Ballet

The great European performance venues have a long tradition of housing both the opera company and the ballet company of that nation or city. The history of that phenomenon lies with the marriage of Catherine Medici of Florence to Henry II of France, whereupon she became Queen of France in 1547. She brought with her new cuisine and new arts, primarily opera and ballet. Both were in their infancy during her lifetime and reign. With support from Catherine and the French State both opera and ballet flourished in Paris for the next 200 years, diminishing significantly in the late 1700's due to state instability caused by the French Revolution (1789). Other European states had adopted both art forms early on for their pure art value as well as for their political utility, and by the time of the French decline were poised to nurture both opera and ballet forward.

Ballet particularly flourished in Denmark due to August Bournonville and in Russia with Jean-Baptiste Landé. In Russia ballet developed multiple schools and companies. Three in particular are the Bolshoi, the Mariinsky (Kirov) and Les Ballets Russes.

Sergei Diaghilev founded Les Ballets Russes in St. Petersburg in 1909, and it became the most influential ballet company of the 20th century. Les Ballets Russes was a breeding ground for even more global expansion of ballet. Les Ballets Russes ballerina Ninette de Valois went on to form the Sadler Wells Ballet School and later, the Royal Ballet in London, and Serge Lifar revived the Paris Opera Ballet. And there's more ...

Les Ballets Russes were the inspiration for the Ballet Lermontov in the classic film, "The Red Shoes". This film is a product of the Archers, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. The Red Shoes film is much more than a fairy tale on film, rather it is a time capsule that documents a nexus of culture and talent that greatly influences ballet in the West. We'll discuss that further when we present "The Red Shoes."

We in the US are also grateful to Les Ballets Russes and Diaghilev for George Ballanchine who founded the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet. Ballanchine was a product of the Russian ballet system and his foundational training was in the Vaganova school, but he developed his own techniques and aesthetic. Example, whereas a Bolshoi danseur starts a series of pirouettes by swinging the inside arm across his body then flings it outward to begin, Ballanchine's style was to extend the inside arm forward then pull sharply straight back to begin the series. (Refer to the Learn page for more ballet style distinctions.) Perhaps Ballanchine's greatest aesthetic influence on classical ballet is in his selection of Maria Tallchief as wife and muse to represent his ideal of the perfect ballerina body. We'll discuss Ms. Tallchief and other Ballanchine ballerinas as we introduce more of Ballanchine's work.