BALLET

Ballet is an entertainment danced to music.  It may tell a story or create a mood, or it may bring out the meaning of the music only through the movement of the dancers.

Several people help to make a ballet. The composer works together with the choreographer who thinks up the complete movements of the dancers. Sometimes a choreographer sets a ballet to music already written.

He also rehearses with the dancers to teach them the movements. Meanwhile the designer creates ideas for the stage setting, costumes and lightning. The scenery has then to be built, costumes made, and the orchestra rehearsed before the ballet is finally performed.

People have danced to entertain themselves and others for thousands of years. In about 1400 French and Italian lords and ladies began to produce danced entertainment at court. By the mid-1600 at the court of St. Louis XIV of France, these entertainments had become so magnificent that only professional dancers could dance them. The dances then moved from the court to theaters, and women began to dance professionally.

Ballet as we know it today soon came into being. In the early 1800’s, people in France and Italy flocked to see romantic ballets, such as La Fille Mal grade Garde, Giselle, and Coppelia.

These ballets usually told a story and were noted for their elaborate dancing and the white, billowing skirts of the women dancers. By the late 1800’s, the ballet had developed into a great art, especially in Russia. This period of ballet, classical ballet was known for its grand corps de ballet (company or cast), the perfection of the dancing, and the close link between music and dance. Classical ballet includes Swan Lake and sleeping beauty.

In modern times, choreographers have concerned themselves more with abstract ballets, in which there is little or no story.

The most famous of ballet companies was the Ballets Russes, formed in 1909 by the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev. This company created many important ballets, particularly those composed by Stravinsky such as Petrouchka. The best known of today’s companies are the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the New York City Ballet.