the History of Ballet

Introduction | Roots & History | The Musical Essence | Today | The Spread

Roots and History of Ballet

Against popular opinion, ballet actually originated in Italy at the behest of the Medici family, not France though it is widely believed in the know that it was mastered in France.

The first mention of ballet is in a greek tradegy called a Roman Pantomime - putting much emphasis on both physical and facial expression to portray the plot - after which is - along with many other dance forms - disappeared for throughout the Middle Ages only to return during the Renaissance period in the form of an expensive, lavish entertainment for courts and princely gatherings after which a sponsored preformance entitled “Le Ballet Comique de la Reine" put Ballet on the map as THE thing to be seen to have at courts across Europe.

Well known as the "Patron of Ballet", Louis XIV pushed the wave of ballet by allowing it grow flourish in Versailles and can take much credit for offering instruction and forming the foundation of the steps of the dance we known today.

Soon the French operas created by a famous composer Lully began to feature ballets during intervals and then progressively more often during the opera itself. Not far behind France came Russia, who adopted the dance with a passion, training dancers almost from birth in special schools resulting in the early 1900s with the Ballet Russes opened it's doors in Paris for the first time and capturing the Parisian audience, ballet forever then linked Russia and France...next page