Ballet is a form of theatrical dance that uses formal, set movements and poses distinguished by elegance and grace. Ballet dancers usually hold their bodies straight and lifted up. Ballet technique is based on positions in which the dancer’s legs rotate outward from the hip joint and the feet turn outward. This rotation is called turnout.
An individual work or performance is called a ballet if it features ballet dancing. A ballet may tell a story, express a mood, illustrate the music that accompanies it, or simply display movement. A ballet performance may present a multi-act story, or it can be made up of short works, often in different styles. Ballets are sometimes included in other theatrical works, such as musical comedies and operas. Choreographers (creators of dances) arrange the steps and movements that make up the presentation.
Ballet is a living art that varies from performance to performance. Different dancers bring different qualities to their roles. The production will be affected by the harmony among performers, especially between the principal male dancer and the ballerina (leading female dancer). Throughout ballet history, some remarkable partnerships have developed, such as the one that began in the 1960’s between Russian-born dancer Rudolf Nureyev and British ballerina Dame Fonteyn. Memorable pairings emerge when the partners show a particular understanding of each other, appear physically harmonious, and have confidence in each other while performing together.
Although dancing is the most important feature of a ballet, the presentation traditionally includes music, scenery, costumes, and sometimes pantomime. Many ballets are collaborations among choreographers, set and costume designers, and composers. Ballets are performed by groups called companies or troupes. The artistic director of the company selects its repertory (ballets to be performed). The artistic director may also be the troupe’s choreographer as well as one of its leading dancers.
Ballet dancers perform many movements that are difficult for the body. However, when these movements are expertly accomplished, they look easy. Ballet dancers have always been known for their ability to control their bodies. Skilled dancers, sometimes called virtuosos, can perform complex moves and maintain control whether moving slowly or with great speed. Some dancers are also known for their dramatic and expressive skills or for their particular sensitivity in interpreting music.
Ballet has become increasingly athletic over time, requiring greater flexibility and strength. Male dancers were long known for their leaps, turns, and skills at partnering ballerinas. Now men have gained recognition for flexibility, high leg positions, and other feats rarely performed by earlier male dancers. Female dancers were once known largely for dancing on pointe (on their toes) with the support of special shoes. Now female dancers display increased physical strength and speed.
Training for ballet
The ideal ballet dancer has a well-proportioned body, with long legs and a slender torso. A dancer needs flexibility, strength, discipline, and control. Dancers also must have a good sense of rhythm and musical phrasing in addition to dramatic expressiveness. Many ballet dancers do not necessarily start with ideal bodies. They train hard for years to achieve ballet’s particular physical qualities.
Ballet requires years of training that should begin when the dancer is a child, usually about 8 years old. Dancers continue to train regularly throughout their careers to maintain their skills.
The ballet teacher.
In choosing a teacher, the student or parent should carefully consider the instructor’s background and experience. Teachers without the proper qualifications can cause the student harm, and even physical injury. Poor teaching will delay a dancer’s progress, forcing him or her to unlearn the incorrect lessons before mastering proper technique. Many teachers are active or retired performers. However, good teachers need not have been ballet dancers themselves.
Loading the player...Basic ballet movements
Some ballet companies operate their own schools, training students for eventual membership in the company. They usually admit children as students after auditions. Other companies hold classes open to the public.
The ballet studio.
A ballet classroom is typically a special studio designed for ballet dancers. The best studios have flexible wooden floors, which are less jarring to a dancer’s body than a concrete surface. The studio should provide unobstructed space, wall-size mirrors, and wooden or metal rods called barres that are attached to a wall. A barre can also be free-standing and portable. Dancers use the barre for support during some exercises.
A ballet class
usually lasts about 90 minutes. Ideally, a class will have live music to accompany the dancers during their exercises. Often, recorded music is used.
The class normally begins with exercises at the barre. Time spent on the barre varies, depending on the goals of the class. Sometimes barre work occupies most of the class time. It may also serve merely as a quick warm-up. The work at the barre is the most basic part of a dancer’s training, and it is a daily routine for professional dancers.
The first exercise will usually include pliés (knee bends) at various depths and in various positions. Other exercises include tendus, in which the leg is extended and the foot is stretched to a pointe (tiptoe) position while in contact with the floor, and relevés, in which the dancer raises the feet from a flat to a pointe or half-pointe position.
Dancers also practice traditional arm movements known as ports de bras, either separately or combined with other exercises. The exercises are designed to warm up the muscles, loosen the joints, build strength, and increase the dancer’s coordination. The activities will increase in complexity and range as students advance in their knowledge and ability.
The second part of the class is devoted to center work, which takes place in the center of the studio, without the support of the barre. Dancers first perform slow combinations to work on their balance and to build strength. These combinations include exercises in shifting weight from one foot to the other, changing the direction of the body in space, and moving the arms through ports de bras. Center work may include an adagio, a sustained, slow combination that frequently involves finely controlled movements of one leg while balancing on the other. The dancers may also practice pirouettes (turns). Center exercises usually build in speed and end with allegro work, which consists of fast and lively combinations, often involving jumps.
Near the end of the class, dancers move across the floor and practice traveling steps, turns, and jumps. A class traditionally concludes with dancers returning to the center of the floor. They perform a brief bow or series of bows called révérence to thank their teacher and the accompanist for the class.
In addition to basic ballet classes, advanced dancers may also attend special classes in such skills as partnering techniques and pointe work (dancing on the tips of the toes). They may also study other styles of dance and movement, such as folk dancing and pantomime.
Pointe work.
Traditionally, pointe work has been reserved for female dancers. Some male dancers study it, though performing opportunities are limited to a few character or comic roles or to troupes in which men perform female roles.
A student usually needs at least three years of study to gain sufficient strength for pointe work. The dancer should be old enough to ensure that the feet have developed sufficiently. Pointe work is danced with special shoes that provide foot support, but the technique still requires knowledge, skill, and strength. Beginning students usually start with simple exercises that are part of regular classroom routine. They wear pointe shoes for only part of the class. As they advance, students attend classes devoted entirely to pointe work.
A dancer’s life
A ballet career can offer incomparable satisfaction, but it is also strenuous and difficult. Job opportunities for ballet dancers are limited and salaries can be low, except for a few superstars. Performing careers tend to be short, and dancers are always vulnerable to injury. Although some performers dance for many years, ballet is basically for young adults.
After the first years of training, students preparing for a professional career may take three to six ballet classes a week. Professional dancers try to attend at least one class a day. It can be difficult to combine ballet training with regular school. Many young dancers interested in a professional career choose to skip or postpone college. They believe the college years from the late teens to the early 20’s are too valuable in the short career of a dancer to devote the time to anything but ballet.
After dancers retire, some become teachers or rehearsal directors who help stage ballets. Others may become dance administrators, designers, historians, physical therapists, photographers, or critics. Some become notaters—that is, people who preserve ballets by writing down the patterns and steps through a system of graphic symbols.
Kinds of ballet
The most familiar type of ballet is the multi-act ballet, sometimes known as a full-length work. Many of the great story ballets originated in the 1800’s. One example is Coppélia (1870), choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to music by Léo Delibes, both of France. Another is The Nutcracker (1892), created by Lev Ivanov to music by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, both of Russia. These ballets have librettos (stories) that were created specially for the work. Many ballets use existing stories. For example, fairy tales are the basis for The Sleeping Beauty (1890) by Marius Petipa, a French-born choreographer who worked in Russia, and Cinderella, in versions by several choreographers. The ballet A Midsummer Night’s Dream, also in a number of versions by choreographers, is based on the play by the English dramatist William Shakespeare. 
Story ballets typically have two or more acts separated by intermissions. They usually feature elaborate sets and costumes and often include pantomime as well as different types of dancing. Sometimes all the dancing relates to the story. In some ballets, a divertissement may be included. A divertissement is a dance segment not necessarily related to the story’s plot that is intended to display a dancer’s technical skill. Many story ballets are love stories. Most such ballets feature dramatic solos and impassioned pas de deux (duets) by the dancers portraying the lovers.
A ballet program may consist of several shorter works, which may vary greatly in style and scope. Some shorter ballets describe a brief incident rather than tell a complete story. Some poetic ballets evoke moods and meanings without telling a story. A ballet may be inspired by images or events from daily life or from art and music. Ballets may focus purely upon movement. They may explore moves, poses, and configurations that belong uniquely to ballet, or they may include other dance styles. A ballet may set out purely to entertain, or it may aim to deal with social issues.
Choreography
Choreographers vary in how they create a ballet. Some create material on their own. Others come to rehearsal with only a general idea of what they want, and they then work with the dancers to develop the ballet. Choreographers must variously consider the elements of scenery, costumes, and music and how these will fit the intended dancing.
Often a company’s repertory will consist of works by different choreographers. Some troupes employ a resident choreographer who is responsible for creating new ballets. The most successful works often come from choreographers who work with a group of dancers over time. Frequently a dancer will become a consistent source of inspiration for a choreographer.
Sets and costumes
A ballet’s sets and costumes are often designed by the same person. Some famous artists have designed ballets, including the Spanish-born painter Pablo Picasso and the French painter Henri Matisse. Painted backdrops and side pieces have traditionally established settings for ballets. Many contemporary designs employ scenic effects created largely with lighting. Occasionally, a designer uses film or video projections. The most successful designs create mood without obstructing the stage space the dancers require.
Costuming has evolved during the history of ballet, and the changes have affected how the dancers move. In the early days of ballet, female dancers wore heavy skirts that reached the floor. During the 1800’s, ballerinas began to wear skirts called tutus, made of lightweight net. Early tutus extended below the knee and became known as Romantic tutus. Classical tutus were much shorter, often reaching no lower than the top of the thighs. Since the early 1900’s, shorter and lighter costumes have allowed dancers to move more freely and to accommodate more complex movements. Today, dancers often perform in close-fitting leotards and tights that show the entire body. Costumes today may range from informal wear, suggesting rehearsal garb, to elaborately fashioned garments.
Music
Music and dance are usually considered inseparable, though ballets have been performed to experimental sound scores and even to silence. The greatest choreographers have been especially sensitive to music, and some have had formal musical training. They create steps and movements that work in harmony with the music. The creation of a ballet score almost always involves discussion and collaboration between the composer and the choreographer.
During the early history of ballet, music composition went hand in hand with dance composition. But as ballets became independent theatrical forms, music was reduced in importance. Serious composers did not often write music for ballet. In the late 1800’s, the Russian composer Tchaikovsky wrote several now world-famous ballet scores that restored the reputation of music composed specifically for ballet. In the 1900’s, Igor Stravinsky, another Russian-born composer, continued this tradition by writing numerous ballet scores that greatly influenced the art form. 
Many ballets are set to music already composed for concert rather than theatrical performance. Such music has provided inspiration for ballets. All types of music have been used, including classical, rock, and jazz.
Preserving a ballet
A ballet does not have a firm text, as does a book or the written score of a musical composition. Choreographers often do not document their works. As a result, a ballet’s choreography can easily disappear. Even if a choreographer makes no changes in a work, the steps and style may become altered as new dancers learn and perform them. Dancers may change the choreography intentionally or unintentionally. They may forget movements and lose details of the work. Sometimes choreographers change a ballet to keep it fresh. A choreographer may want to try a different approach or make adjustments to accommodate a dancer’s strengths and weaknesses.
Throughout ballet history, there have been efforts to develop systems of notation that would preserve the steps and patterns of a dance. Choreographers often develop personal systems of keeping notes. Although much of what we know about earlier dances comes from such systems and notes, no method has proven reliable enough to become universal the way music notation has.
In the 1920’s, a Hungarian choreographer and teacher named Rudolf von Laban developed a system called Labanotation to analyze and record dance movement in great detail. However, Labanotation is complex and requires a specially trained notater, an expense many choreographers cannot afford. 
Film, videotape, and television broadcasts have helped preserve ballets, but they are only partly useful. They cannot provide the detail and thoroughness a dancer requires to learn a work. Computer programs can be a tool for dance analysis and are even being used to create choreography. Other resources that can help preserve ballets include verbal descriptions by choreographers, performers, spectators, and critics; photographs; and musical scores.
History
The birth of ballet.
Ballet originated in Italy in the 1400’s and 1500’s, during a cultural movement called the Renaissance. At that time, Florence and other powerful Italian cities made up nearly independent units called city-states. The wealthy families who ruled the city-states did much to promote the arts. The ruling families competed with one another in giving costly, elaborate entertainments that included dance performances. The dancers were not professionals. They were nobles of the court who danced to please their ruler.
Catherine de Médicis, a member of the ruling family of Florence, became queen of France in 1547. She introduced into the French court the same kind of entertainment she had known in Italy. The dances were staged by Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, who moved from Italy in 1555 and became a member of Catherine’s household and its dancing master.
Many historians consider the first ballet to be Beaujoyeulx’s Ballet Comique de la Reine, performed in Paris in 1581 in honor of a royal wedding. It was a magnificent spectacle that lasted more than five hours. The ballet included specially composed music, singing, and spoken verse as well as dancing. Dance technique at this time was limited, and Beaujoyeulx’s spectacle was somewhat dependent upon lavish costumes and scenery for its full effect. The ballet was a great success and was widely imitated in other European courts.
Italian dancing masters taught European courtiers how to dance, and they wrote manuals that preserved many steps for modern historians. Choreography was based on the social dances of the 1500’s, such as the fast-paced courante, the lively galliard, and the stately pavan.
Because dancing was an activity of the royal court, it emphasized refined manners, elegance, and grace. Women wore long, heavy dresses, which largely covered the movements of their legs and feet. Men’s clothes gave them more freedom for fancy foot- and legwork. Performers often wore masks. Many ballets dealt with love and tales from Greek and Roman mythology. In England, court spectacle took the form of masques. This entertainment, which reached its peak in the early 1600’s, often included music and dancing as well as dialogue by leading writers.
The rise of professional ballet.
As ballet developed, it required greater physical skills. Eventually, professional dancers began to replace courtiers, who became the audience rather than the performers.
The Ballet Comique de la Reine helped make Paris a center of the ballet world. King Louis XIV, who ruled France from the mid-1600’s to his death in 1715, promoted ballet further during his reign. Louis enjoyed dancing both as a spectator and as a participant. In 1661, he founded the Royal Academy of Dancing, and in 1669, the Royal Academy of Music. The music academy, soon known as the Paris Opéra, established a dancing school in 1672. Ballet as a profession can be dated from this period. Through serious training, professional dancers developed skills that surpassed those of amateurs, and dancing became a more athletic fine art.
Louis’s dancing master was Pierre Beauchamps (or Beauchamp). Beauchamps is credited with defining and naming many of the ballet steps used today, including the five positions of the feet. Most ballet steps have French names because of France’s central role in developing the art form.
In the early 1700’s, two famous ballerinas in Paris came to represent the two contrasting ballet styles. Marie Sallé gained fame for her dramatic expressiveness. Her rival, Marie Camargo, was known for her technical brilliance. Camargo wore shortened skirts to make her steps more visible.
Professional dancers gradually moved from royal courts to performing for the general public in theaters. Dancers, teachers, and choreographers traveled from country to country. One of the greatest companies formed during this period was the Russian Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg (later known as the Mariinsky Ballet, then the Kirov Ballet; now known again as the Mariinsky Ballet). Its ballet school was founded in 1738.
Ballet d’action.
By the mid-1700’s, a number of dance masters had developed the ballet d’action, a French phrase meaning ballet with a story. This form told a story through dance and pantomime without the aid of spoken words as in earlier ballets.
Jean Georges Noverre was the most famous promoter of ballet d’action. In an influential book called Letters on Dancing and Ballet (1760), Noverre wrote that technical skill should not be emphasized for its own sake. Noverre insisted that ballets should combine plot, music, and dancing in a unified whole. He urged ballet dancers to stop using masks, cumbersome wigs, and bulky costumes to help explain plot and character. Noverre claimed that skillful dancers could express these story elements using only their bodies and faces.
The subject matter of story ballet began to change from its previous emphasis on mythology. Noverre still created ballets based on Greek myths and drama, but other choreographers started to explore different themes. Jean Dauberval, a Noverre pupil, dealt with ordinary people in his comic ballet about young lovers, La Fille mal gardée (The Ill-Guarded Girl). It was first produced in 1789 and is one of the oldest ballets still performed today. In Italy, Salvatore Vigano drew on historical characters, such as Joan of Arc and Richard the Lion-Hearted, for some of his works.
Romantic ballet.
In the early 1800’s, the Romantic period developed in ballet. The stories in Romantic ballet emphasized escape from the real world into distant lands or into a dreamlike world of the supernatural. During this period, ballet technique evolved, especially for women, who began to dance on their toes. The development of pointe dancing during the Romantic period was a direct result of the increased fascination with dreams and enchantment. Elevation on the toes suggested a lifting away from an earthly state into a supernatural world. Carlo Blasis of Italy became perhaps the most important ballet teacher of the 1800’s. His writings further defined and expanded ballet training, influencing later generations of dancers.
In Paris, the Italian choreographer and teacher Filippo Taglioni created the first recognized Romantic ballet, La Sylphide (1832), for his ballerina daughter, Marie. She danced the role of the sylphide, a fairylike being, in a costume that set a new fashion for ballerinas. It included a light, white skirt that ended halfway between the knee and ankle. Her arms, neck, and shoulders were mostly bare. Marie Taglioni, with her featherweight qualities, became a renowned star of Paris ballet. Her chief rival was the Austrian ballerina Fanny Elssler, who also danced in Paris. Elssler’s style expressed more earthly aspects. She became famous for her lively character dances, particularly the cachucha, a Spanish dance performed with castanets. Elssler’s cachucha caused a sensation when she first danced it in 1836. 
The outstanding ballet of the Romantic period was Giselle (1841), choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The ballet tells the story of a peasant girl who falls in love with a nobleman in disguise. She becomes insane and dies brokenhearted after discovering that he is already engaged and has betrayed her. The part of Giselle requires both expressive and technical skill and remains one of the most challenging roles in a ballerina’s repertory.
Paris was the capital of the ballet world throughout the Romantic period, which lasted through the mid-1800’s. However, many dancers and choreographers who trained and worked in Paris took their artistry outside of France. For example, August Bournonville, a Danish dancer and choreographer, worked in Paris before taking over the Royal Danish Ballet in 1830. In Copenhagen, he promoted a light, open, buoyant style that remains popular in Denmark today.
Ballet in Russia.
During the 1800’s, a number of choreographers and dancers settled in Russia. Perhaps the most important was the French choreographer Marius Petipa. He moved to Russia in 1847 and served as the ballet master for the Russian Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg from 1869 to 1903. Petipa helped make St. Petersburg the world center of ballet by the late 1800’s. He specialized in creating spectacular choreography for women, notably the Indian temple dancer in La Bayadère (1877) and Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (1890). Loading the player...
Swan Lake
The St. Petersburg company produced some of the greatest dancers in ballet history. The best known include Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky. Pavlova became famous for the feminine, poetic, spiritual quality of her dancing. Nijinsky advanced male dancing and excited audiences with his athletic leaps. 
Both Pavlova and Nijinsky later danced with a famous Russian touring company, Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Diaghilev, one of the world’s greatest producers of ballets, established the company in Russia in 1909. Diaghilev was interested in new developments in ballet and attracted some of the most important modern artists and composers of his time to collaborate on ballets. His choreographers included George Balanchine, Michel Fokine, Léonide Massine, Nijinsky, and Nijinsky’s sister Bronislava Nijinska.
With Diaghilev’s company, Fokine had the opportunity to carry out his ideas. In many ballets of the time, storytelling scenes alternated with pantomime and displays of technical dancing. Fokine wanted all the elements in a ballet to contribute to the story. He urged that all the arts in ballet be coordinated into a harmonious whole.
For the Ballets Russes, Fokine created such famous works as Scheherazade (1910), The Firebird (1910), and Petrouchka (1911). He also created one of the first one-act ballets without a story, Chopiniana (1907), renamed Les Sylphides (1909), to music by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Nijinsky also choreographed major experimental works for the Ballets Russes, especially The Afternoon of a Faun (1912) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Both works caused a sensation as well as some controversy at their premieres in Paris.
The Ballets Russes never actually performed in Russia. However, the company brought a Russian spirit and artistry to dance that thrilled audiences throughout the world. In Europe, its huge popularity revitalized ballet. The company also kindled enthusiasm about ballet in areas that had no strong tradition of ballet, such as South America. The Ballets Russes broke up after Diaghilev’s death in 1929. His dancers and choreographers joined companies in many parts of the world, and they influenced ballet wherever they went.
Russia became part of the Soviet Union in 1922, and the Soviet Union maintained a strong reputation for training dancers for much of the 1900’s. From the late 1940’s to the early 1990’s, the Soviet Union and its Communist allies competed with the non-Communist nations of the West for power and international influence. During this period of rivalry, known as the Cold War, the two leading Soviet ballet companies, the Kirov and the Bolshoi, had some of the world’s most technically accomplished dancers. They occasionally toured outside the Soviet Union, impressing Western audiences with their technical and expressive skills. The leading Soviet dancers included Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, and Galina Ulanova.
In 1961, Nureyev defected to the West while the Kirov was performing in Paris. Ballerina Natalia Makarova defected from the Kirov in 1970, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, in 1974. All three refugees became important forces in Western ballet, dancing as guest artists and staging works from the Russian repertory. Nureyev and Baryshnikov eventually became artistic directors of major companies—Nureyev with the Paris Opéra Ballet and Baryshnikov with the American Ballet Theatre.
The Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, and economic difficulties undermined the health of ballet in Russia. These difficult conditions led many performers to leave their country and pursue careers in the West.
Ballet in the United Kingdom.
Two major ballet companies were founded in the United Kingdom in the early 1900’s. One was the Ballet Rambert, now called the Rambert Dance Company, originated by the Polish teacher Dame Marie Rambert. The other was the Vic-Wells Ballet, directed by Irish-born dancer and choreographer Dame Ninette de Valois. The company later became the Sadler’s Wells Ballet and is now called the Royal Ballet. Sir Frederick Ashton, who worked with this company, became the United Kingdom’s leading choreographer. He created ballets with no story (Symphonic Variations, 1946), dramatic works (A Month in the Country, 1976), and playful ballets (Tales of Beatrix Potter, 1971). Ashton choreographed many ballets for the great British ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn. Together they created a British ballet style known for its dignity and sensitivity to musical phrasing. Other leading dancers who worked under Ashton included Dame Antoinette Sibley and Sir Anthony Dowell, who formed a famous partnership. Sir Kenneth MacMillan, another leading British choreographer, followed Ashton as artistic director of the Royal Ballet. His major works for the company included Manon (1974), featuring Dowell; and Mayerling (1978), featuring British dancer David Wall. Dowell served as artistic director of the Royal Ballet from 1986 to 2001 and staged a number of MacMillan’s works. The Birmingham Royal Ballet, descended from the Royal Ballet’s touring company, became a major company in its own right.
Ballet in the United States.
After Diaghilev’s death, George Balanchine worked briefly in Europe and then settled in the United States in 1933. There, he helped found the School of American Ballet and a troupe that became the New York City Ballet. Balanchine was one of the most important choreographers of the 1900’s, creating a wide variety of traditional and experimental works. He became famous for ballets that centered on movement for movement’s sake. He created ballets that were physical representations of the music and ballets that evoked a mood without trying to tell a story.
Balanchine was an important teacher, and he expanded the ballet vocabulary and pointe technique. Many of the finest ballerinas of the 1900’s danced in his company, including Maria Tallchief, Violette Verdy, Suzanne Farrell, Kyra Nichols, and the Canadian-born Melissa Hayden. Notable male dancers under Balanchine included Jacques d’Amboise, Arthur Mitchell, Edward Villella, and the Danish-born Peter Martins. A number of his leading dancers became choreographers, teachers, and company directors when they retired from his company.
In 1940, a troupe that became the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) gave its first performance. The ABT joined the New York City Ballet as one of America’s two major ballet companies. The ABT developed a repertory that included works by choreographers Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, and the British-born Antony Tudor. The three explored various types of dramatic expression. De Mille’s Rodeo (1942) is set in the Western United States and includes cowboy characters. Robbins’s Fancy Free (1944) is a jazzy work that follows three sailors on leave as they look for fun in New York City. Tudor’s Pillar of Fire (1942) explores the psychological conflicts of a shy woman who fears that she will never marry.
In the mid-1900’s, several ballet companies were established in New York City. The Joffrey Ballet was cofounded by the choreographer Robert Joffrey and the dancer Gerald Arpino in 1956. It was the first American troupe to invite a new generation of experimental choreographers to compose dances. Among the most notable were Laura Dean and Twyla Tharp. The Joffrey also encouraged important revivals and was among the first to perform ballets choreographed to rock music, such as Joffrey’s Astarte (1967).
In 1968, Arthur Mitchell, an African American dancer, established a dance school in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. The school led to the founding of the Dance Theatre of Harlem the following year. Mitchell dedicated his company to challenging the prejudice that black dancers were not suited to ballet. The Dance Theatre of Harlem presented a varied repertory, including works by black choreographers. The efforts of Mitchell and others focused on the issue of racial inclusion and the lack of multiracial dimensions in ballet troupes.
Ballet in Canada.
Canada, like the United States, benefited from the arrival of European dancers, teachers, and choreographers during the mid-1900’s. The National Ballet of Canada, founded in 1951, was first directed by the British dancer Celia Franca. The company gained even greater recognition under the directorship of the Danish dancer Erik Bruhn during the 1980’s. The Latvian-born dancer Ludmilla Chiriaeff founded Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in 1958. Among its leading choreographers was Brian Macdonald. He also worked for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Canada’s oldest major ballet company, founded in 1939.
Ballet in Europe.
European ballet companies fared better financially than many North American companies in the late 1900’s. Many benefited from government assistance. European dance groups welcomed talent from other countries. John Cranko, a South African who worked in the United Kingdom, and John Neumeier of the United States served as resident choreographers with German companies, beginning in the 1960’s. Cranko raised the Stuttgart Ballet to new prominence and Neumeier brought international recognition to the Hamburg Ballet. Both created works with a strong literary and dramatic base. The French-born choreographer Maurice Béjart developed an especially athletic and youthful emphasis for his troupe, Ballet of the 20th Century, based in Belgium and Switzerland.
The American Glen Tetley brought his modern style to companies in the Netherlands and Germany. Another American, Mark Morris, worked for several years in Belgium as resident choreographer of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. In France, the Paris Opéra Ballet was the focus of international attention in the 1980’s, when Rudolf Nureyev became ballet director. Ballet in Denmark showed stability and artistic consistency throughout most of the 1900’s. The Royal Danish Ballet, based in Copenhagen, preserved historical tradition with its dedication to the Bournonville style.
Recent developments.
During the late 1900’s, many ballet companies were founded throughout the world. In the United States, important companies established in Boston, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Seattle, and other cities joined older companies, such as the San Francisco Ballet, in raising the level of dancing throughout the country. After returning to the United States from Belgium, Mark Morris became choreographer for the White Oak Dance Project, a touring company he helped found with Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1990. Morris and Twyla Tharp also worked directly with ballet companies on a number of commissions. Such companies provided more opportunities for dancers and choreographers and helped educate audiences.
In the early 2000’s, a number of choreographers emerged with an emphasis on creating ballets for classically trained ballet dancers. These choreographers included Alexei Ratmansky of Russia, Christopher Wheeldon and Liam Scarlett of the United Kingdom, and Justin Peck of the United States.
Despite a wide-ranging interest in ballet, U.S. companies struggled to survive in difficult economic times. They faced limited funding from local and federal government sources and from private support.
