1. Ballet Histor y
8th Grade Physical Education

2. Ballet Beginnings
 Catherine de Medici- Italian Princess,
brought Italian performers & culture to
France
 October 15, 1581- First ballet performed called
Comique de la Reine, political satire
 Became very fashionable for all the wealthy
to learn to dance
 The first ballet “stars” were all kings

3. Ballet Codified
 Louis XIV, Sun King- 1650’s
 Used dance as a way to control his court. Where you
danced & how good you were affected your power with
the king. Everyone was so busy trying to win favor with
their dance skill, no one tried to plot against him.
 Opened Paris Opera & Paris Opera Ballet School
 Louis hired Pierre Beauchamps to define specific
steps, name them, turn-out, positions, & technique
 Marie Camargo- shortened skirt to show off her feet
when she jumped, scandalous!
 Costumes- heavy tight, constricted use of arms,
high heels
 Ballet d’Action- story is told though gesture &
pantomime

4. Louis XIII, the Sun
King, performing as
Apollo, the Sun God
Marie Camargo

5. Romantic Ballet: Early 1800’s
 Themes:
 foreign lands
 escaping daily human life- the working class became more important
during the French & Industrial Revolution, fewer stories about royalty
 Feminine- ballerina worship
 unattainable love- supernatural beings, depressing endings,
 Forest settings- more magical than cities, most people lived in cities &
worked in factories, new technology for forest effects (gas lights,
pointe shoes, tulle-light, hid human legs, floating & supernaturally
white)
 Famous Ballets: Giselle, La Sylphide, & Pas de Quatre
 August Bournonville- began Danish school of Ballet
Technique, have the same class for each day of the week!
 Marie Taglioni-huge star of the era, first to dance en pointe,
“In 1837 she traveled to Russia, where sweets and hairstyles were names after
her. After her last performance a group of ardent fans purchased a pair of her
pointe shoes for two hundred roubles and put them into a sauce which they ate.”

6. La Sylphide
Pas de Quatre Giselle
Marie Taglioni

7. Classical Ballet
 1783, Catherine II, the Great, Czarina of Russia,
began the Marriinsky Ballet Theatre (Kirov Ballet) in
St. Petersburg, government paid for everything
 Marius Petipa- Russian ballet master & renowned
choreographer, choreographed over 50 ballets,
 Petipa/Classical Style: Showed off technique while
the plot was secondary
 5-6 acts long, at least two acts were pantomime or party scenes
 Lavish and expensive
 Usually about royalty, nobility or fantasy & fairy tales
 Divertissement- diversion from the story, danced just to show off
technique, lots of peasant character dances from around the world
 Bigger Corps de Ballet

8.  Grand Pas de Deux- for male & female principal
dancers, four parts
 Entrée (entrance) & Adagio
 Male Variation
 Female Variation
 Coda
 Famous Ballets: Swan Lake, The Nutcracker,
Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Pharoh’s Daughter, La
Bayadere, Les Corsaire, Don Quixote, Paquita
 Classical Tutu- designed by Petipa to show off his
choreography, has as much fabric as length of a
football field (100 yards)
 Enrico Cecchetti- developed Italian training
method

9. Sleeping Beauty
Swan Lake
The Nutcracker
La Bayadere
Coppelia

10. Contemporary Era, 1909-
Now Diaghilev- began the Ballet Russe company
 Sergei
that toured all over the world
 Diaghilev Style: total theatre- idea that music, dance,
costume, setting, light, & design were all equally important,
collaboration in the arts
 The dancing told the story not the mime, full body expressiveness,
less corps de ballet
 Many famous dancers: Vaslav Nijinksy, Anna Pavlova
 Artists, Choreographers, & Musicians- Bakst, Benois,
Mikhail Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, George Balanchine & Igor
Stravinsky, Picasso, Dali
 Famous Ballets: Les Sylphides, Petrushka, La Spectre de
la Rose, Afternoon of a Faun, Rite of Spring, Les Noches,
Apollo, Prodigal Son

11. Petrushka Apollo
Les Noches
Afternoon of a Faun
Les Sylphides
La Spectre
de la Rose

12.  George Balanchine-
 Invited by Lincoln Kirstein to leave Russia & Ballet
Russe & come to America
 1948-first to create a successful American
company, New York City Ballet
 Famous Ballets: Serenade (based on rehearsal
mishaps), Jewels, A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Concerto Barocco, Prodigal Son, Apollo, Stars &
Stripes, Steadfast Tin Soldier, Sylvia Pas de Deux,
Western Symphony,

13. Jewels- Rubies Western
Symphony
Sylvia
Serenade
Stars & Stripes

14. Major Companies
Around the World
 United States
 American Ballet Theatre (JKO School)
 New York City Ballet (School of American Ballet)
 Russia
 Mariinsky Theatre Ballet, called Kirov Ballet during Communism,
(Vaganova Institute)
 Bolshoi Ballet Theatre
 England
 Royal Ballet Theatre (Royal Ballet School, Royal Dance Academy)
 France
 Paris Opera Ballet (Paris Opera School)
 Denmark
 Royal Danish Ballet (Bournonville School)
 Italy
 La Scala (Checcitti School)