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A theatrical form of dance typically combined with music, stage design, and costume in an integrated whole, based around a scenario. Italian Renaissance court spectacles developed into the French ballet de cour under Louis XIV. Ballet became a professional theatre form in the 18th-c, gradually formalizing its technique in the early 19th-c.
It can be divided roughly into historical periods; mid-19th-c Romantic ballets such as La Sylphide, Giselle, and the late 19th-c Russian classics (eg Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty); 20th-c neoclassical works, such as Balanchine's Apollo; and modern ballets, such as Ashton's Monotones and MacMillan's Gloria. Recent works may incorporate modern and jazz elements. The ballet technique is based on turn out from the hip socket.
There are five positions of the feet and a codified system of arm positions (port de bras). Exercises at the barre (the horizontal support found in studios) move to extended phrases (enchainements) in the centre of the space. Intensive training is required from a young age, often in specialist schools.
Ballet is a form of European theatrical dance, in which trained dancers perform precisely choreographed performances, often (but not always, e.g. improvisational dance) to describe a narrative and usually accompanied by music. A few pieces regarded as ballet include dialogue or singing, but most rely exclusively on dance, music,and mime.
Usually, the term "ballet" is restricted to works that follow the conventions of classical European ballet of the 19th and earlier centuries, whose stylistic conventions are rejected by later works termed "modern" or "contemporary" dance. However, the cross-pollination of ideas between the traditional ballet companies and dancers and contemporary works has blurred the distinction. Russian, Italian, and American dancers have left their mark by inventing their own style and interpretation of classical steps. The term classical ballet is often used when a strict separation with modern dance and "original" ballet is needed.
Ballet was primarily "invented" in France (resulting in most of its terminology being in French), but was based heavily upon the Italian court-dances of the late 14th century. It became very popular in the court of Louis XIV, whose performance as Apollo in one ballet earned him the moniker "the Sun King." He also established the Academie Royale de Danse a few years before his retirement, an organization of dancing-masters. At this time, ballet was performed in heavy ballroom attire, complete with wigs and masks. Because of Louis XVI, court dancing became popular, and necessary for maintaning or rising in social standards. Pointe dancing was not known until the middle of the 18th century, when the Italian dancer Marie Taglioni rose to the tips of her toes in La Sylphide, choreographed by her father Filippo. She was the first dancer to perform on her toes through the entire ballet. Before this, a ballet dancer could only balance on his/her toes for a few moments due to the lack of the pointe shoe we see today. Later, specific pointe shoes were developed to make longer sequences of dancing on the toes possible, and pointe dancing is now considered an inseparable part of ballet.While toe dancing is usually associated with girls, there are traditional male parts, like the two stepsisters in Cinderella, where the pointe shoes are required due to the choreography of the ballet.
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Since its beginnings in France, ballet has been developed elsewhere throughout Europe, particularly in Russia, Italy, and Denmark. Currently, there are several methods of ballet instruction - for instance, the Russian Vaganova method, the method of the The Royal Academy of Dancing, the Cechetti method - which differ slightly in presentation and execution of the basic steps in ballet.
(The masque and other forms of theatrical dance pre-date the ballet.)
