Ballet facts for kids

The Waltz of the Snowflakes from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

Program design by Leon Bakst for Nijinsky's L'Apre-Midi d'une Faune, Paris 1912, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

Costume design by Bakst for the ballerina Ida Rubinstein as Helene de Sparta, 1912.

Darcy Bussell and Carlos Acosta taking a curtain call.

Ballet is a special kind of dance. It is performed by dancers who have had a lot of training. These dancers usually work for a dance company. They perform their shows in theatres. The first mention of ballet was by a person named Domenico da Piacenza. He lived in the early 14th century.

Ballet often tells a story without words. The story is shown through dance and mime (acting without speaking). Ballet is a way to express feelings and ideas. It brings a story to life in a new way for the audience. Creating the dance steps is called choreography. Dancers learn the choreography from a trainer. This trainer is called a ballet master or mistress. Ballet is always performed with music. Often, the music is written just for that ballet. The Nutcracker is a very popular example of a ballet.

History of Ballet

How Ballet Started

Ballet began with big shows in the Renaissance period. These shows were like today's huge concerts. They used all kinds of performance art. These early Italian ballets became more developed in France. One famous show was Le Ballet Comique de la Reine. It was performed in Paris in 1581. Balthazar de Beaujoyeux, a violin player, put on the show. It was danced by people who were not professionals. The royal family watched from one end of the hall. Other people watched from balconies on three sides. Poetry and songs were also part of the dances.

The main ideas of classical ballet came from the court of King Louis XIV. This was in France during the 17th century. King Louis XIV even got his nickname, the 'Sun King', from a role he danced in a ballet. He started the first ballet company. It was called the Ballet de l'Opera de Paris. Many ballets at his court were created by Jean-Baptiste Lully. He was a composer. Pierre Beauchamp was a choreographer. Also, the writer Molière created something new. It was called the comedie-ballet.

Modern Ballet Begins

In the early 1800s, ballet technique was made clearer. A dancer named Carlo Blasis from Naples wrote down the steps. His dance classes were four hours long. They were known for being very tough training. 'Romantic ballet' became popular in France. This was in the first half of the 19th century.

A more athletic style of ballet grew in Imperial Russia. This happened in the late 1800s. The ballet company there performed at the Mariinsky Theatre. This theatre is in St. Petersburg. Three famous ballets by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky came from this time. They are Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.

The next big step was the Diaghilev ballet. Diaghilev was a great impresario. This means he was a showman. In 1909, he started