In the Renaissance Italy, the courts began to enjoy a
dance style that united poetry, music, art and dancing.
Performances were given in large halls that were used
for balls and banquets. The performances were based on
the social dances of the day. In France, this dance style
was further developed. Le Ballet Comique de la Reine
(The Queen's Ballet Comedy), the first ballet for which
a complete score survived, was performed in Paris in 1581.
It was staged by Balthazar de Beaujoyeux, a violinist
and dance master at the court of Queen Catherine de
Medicis. The ballet was danced by aristocratic amateurs
in a large hall with the royal family. Poetry and songs
accompanied the dancers. Since French court ballets
were performed for aristocarcy, rich costumes and
scenery were emphasized.
Professional ballet dancers appeared in France in the
mid-1600s, but they were not allowed to dance in the
court ballets. Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King,
(the name derived from a role in danced in a ballet)
danced roles in ballets created by Jean Baptiste Lully
and Pierre Beauchamp. Pierre Beauchamp is said to have
defined the five positions of the feet.
Louis XIV established Academie Royale de Danse in 1661,
a professional organization for dancing masters. He
stopped dancing in 1970.
At first, all dancers were men, and men in masks danced
female roles. The first female ballet dancers who danced
professionally appeared in Le Triomphe de l'Amour in 1681.
The dance technique in the early 1700s included many steps
and positions recognizable today. A new theatrical form
developed, the opera ballet.
Dancers of the 1800s wore masks, wigs and heeled shoes.
Women wore panniers, hoopskirts draped at the sides for
fullness. Men usually wore tonnelet, a knee-lenght hoop-
skirt. The French dancer Marie Camargo shortened her skirts
and used slippers without heels to perform jumps. Marie Sall
wore Greek robes instead of corset when she dance in her own
ballet Pygmalion in 1734. During the second half of the 18th
century the Paris Opera was dominated by male dancers, such
as Auguste Vestris, famed for his jumps and leaps. But
female dancers such as Anne Heinel, the first female
dancer to do double pirouettes on demi-pointe, were
also gaining in technical proficiency.
Jean Georges Noverre influenced many choreographers also after
his death. He advised using movement that was natural and easily
understood, and emphasized that all the elements of a ballet
should work in harmony to express the ballet's theme.
In the late 1700s, toe dancing had began to develope. Pointe
shoes did not exist at that time, so dancers balanced on their
toes a few seconds at the time. They strengtened their ballet
slippers with glue or darning. The ballet La Sylphide, first
performed in Paris in 1832, introduced the period of the romantic
ballet. Marie Taglioni danced the part of the Sylphide, and Marie's
father Filippo Taglioni, choreographed it. This ballet sat a new
standard to ballet with its costumes and style. The tutu was
introduced for the ballet world in this ballet, as well as pointe
dancing. Marie Taglioni danced the full length of La Sylphide on
pointe with soft leather ballet slippers.

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