History of Ballet

Ballet is a formalised form of dance with its origins in the Italian Renaissance court of the 15th century, but was particularly shaped by the French ballet de cour, which consisted of social dances performed by the nobility in tandem with music, speech, verse, song, pageant, decor and costume. Ballet developed further in the French court from the time of Louis XIV in the 17th century, which is reflected in the French vocabulary of ballet. Subsequently, after 1850, ballet flourished in Denmark and Russia from where it returned to Western Europe and subsequently the globe.

The Origins of Ballet

The word 'ballet' is French in origin, although in the early 15th century, Domenico di Piacenza, an Italian, described theatrical dances called balletto, where lavish pageants of dance and music were held during which the men were fully dressed in wigs, blouses, bloomers and jackets. The women wore ornate gowns of many layers, the weight of which was encumbering to stand in, let alone perform in. The performances accompanied elaborate banquets; each course of the meal was prefaced by a dance called an "entrée".

The troupes, composed of hundreds, included not only hired performers, but members of the duke's court whose purpose it was to impress the nobility of neighbouring states. In 1490, it is said that Leonardo da Vinci designed a balli spectacular for Bergonzio di Botta to entertain the Duke of Milan. The artistic interpretation of the dance was to mirror the harmony of the celestial bodies, to establish order out of chaos, and to bestow peace upon those in attendance.

When Catherine de Medicis, a member of the ruling family of Florence, married the King of France, Henri II in 1553, she introduced the same kind of culture to France as she had known in Italy. For example, she brought Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx with her to France to be her chief musician; he staged Le Ballet Comique de la Reine (The Queen's Ballet Comedy), the first ballet for which a complete score has survived, which was performed in Paris in 1581. This five hour drama was danced by aristocratic amateurs in a hall with the royal family on a dais at one end and spectators in galleries on three sides. Since much of the audience saw the ballet from above, the choreography emphasised the elaborate floor patterns created by lines and groups of dancers. Poetry and songs accompanied the dances. Although balance and control were essential to this style of performance, the development of ballet technique was thwarted by showy, unwieldy costumes.

Ballet in the 17th Century

The court ballet reached its peak during the reign (1643-1715) of Louis XIV, whose title the Sun King was derived from a role he danced in a ballet. Many of the ballets presented at his court were created by the Italian-French composer Jean Baptiste Lully and the French choreographer Pierre Beauchamp, who is said to have defined the five positions of the feet. The king established the Académie Royale de Danse (which evolved into the company known today as the Paris Opera Ballet) in 1661, the same year in which the first comédie-ballet, composed by Jean-Baptist Lully was performed. This early form consisted of a play in which the scenes were separated by dances. Lully soon branched out into opéra-ballet, and a school to train professional dancers was attached to the Académie Royale de Musique, where instruction was based on noble deportment and manners.

In 1670, Louis XIV stopped dancing, and his courtiers followed his example. By then the court ballet was already giving way to professional dancing. At first all the dancers were men, and men in masks danced women's roles. The first female dancers to perform professionally in a theater production appeared (1681) in a ballet called Le Triomphe de l'Amour (The Triumph of Love).

Ballet in the 18th Century

The dance technique of the period, recorded by the French ballet master Raoul Feuillet in his book Choregraphie (1700), included many steps and positions recognisable today, including jete, sissone, chasse, pirouette, entrechat and cabriole. Ballet companies developed throughout Europe. In Russia, the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg, whose school was founded in 1738, demonstrated superlative teachings.

Eighteenth-century dancers were encumbered by masks, wigs or large headdresses, and heeled shoes. Women wore panniers, hoopskirts draped at the sides for fullness. Men often wore the tonnelet, a knee-length hoopskirt. The French dancer Marie Camargo, however, shortened her skirts and adopted heelless slippers to display her sparkling jumps and beats. Her rival, Marie Sall‚ also broke with custom when she discarded her corset and put on Greek robes to dance in her own ballet, Pygmalion (1734).

The 18th Century was a period of vast advancement in the technical standards of ballet and the period when ballet became a serious dramatic art form on par with the Opera. Central to this advance was the seminal work of Jean-Georges Noverre, Lettres sur la danse et les ballets (1760), which focused on developing the ballet d'action, in which the movements of the dancers are designed to express character and assist in the narrative. He urged dancers to stop wearing masks, bulky costumes and headdresses. Noverre developed the ballet d'action, a form of ballet that conveys a story through movement. Noverre found an outlet for his ideas in Stuttgart, Germany, where he first produced his most famous ballet, Medea and Jason (1763).

Toe dancing began to develop at about this time, although the dancers balanced on their toes only for a moment or two. Blocked toe shoes had not yet been invented, and dancers strengthened their light slippers with darning.

Ballet in the 19th Century

The ballet La Sylphide, first performed in Paris in 1832, introduced the period of the romantic ballet. The choreography exploited the use of toe dancing to emphasise the main character's otherworldly lightness and insubstantiality. La Sylphide inspired many changes in the ballets of the time-in theme, style, technique, and costume. Its successor, Giselle (1841), also contrasted the human and supernatural worlds, and in its second act the ghostly spirits called wilis wear the white tutu popularized in La Sylphide.

However, ballet began to decline in most parts of the western world after 1850, but remained vital in Denmark and, most notably, Russia thanks to masters such as August Bournonville, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa. The Danish choreographer Bournonville, who had studied in Paris, not only established a system of training but also created a large body of works, including his own version of La Sylphide. Many of these ballets are still performed by the Royal Danish Ballet.

A Frenchman, Marius Petipa, became the chief choreographer of the Imperial Russian Ballet. He perfected the full-length, evening-long story ballet that combined set dances with mimed scenes. His best-known works are The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and Swan Lake (co-choreographed with the Russian Lev Ivanov), both set to commissioned scores by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.

Ballet in the 20th Century

In 1909, the Ballets Russes opened in Paris with immediate success. The company presented a broad range of works, including ballets with colourful themes from Asian or Russian folklore, such as The Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911). The Ballets Russes became synonymous with excitement and novelty, a reputation it maintained throughout its 20 years of existence.

The offshoots of the Ballets Russes revitalized ballet all over the world. The Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who danced in its early seasons, formed her own company and toured internationally. Two former members of the Ballets Russes, the Polish-born British dancer Dame Marie Rambert and the British dancer Dame Ninette de Valois, became the founders of British ballet. Rambert's students included the British choreographers Sir Frederick Ashton, Antony Tudor, and John Cranko. De Valois founded the company that became Britain's Royal Ballet. Balanchine was invited to work in the United States by Lincoln Kirstein, a wealthy American patron of the arts.

In the 1920s and 1930s, modern dance began to be developed in Germany and the United States. The American dancers Doris Humphrey and Martha Graham, the German dancer Mary Wigman, and others broke away from traditional ballet to create their own expressive movement styles and to choreograph dances that were more closely related to actual human life. Ballets also reflected this move toward realism. Modern dance also eventually extended the movement vocabulary of ballet, particularly in the use of the torso and in movements done lying or sitting on the floor.

The idea of pure dance also grew in popularity. In the 1930s, Léonide Massine (he principal choreographer of Ballets Russes from 1915 to 1921) invented the symphonic ballet, which aimed to express the musical content of symphonies by the German composers Johannes Brahms and Ludwig Van Beethoven. Balanchine also began to create plotless ballets in which the primary motivation was movement to music. His ballet Jewels (1967) is considered the first evening-length ballet of this type.

from 1956, Russian ballet companies such as the Kirov and Bolshoi performed in the West for the first time. The technical virtuosity and intense dramatic feeling of the Russians made a great impact. Russian influence on ballet continues today, both through visits from Russian companies and the activities of Soviet dancers such as Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Dance in general underwent an enormous upsurge in popularity beginning in the mid-1960s. Ballet began to show the influence of a younger audience, in both themes and style. The athleticism of dancing was enjoyed in much the same way as sports, and virtuosic steps were admired for their daring and challenge. Popular music such as jazz and rock and roll was used to accompany many ballets.

Ballet in the 21st Century

Today's ballet repertoire offers great variety. New works created by modern-dance choreographers for ballet companies coexist with reconstructions and re-stagings of older ballets. Choreographers experiment with both traditional and new forms and styles, and dancers constantly seek to extend their dramatic and technical range. The frequent tours of ballet companies allow audiences throughout the world to experience the full spectrum of today's ballet activity.