itself isn’t bad, it’s just being misused…
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Just use ballet flats at that point
I mean- If you must wear a dance shoe as a street shoe, yeah.
But seriously wear white/pink/blue dressier sandals instead.
It won’t clash with your aesthetic—will actually compliment it—and they’re actually street shoes.
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I appreciate having labels like -core and -punk and stuff when it comes to lighthearted things like aesthetic. It’s mostly just for fun, yaknow? And like @Xelyn_Craft said, it makes it easier to find things to match specific looks when they’re labelled that way. It’s a lot easier to put “dark academia” or “strega” or “darkcore” in the search bar and get thousands of outfit/interior design/wallpaper ideas at once than it is to try and coax google into giving you results for all of those individually with descriptive words.
And transversly it can be used as a decent tagging system. En masse it’s simpler and more effective to use broad genre labels, but adding niche tags attracts people who like those niches.
everybody still uses these, thus how bookstores and libraries and publishers and ect. are able to market and shelf material appropriately. But again microlabels add specificity and attract niche audiences. Like how we pick one main genre for a wattpad story and then add tags, like ‘Romance’ with ‘bxb’ and ‘slowburn’ tags.
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Worse. “I took kiddie ballet for 10 years and did competition dance”. My kid takes ballet and tap, but there’s a world of difference in a rural dance class for 3-4 and 5-6 year olds and those who are going to train professionally. I think their teacher could train someone on that level because he is that decent, but his focus is more teaching kids to love dance than getting that serious.
And competition dance isn’t ballet focused. It might hold elements, but that’s it.
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Well- There are actual ballet comps, like YAGP, but most of the people competing in that one especially are the same ones going to pre pro summer intensives.
What I’ve noticed with people in balletcore who have danced and not serious ballet tend to be the comp kids (the ones who aren’t anti-ballet snobs), and they tend to lean toward the hypersexualised side.
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In that case, how would you describe this aesthetic?
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Balletcore???
Sounds like you can put core on anything now 
I’ve watched short and long documentaries about ballet and know about all the hard work that goes into making something look so effortless.
I can understand how it must be frustrating when people decided to adopt it as an aesthetic and romanticize it, seemingly taking away what is really important about ballet.
When I first learned this years ago, it made me realize how much goes into ballet. It’s not just about dancing and learning the moves and becoming flexible or keeping in shape. There’s even so much going on with the pointe shoes. And how dancers modify them and sew them and… I have so much respect for ballet dancers 
Only a few weeks ago, I learned that the hand movements and timing and arm movements and facial expression all tell a story. And you have to do it right or the audience wouldn’t be able to understand. I never thought I’d understand ballet, but I’ve done some hula dancing before and it’s the same, essentially. Hula tells stories with movements, too. And you have to do it right, or the audience wouldn’t get it.
Agree! And thank you for sharing your thoughts 
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There’s the problem.
The people who look at something and only see the surface, and don’t go further. It’s important to be inquisitive and willing to learn. I love learning about what goes on behind the scenes. You appreciate it that much more.
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That is no surprise, since the whole entertainment industry is hypersexual.
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Well, yeah- That’s kinda what it is.
The core of the aesthetic is the word before the core 
Balletcore is the aesthetic of ballet…
In theory.
Most of the good ones I’ve seen are a leotard with a wrap sweater and a wrap skirt, legwarmers and tights, sometimes wrist warmers, too. Usually soft colors—pinks, purples, blues.
Sometimes pink and purple which is weird for some reason idk. Pink and blue blue and purple but not pink and purple that’s weird—especially with a black Leo. Some people can swing it with a white one, or a purple one with matching pink warm-ups, but generally it’s weird.
The only red on bottom thing makes sense at least. Wrap skirts are made of chiffon so they’re semi transparent, so if you’re gonna pair baby blue and red the blue has to be the solid color so it’s not diluted against the red. Sometimes you can get away with blue Leo + red sweater and skirt but that’s a tough combo and generally speaking, you’ll be wearing a black Leo. Black Leo + red sweater means black skirt because other colors will end up diluted and the black will show through but anyways I’m way off track now- Red is a hard color to pull off but amazing.
And here’s where things get… Complicated. The hard work that goes into it… That is the art form. Ballet is inherently romanticised… By itself, to tell a romanticised story about existence. That’s what the performance is.
Romanticising it isn’t the problem. It’s that there’s never really been any acknowledgement that ballet culture—things like we don’t where pink with purple—exists, and balletcore is the perfect opportunity to acknowledge that culture and instead we get these:
And people desecrating pointe shoes.
A few good examples to boot:
The middle one’s kinda on the fringe but really cute. As I said, we’re not going to gatekeep our practice clothes but tutus and pointes? 1000% hands off. Those have to be earned.
Heck- Trying to gatekeep our practice clothes would be hella hypocritical of us criticizing balletcore for elitism. They’re comfortable af and I’m literally wearing a Leo right now. I maintain that balletcore is Good! It’s just not being handled properly… Yet? Hopefully it will be in the future, because that would be amazing!
Oh, yeah, pointes are a ton of work but since every foot is different, they have to be customized every time.
The biggest part that media—documentaries even—leave out is just that… The dance is where it starts. The hours in the studio is the beginning. Ballet is so much more than just the art, just the action, it’s a way of life and so much more.
Yeah the story aspect of ballet can be tricky to follow, but it’s part of what makes it great!
Oh my thoughts… I have many.
Oh, and cute YAGP girl getting new pointes!
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We won’t talk about the ribbons, but an appropriate alternative to pointe shoes that have the same look!
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Wow, it’s just all over isn’t it?
I have seen, actually, the tutu dress? And wondered why and to where someone would wear that dress. Deviating a little bit from core and academia, it’s like when Taylor Swift wore a ballet outfit (do you say outfit, dress, or costume or something else?) in her Shake It Off MV.
Then I heard some people were criticizing her for wearing it and moving around in strange ways, I gotta be honest, I thought it was fine because I didn’t think she was mocking ballet. She was just having fun 
The same way someone might wear a ballgown and do a jig or something. And at that time, 2014 apparently, she was known for doing outrageous things, so I didn’t think people should fuss about it so much 
Do you know about that? What was your take on it?
Yeah there’s all kinds of weird stuff in it.
It’s called a tutu lol the ones that are slip on just the skirt are practice tutus and the ones that are two piece are Obalisque tutus (so pretty 
). All just tutus lol
Yeah, I’ve seen the video a few times. I don’t have an issue with it because Taylor’s admittedly inappropriate actions were contrasted directly with the girls who were doing it right, and it was obvious they were the ones doing it right. She also noteably never went up en pointe, and the video basically explicitly said that in those clips, Taylor wasn’t where she belonged. She was out of her element.
So yeah, I don’t have a huge problem with that.
And also… Ballerinas backstage have little to no more propriety than Taylor did where pancakes (that shape of tutu) are concerned.
Anyways- Sorry for hijacking your thread, and thanks for hearing me out lol
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Tutus. Got it.
No problem 
It was an interesting conversation!
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Highlighting this. Also added it to my original post if you go all the way back,
right up there 
I agree with this. In the end, it’s how you portray them and talk about them, and how you use them in your own life. To quote Joe Hanson from “Be Smart” on YouTube, “Stay curious”. I think it’s important to be inquisitive and look into these aesthetics to make sure you fully understand where they come from and make sure you’re being respectful.
More thoughts? 
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I suspect all this ridiculous labeling of things is because people constantly think about marketing today…as in marketing everything, all the time, even just for fun. Like they want to make sure they use the right hashtags so others will see it, so that’s how all this absurd labeling came to be. It’s bothered me in music for ages now, I mean what the heck’s shoegaze, dreampop, artpop, sunshine pop, wonky pop, etc. Can’t they all just be pop music? Argh.
But yes, it’s irritating in books, especially since it doesn’t help me as a picky reader to find just what I want to read anyhow. (♯ᴖ.ლ)
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um, american traditional /hj
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