Name: _____________________
Ballet History
Dance 1
I. Early Development of Ballet
a. Ballet is a theatrical dance form which grew out of European Renaissance court dances in the ________ century in
Italy.
b. Ballet might have remained simply a form of court social dance had it not been for the influence of
_______________________________, an Italian noble woman who became queen of France in the mid-sixteenth
century & ______________________, a great warrior king.
c. Louis the XIV built the lavish palace of _____________________ where nobles were invited and expected to
participate in ballets.
d. Louis XIV acquired the nickname __________________________ from his role as _______________ in
_____________________________________.
e. In 1661 Louis XIV established the _____________________________________, a training facility which was the
first attempt to professionalize ballet.
f. Under the direction of ballet master, _________________________________________, the French ballet
terminology and rules for techniques developed.
g. Beauchamp’s _________ positions for the feet and the use of the ___________ leg, became the basis for ballet
education still used in ballet class.
h. The innovation of the Italian-style theater where dancers were seen from the front only encouraged the further
development of _____________ leg positions which enabled the dancer to move from _______ to _______
smoothly while facing the audience.
II. 18th Century Ballet-Baroque Period
a. During this period stories were told through ____________________, a system of hand gestures, rather than
through the dance itself.
b. _______ _______, ________ and _________ continued to limit movement, with women’s panniered skirts
becoming even more cumbersome than the previous century.
c. _________________ raised her skirt hems to the ankle, permitting more aerial work and beats of the leg.
III. Romantic Period
a. Ballerinas, cast as supernatural beings, began to rise onto the ______ of their _____ to enhance the sensation of
skimming weightlessly – known as _______________.
b. Heavy fabrics of the previous century’s court dresses were replaced by ______________ skirt fabrics, known as the
________________ ballet skirt and furthered the illusion of otherworldliness.
c. During this century the ballerina became the central figure with ____________________________ and
________________________________ having contrasting styles.
d. Taglioni excelled in ballets, which emphasized her _______________ and ___________________.
e. Essler was a great beauty who was famed for her __________________ and __________________ dancing.
IV. Classical Period
a. During the second half of the _________________ century, there was a gradual shift of the center of ballet activity
from ________________ to ________________.
b. Marius Petipa, ballet master of Imperial Theatre, created _____ new ballets and composed dances for ______
operas.
c. This period was truly a _______________ in Russia, in which ballet technique took a giant step forward.
d. Three of his (Petipa) most widely-performed ballets were choreographed to scores by Tchaikovsky.
a. ___________________________
b. ___________________________
c. ___________________________
e. Serge Diaghilev, a farsighted arts patron and entrepreneur, was responsible for bringing to world attention the
innovative work of ________________________, who sought to develop a unified dramatic content in ballet.
V. Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
a. Fokine, who set many ballets for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, felt that ballet’s purpose was to reveal
_____________ rather than show of ________________________ and that movements should reflect the period
and location of the action.
b. He also wanted to eliminate the use of _______ to tell the story.
c. In 1924, ________________________________, left the Soviet Union and was hired as the ballet master of
Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe in Paris.
d. Balanchine created 10 new works, including ____________________ and ______________ which were later
produced in America.
e. The American public ws first exposed to good twentieth-century ballet by ____________________, ballerina whose
company toured America extensively until 1925.
f. The first ballet company to be permanently located in America was the __________________________________
in _______ by the Diaghilev star Adolph Blom.