Ballet steps are generally made with the leg extended. To achieve the greatest leg extension and -- some historians argue -- for reasons of appearance on stage, the resting or neutral position in ballet is the turnout. When a dancer is turned out, her legs are rotated outward from her hip joints, so her feet point in opposite directions. To increase the length of her extension, a dancer is also trained to dance "on pointe," meaning she is trained to dance on her toes.
An ordinary ballet shoe is flexible, has an extremely thin sole and has no heel. A performer wears ordinary ballet slippers for all roles before he is trained to go on pointe, and continues to wear them for roles that don't require the performer to go on pointe, as most male roles don't. Dancers wear pointe, or toe, shoes if they need to go on pointe, as most adult female roles require the performer to do. Pointe shoes have a reinforced toe; the reinforcement continues up to the part of the sole nearest the toe. Dancers also often customize the reinforcement through breaking in the shoe, and add padding both to the shoe and by wrapping their feet.
Depending on the specific ballet being performed, a dancer's costumes may be sleek or ornate. One type of costume, or part of a costume, specific to ballet is the tutu. The tutu is a lightweight skirt that is worn by female dancers. It may be so short as to fluff out horizontally around the dancer's mid-drift, or may be so long as to extend to the dancer's mid-calf.
Ballet is made up of codified movements that dancers learn during the course of their training. An example of a ballet step is the plie, in which the dancer bends at the knees. A ballet choreographer strings together a series of ballet steps for dancers to perform on stage, which altogether creates an interpretation of a particular piece of music. The music may be composed specifically for a ballet, or it may simply be a danceable tune; regardless, the choreography usually matches the music in rhythm and in tone. Ballet dancers traditionally don't sing or speak during the performance.