The art of ballet is formalized performance dance that has evolved into a new concert dance. It all started during the Italian Renaissance as a dancing pantomime for fencing, much different from today's perception of the art, and developed through French courts' social dances. France's early influence is made apparent through the "vocabulary of ballet", the steps and forms with their own names; regardless of country, French vocabulary is used exclusively for choreography. During the 18th century, its technicalities developed so that it became a dramatic art on par with Opera. By the 19th century, Russia had adopted its own style and continued to train even under Soviet rule.
Ballet received a major boost in the early 20th century, with Sergei Diaghilev's foundation of the influential Ballets Russes company. The company brought together many famous or soon-to-be famous names of the 20th century: dancers and choreographers like George Balanchine, Michel Fokine, Ninette de Valois, and Vaslav Nijinsky; composers like Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev; artists like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse; and fashion designer Coco Chanel (who worked on the costumes). Touring throughout Europe and The Americas from 1909 to 1929, Ballets Russes brought ballet into the mainstream.
Since then, ballet has continued to evolve, influencing and being influenced by other dance genres. Today, most ballet companies perform a repertoire consisting of classical, neoclassical, and contemporary ballets, though often not in equal measure. The respective measure depends on the company's style and preferences.
A number of different styles and training methods exist. Examples include the Cecchetti method developed in Italy; the French or Paris Opera Ballet method out of France; the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) method developed in the United Kingdom; the Vaganova method developed in Russia; the Bournonville method developed in Denmark; and the Balanchine technique taught in the United States.note These methods are used to varying degrees worldwide, and are not confined to the country in which they were developed. They are also not entirely distinct, with older methods like Bournonville and Cecchetti having influenced newer methods like Vaganova and RAD.
Ballet dancers typically start at around 8 years oldnote and continue training into their late teens. When not taught properly, ballet can result in crippling injuries (and even when performed properly, there is still the risk of repetitive strain injuries down the road), which is one of the reasons why lessons are considered fairly expensive. Because of the pressure to sculpt a 'Balanchine body', the promise of a short career, generally low pay, racism and sexism (sometimes to the extreme), heavy competition for a limited number of jobs, and intense training, being a ballerina is not some princesslike girly sport. Dancers will perform sick and hurt, often on bleeding feet.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballets are probably the most well-known and successful (even if you know nothing else about ballet, you do know The Nutcracker and Swan Lake). Other famous composers of ballet music are Ludwig Minkus
, Adolphe Adam, Sergei Prokofiev, Leo Delibes, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Cesare Pugni.
- Carlos Acosta
- Alicia Alonso
- Debra Austin
- Mikhail Baryshnikov
- Roberto Bolle
- Erik Bruhn
- Darcey Bussell
- Yvette Chauviré
- Alina Cojocaru
- Misty Copeland
- Alexandra Danilova
- Ninette de Valois
- Anthony Dowell
- Aurélie Dupont
- Suzanne Farrell
- Alessandra Ferri
- Margot Fonteyn
- Sylvie Guillem
- David Hallberg
- Francesca Hayward
- Robert Joffrey
- Tamara Karsavina
- Julie Kent
- Gelsey Kirkland
- Maria Kowroski
- Mathilde Kschessinska
- Pierina Legnani
- Alicia Markova
- Natalia Makarova
- Peter Martins
- Benjamin Millepied
- Arthur Mitchell
- Gillian Murphy
- Vaslav Nijinsky
- Marianela Núñez
- Rudolf Nureyev
- Evgenia Obraztsova
- Natalia Osipova
- Anna Pavlova
- Tiler Peck
- Maya Plisetskaya
- Polina Semionova
- Ethan Stiefel
- Marie Taglioni
- Maria Tallchief
- Yuan Yuan Tan
- Wendy Whelan
- Damian Woetzel
- Edward Villella
- Diana Vishneva
- Svetlana Zakharova
- Frederick Ashton
- Cinderella
- The Dream
- Marguerite and Armand
- Symphonic Variations
- The Tales of Beatrix Potter
- George Balanchine
- Agon
- Apollo
- Circus Polka
- The Four Temperaments
- Jewels
- Emeralds
- Rubies
- Diamonds
- La Sonnambula
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Mozartiana
- Prodigal Son
- Pulcinella (staging)
- Serenade
- Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
- Stars and Stripes
- The Steadfast Tin Soldier
- Symphony in C
- Union Jack
- Who Cares?
- August Bournonville
- Flower Festival in Genzano
- La Sylphide
- Napoli
- Mikhail Fokine
- The Dying Swan
- Daphnis et Chloé
- The Firebird
- Petrushka
- Scheherazade
- Les Sylphides (Chopiniana)
- Kenneth MacMillan
- Anastasia
- Elite Syncopations
- Manon
- Mayerling
- The Prince of the Pagodas
- Winter Dreams
- Agnes de Mille
- Fall River Legend
- Justin Peck
- Paz de la Jolla
- Rotunda
- The Times Are Racing
- Marius Petipa
- La Bayadere
- Coppelia (staging)
- Le Corsaire (staging)
- Don Quixote
- La Esmeralda (staging)
- Giselle (staging)
- Les millions d'Arlequin (Harlequinade)
- The Nutcracker
- Paquita (staging)
- Raymonda
- The Sleeping Beauty
- Swan Lake (staging)
- Jerome Robbins
- The Concert (or The Perils of Everybody)
- Dances at a Gathering
- Fancy Free
- Ninette de Valois
- Checkmate
- Christopher Wheeldon
- Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
- Like Water for Chocolate
- Polyphonia
- The Winter's Tale
- Various Choreographers
- Afternoon of a Faun
- Anna Karenina
- Cinderella
- La Fille Mal Gardée
- The Rite of Spring
- Romeo and Juliet
- American Ballet Theatre (United States)
- The Australian Ballet (Australia)
- Ballets Russes (touring, now defunct)
- Bolshoi Ballet (Russia)
- Boston Ballet (United States)
- Colon Theater Ballet (Argentina)
- Cuban National Ballet (Cuba)
- English National Ballet (United Kingdom)
- Georgian National Ballet (Georgia)
- Houston Ballet (United States)
- Joffrey Ballet (United States)
- Mariinsky (or Kirov) Ballet (Russia)
- Miami City Ballet (United States)
- National Ballet of Canada (Canada)
- National Ballet of Ukraine (Ukraine)
- New York City Ballet (United States)
- Pacific Northwest Ballet (United States)
- Paris Opera Ballet (France)
- The Royal Ballet (United Kingdom)
- Royal Danish Ballet (Denmark)
- San Francisco Ballet (United States)
- La Scala Theatre Ballet (Italy)
