"The ballets, too, in their stories, were about serious and personal matters.  Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty - 
these had to do with the great blessings and disasters that are the center of our lives, the things one is 
usually too embarrassed or too frightened to talk about."
Mikhail Baryshnikov
 

A form of classic academic dancing based on the accepted five positions of the feet and using a vocabulary of movement developed 
 since the 17th century; originally descended from court dances and spectacles of the 15th and 16th century.
The most popular and well-known ancient dance form in the Western world.


 

"In late Renaissance society, dance was not considered merely a source of light-hearted entertainment or physical recreation, but a profoundly intellectual experience for both participants and spectators. Sixteenth-century dance, like the arts of poetry, music and painting, was infused with new meaning and innovations as a direct result of the findings of humanist scholars as they poured over ancient Greek texts in an attempt to recreate the powerful and effects of ancient Greek drama.  The court ballets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were intended to enlighten and edify audiences. As the art of choreography developed it became increasingly informed by humanist ideals and imbibed with layers of meaning that were moral, philosophical, and political in nature. 
It was the task and the delight of the educated viewers of these court spectacles to decipher the 'truths' underlying the dances."
 
Elizabeth Cooper from The Underground Stream
 

1400s 
Spectaculi - Grandiose variety shows including equestrian formations, tournaments, mock combats, and even aquatic displays, were a prominant cultural activity, initially in northern Italy and then in France. These, and other arranged dances, were performed by members of the court.
Dance Masters of this era gave members of court society precise instruction on proper dancing posture - carriage of torso, positions and moves of legs and feet, and bows and courtsies.  They also invented patterning and figures for the dancers to follow.
1500s 
Ballet-comique - Danced spectacles with unifying dramatic themes, rather than variety spectacles where one dance followed another 
with no dramatic continuity. Comique comes from the French word comedie and refers to dramatic theater. 

Ballet-mascarade - A form created by Louis the XIII, who had little interest in dramatically related themes, but instead 
preferred segment upon segment of artfull costumes and masks, pantomimes, and acrobatics.
  
 Ballet à entrée - Spectacles of individual yet interdependent parts - series of entrances of independent groups interconnected, if only slightly, by 
some theme or dramatic situation.  By the late 1500s low-life, or common, characters were performed by non-nobles - hired "professionals," 
though occasionally aritsitcrats chose to dabble in such roles.  At the conclusion of an entreé both performers and viewers 
would all dance together, ballroom style, in the grand ballet - though commoners were excluded.

1600s 
Ballet-melodramatique - Entreés performed to song instead of recitation, eventually becoming opera.
By the 1630s dance spectacles were being offered to paying customers, wether noble or common.

 

Louis XIV (1638-1715), known as Louis the Great, or the Sun King (le Roi-Soleil), began his reign at the age of four.  
It lasted seventy-two years - one of the longest documented reigns of any European monarch.  
Ballet as court entertainment and courtier spectacle flourished to it's height during his rule.

Comédie-ballet - A spoken play (comédie) with interludes containing music and dance which relate dramatically to the play's scheme, 
rather than as decorative diversions to cover the time actors spent changing costumes. 
The first occurred in 1661 when Louis' finance minister, Nicholas Fouquet, presented  Molière's Les Facheaux, 
choreographed by Pierre Beauchamps, as a grand fête to honor the king.  

Opéra-ballet - Productions aiming for even more dramatic and thematic cohesion.  
The plots were not necessarily derived from Classical mythology and even allowed for comedic elements; 
consisted of a prologue followed by a number of self-contained acts (also known as entrées), often loosely grouped round a single theme.
 
Académie Royal de Danse 1661 
 The first dance institution established in the Western world.  
The oldest and one of the foremost ballet companies in the world.  Most European and international ballet companies trace their origins to it.  
Founded by Louis XIV in the Louvre, it was a gathering of 13 dance masters, whose task, according to Louis's decree, was 
"to restore the art of dancing to its original perfection and to improve it as much as possible."  
The group was intended to codify court and character dances and to certify dance teachers by examination. 
In 1680 Beauchamps became the school's director, a position he held until 1687.

Académie d'Opéra 1669
Established by Louis XIV.  Directed by Pierre Perrin.  Pierre Beauchamps was the first ballet-master. 
Later, after Perrin went bankrupt, the king reestablished the Opéra as the Académie Royale de Musique.

 Académie Royale de Musique 1669
Established by Louis XIV.  Directed by Jean Baptiste Lully.  Pierre Beauchamp was one of the principal choreographers.

 

During the 1700s ballet reformed more and more to what we know it as today.
The common man replaced the gods as the hero, although still in an idealized form.
Costumes changed and women became stars just as much as the men.
Choreographers wanted the ballets they created to contain more plot and expressiveness through the dance.
Ballet d' action evolved and Jean Gorges Noverre became the voice of reform. 
 
Ballet d' action 
Dances in which the movements of the dancers are designed to express character and assist in the narrative. 
Expresses character and emotion through dancers' bodies and faces, rather than through elaborate costumes and props. 
Dances that tell a story entirely through movement.
 
Danse noble 
Also known as haute - measured, stately, elegant dancing. 
 

Jean Georges Noverre 
(1727-1810) 
 Generally considered the creator of ballet d'action.
Author of Lettres sur la danse et les ballets. 
Studied with Dupré
Dancing teacher to Marie-Anoinette.
Ballet Master at Paris Opéra in 1776-1781.

 

The era is typically considered to have begun with the 1827 début in Paris of the ballerina Marie Taglioni in the ballet La Sylphide, 
and to have reached its zenith with the premiere of the divertissement Pas de Quatre staged by the Ballet Master Jules Perrot in London in 1845. 
The era marked the rise of the ballerina as a central part of ballet.
The Romantic ballet had no immediate end, but rather a slow decline. 
Arthur Saint-Léon's 1870 ballet Coppélia is considered to be the last work of the Romantic Ballet.

Salle Le Peletier (1821- 1873)
Home of the Paris Opera. 
Also known as: Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique (1821–1848) and Théâtre Impérial de l'Opéra (1854–1870).
 Hosted the heyday of the romantic ballet, staging the works of such Balletmasters as Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-Léon, 
Filippo Taglioni, Joseph Mazilier, Jean Coralli, and Paul Taglioni.  
On the night of 29 of October 1873, the Salle Le Peletier met the same fate as many of its predecessors: it was destroyed by a fire, 
which raged for 27 hours, believed to have been started by the theatre's innovative gas lighting.

Her Majesty's Theater (1705 - Present)
From the early 1830s until the late 1840s, Her Majesty's Theatre played host to the heyday of the era of the romantic ballet, in which the ballet company, known as the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre, was the most renowned troupe in Europe, aside from the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique. Jules Perrot was Premier Maître de Ballet(chief choreographer) starting in 1842.  Other ballet masters who created works for the ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre throughout the period of the romantic ballet included Paul Taglioni and Arthur Saint-Léon. 
The Italian composer Cesare Pugni was appointed Composer of the Ballet Music to the theatre in 1843. From 1843 until 1850 he composed nearly every new ballet presented at the theatre. Pugni remains the most prolific composer of the genre, having composed more than 100 original ballets, as well as composing numerous divertissements and incidental dances that were often performed as diversions during the intermissions of opera performances at the theatre. Throughout the era of the romantic ballet, the theatre presented performances by notable ballerinas.

Marius Petipa 
(1818-1910) 
Considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived.  
Created over 50 ballets.
Premier Maître de Ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres from 1871 until 1903. 
Trained under Auguste Vestris.
Premier danseur at the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux.
Premier danseur at the King's Theatre in Madrid, Spain. 
Premier danseur at the Imperial Theatres of St. Petersburg.
Served the Imperial Ballet for 56 years.

 "(Art) creates human types and situations, which we live on from century to century,
 and which are real to millions of people."
Anatoli Lunacharsky, Soviet Russia's first People's Commissar for Enlightenment 

 

Ballet in France had grown stagnant and predictable, with many patrons attending simply out of habit.  Ballets Russes injected the ballet 
world with renewed vitality, presenting the form, not as a relic of the past, but a vibrant art happening in the present.
After France had led the ballet for several centuries, Ballets Russes now presented work that was very Russian:
Russian music, Russian subjects and themes, Russian visual designs, and of course, Russian Dancing. 

Sergei Diaghilev 
(1872-1929)
Founder and director of Ballets Russes

Aleksandr Pushkin
(1907-1970)
Dancer at Kirov Ballet
Teacher at Leningrad Choreographic School
Teacher of Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov

Through the 19th century Britain patronized ballet, but did not have much of a powerful hand in creating it, preferring instead to import 
the best from across the channel.  Early in the 20th century however, that began steadily to change.

Margot Fonteyn
(1919-1991)
Widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time.  
Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Royal Ballet, appointed by HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Rudolf Nureyev
(1938-1993)
Considered one of the greatest male dancers of all time
Principal Dancer of The Royal Ballet
Director of the Paris Opera Ballet (1983-1989)
Defected from Russia in 1961
in 1989 he returned to Russia to dance La Syphilde with the Kirov Ballet

Frederick Ashton
(1904-1988)
Founder choreographer of the Royal Ballet.
Knighted for his contribution to ballet.
Principal choreographer for Saddler's Wells Ballet

 

Serge Lifar
(1905-1986)
Star and creative force of the Paris Opera for four decades.
Director and Premier danseur of the Paris Opera Ballet. 
Trained under Bronislava Nijinska,Enrico Cecchetti, and Nicolai Legat 
Danced with Ballets Russes and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

 

Mikhail Baryshnikov
(1948- )

Robert Joffrey
(1928-1988)
Founder of Joffrey Ballet
An avid Ballet historian responsible for re-staging numerous lost classics in original form, known as reconstruction