Have you ever gone to the ballet and wondered who wrote the music, choreographed it, and wrote the story? The ballet style we know and love today is nothing like what it was many years ago. We’ll take you from the beginning of ballet to the modern era.
To understand where ballet originated, you must understand where dance originated. There is little information on when people first started dancing, but researchers have made an estimated guess based on evidence from various periods. Lord Shiva was a Hindu dancing god thought to have created the universe through his dance, Tandava. He’s portrayed as having many arms and balancing on one leg. There were also Egyptian, Roman, and Greek influences, such as the Raqs which have lots of movements similar to ballet and ballroom.
In medieval times, social dance with rotating partners was common, accompanied by music on medieval instruments, such as the fiddle, bagpipes, or pipe and tabor. The Dancing Plague of 1518 was a period where people would dance in a square until they died. One widely acknowledged theory introduced by John Waller is that people were uncontrollably dancing due to stress-induced hysteria.
The earliest form of ballet was created by Catherine de Medici of Florence, who married King Henri II of France in 1553. In creating the Ballet de cour, Catherine displayed her power and nobility. Some historians believe that it was to prove Catherine’s son’s heterosexuality, as his childlessness and favorability of male dancers provoked suspicion about him as a homosexual.
Ballet originated among rich and noble people, mostly kings and queens. Often, monarchs would participate in ballets, one being King Louis XIV. He played the role of the sun god Apollo, in “Ballet de la Nuit.” King Louis went on to open the Academie Royale de Danse in 1661. This was the world’s first ballet school in a room of the Louvre.
Medici was also responsible for inviting artists from Italy and France, including Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx, dancer and choreographer. Beaujoyeulx is best known for his Ballet Comique de la Reine, often referred to as the first Ballet de Court. This performance was used to celebrate the marriage of Duc de Joyeuse and Marguerite de Vaudemont, the Queen of France’s sister. This spectacle lasted five and a half hours, entrancing its audience even though the dancers were not professionals.
The first in-depth guide to ballet, “Il Ballerino,” was written in 1581 by Fabritio Caroso and marked Italy as the world center for ballet. Seven years later, the first French book on dance, “Orchesographie,” was published and described turnout, a crucial element of ballet.
Multiple men are known as the “father of ballet,” including Pierre Beauchamp and Jean Baptiste Lully. Lully formed the Paris Opera Ballet within the Academie Royal de Musique to receive this title. Beauchamp created Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme alongside Lully and became the superintendent of the king’s ballet.
Ballet is a form of passion and expression, allowing people to channel their inner selves and be free. It will continue to impact our world and culture, whether or not we realize it.
