Medici took the art of ballet to France when she married King Henry II. There, she created her own ballet called the Comique de la Reine. Comique de la Reine was a five hour ballet to celebrate Duc de Joyeuse of Lorraine. It was successful.
At first, ballet wasn't the fancy leaps and spectacular footwork we see today. Women used to be adorned in fancy dresses and stiff petticoats. It was too difficult to do anything amazing.
By the late 17th and early 18th Century, ballet was establishing its qualifications. Tailors were finding ways to sew clothing made for intricate footwork and high leaps. Special shoes were being made, and even some were attempting dance notation.
There still remained the problem of strict rules to the art of ballet. Free- flowing leaps and turns were unacceptable. Long skirts were also unacceptable. Only changing the tempo or pace of the routine was permitted. Still, ballet was a combination of dance, singing, and acting.
Marie de Camargo, one of the first ballerinas, made a bold move. She shortened her skirt to show her skilled footwork. This wasn't considered completely acceptable until about 50 years later.
There were ballet masters who supported her ideas, though. Jean Georges Noverre believed that ballet should be a means of expressing dramatic idea through the combination of dance and art. Speech, restrictive wigs, and unworthy costumes were to be discarded.
The great choreographer Dauberval put his ideas into the real thing. He created the first "real" ballet called La Fille MalGarde. The ballet had farmers, lawyers, harvesters, and lovers. Today, only the title and inspiration of the ballet remains.