A timeline of the history of ballet:

14th century

Medieval dance

15th century

16th century

Renaissance dance

Ballets de cour

Intermedio - Italian court spectaculars with dance

Ballet Comique de la Reine - sometimes

called the "first ballet"

17th century

French ballet

Comdie-ballet

English country dance

18th century

Baroque dance

Opra-ballet

Ballet d'action

19th century

Pre-romantic ballet

Romantic ballet

Classical ballet (Russian ballet, Italian ballet)

20th century

Modern ballet

Neoclassical ballet

Postmodern dance

Concert dance

Contemporary ballet

Post-structuralist ballet

14th/15th century
The most documented form of dance during the Middle Ages is the carol also called the "carole"
or "carola" and known from the 12th and 13th centuries in Western Europe in rural and court
settings.[2] It consisted of a group of dancers holding hands usually in a circle, with the dancers
singing in a leader and refrain style while dancing.[3] No surviving lyrics or music for the carol
have been identified.[2] In northern France, other terms for this type of dance included "ronde"
and its diminutives "rondet", "rondel", and "rondelet" from which the more modern music term
"rondeau" derives.[3] In the German-speaking areas, this same type of choral dance was known as
"reigen".[4]
Court dances required the dancers to be trained and were often for display and entertainment,
whereas country dances could be attempted by anyone. At Court, the formal entertainment would
often be followed by many hours of country dances which all present could join in. Dances
described as country dances such as Chiarantana or Chiaranzana remained popular over a long
period - over two centuries in the case of this dance. A Renaissance dance can be likened to a
ball.
Knowledge of court dances has survived better than that of country dances as they were collected
by dancing masters in manuscripts and later in printed books. The earliest surviving manuscripts

that provide detailed dance instructions are from 15th century Italy. The earliest printed dance
manuals come from late 16th century France and Italy. The earliest dance descriptions in
England come from the Gresley manuscript c1500 found in the Derbyshire Record Office, D77
B0x 38 pp 5179. These have been recently published as "Cherwell Thy Wyne (Show your joy):
Dances of fifteenth-century England from the Gresley manuscript".[1] The first printed English
source appeared in 1652, the first edition of Playford.
The dances in these manuals are extremely varied in nature. They range from slow, stately
dances (bassadance,pavane, almain) to fast, lively dances (galliard, coranto, canario). The
former, in which the dancers' feet did not leave the ground were styled the dance basse while
energetic dances with leaps and lifts were called the haute dance.[2] Some were choreographed,
others were improvised on the spot.
One dance for couples, a form of the galliard called lavolta, involved a rather intimate hold
between the man and woman, with the woman being lifted into the air while the couple made a
3/4 turn. Other dances, such as branles or bransles, were danced by many people in a circle or
line.
Our knowledge of 15th-century Italian dances comes mainly from the surviving works of three
Italian dance masters: Domenico da Piacenza, Antonio Cornazzanoand Guglielmo Ebreo da
Pesaro. Their work deals with similar steps and dances, though some evolution can be seen. The
main types of dances described arebassa danze and balletti. These are the earliest European
dances to be well-documented, as we have a reasonable knowledge of the choreographies, steps
and music used.

SIXTEENTH CENTURY DANCE Renaissance dance

Ballets de cour

Intermedio - Italian court spectaculars with dance

Ballet Comique de la Reine - sometimes called the "first ballet"

A distinctive new art form, the ballet de cour, emerged from the creative advances in court
entertainment devised by Catherine de' Medici.[59] The Italian influence on the ballet de
cour owed much to Catherine, who was Italian herself and had grown up in Florence,
where intermedii, patronised by her rich relatives, were a staple of court entertainments and a
focus of innovation. These between-acts entertainments had evolved a unique artistic form of
their own, with choral dances, masquerades (mascherate), and consecutive themes.[60] Once in
France, Catherine kept in touch with artistic innovations in Italy. She encouraged Italian dancing
masters to accept posts in France, among them the Milanese Cesare Negri, who introduced the

skills of figured dancing to France, and Pompeo Diobono, whom Catherine employed as dancing
master to her four sons.[61] The most significant figure was Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx (his name
gallicised from the Italian Baldassare da Belgiojoso), whom Catherine placed in charge of
training dancers and producing performances at court.[62]
Over the years, Catherine increased the element of dance in her festive entertainments, and it
became the norm for a major ballet to climax each series of magnificences. The Ballet Comique
de la Reine, devised under Catherine's influence, byQueen Louise for the Joyeuse Magnificences
of 1581, is regarded by historians as the moment when the ballet de courassumed the character
of a new art form. The theme of the entertainment was an invocation of cosmic forces to aid the
monarchy, which at that time was threatened by the rebellion not only of Huguenots but of many
Catholic nobles. Men were shown as reduced to beasts by Circe, who held court in a garden at
one end of the hall. Louise and her ladies, costumed asnaiads, entered on a chariot designed as a
fountain and then danced a ballet of thirteen geometric figures. After being turned to stone by
Circe, they were freed to dance a ballet of forty geometric figures. Four groups of dancers, each
wearing a different-coloured costume, moved through a sequence of patterns, including squares,
triangles, circles, and spirals.[67]
The figured choreography that enacted the mythological and symbolic themes reflected the
principle, derived from theEnneads of Plotinus (c. 205270), of "cosmic dance", the imitation of
heavenly bodies by human motion to produce harmony. This imitation was achieved in the dance
through geometric choreography and figures based on the harmony of numbers.[68] The dance
elements in the court festivities represented a response to the increasing political disharmony of
the country.[64] The Ballet Comique de la Reine marked the final transformation of court dance as
a purely personal and social activity into a unified theatrical performance with a philosophical
and political agenda.[69] Owing to its synthesis of dance, music, verse, and setting, the production
is regarded by scholars as the first authentic ballet.[70]
The dance, verse, and musical elements of Catherine's entertainments increasingly reflected the
principles of an academic movementalso influential in theFlorentine Cameratato unify the
performing arts in what was believed to be the classical, Greek way. In 1570, Jean-Antoine de
Baf founded the Acadmie de Posie et de Musique, whose aim was to revive ancient metrical
practices, and, though the academy was short lived, similar aims were adopted by the Acadmie
du Palais, founded in 1577. Both enterprises were supported by the Valois court. One result of
this movement was Musique mesure l'antique, in which the metres of music and verse were
matched precisely, to create a new harmony. The theory was not merely technical but humanistic;
practitioners believed a harmonious combination of elements would produce benign moral and
ethical effects on the audience. Dance was also subject to the new system and was designed to
match the rhythms of the music and verse. The result was a new unified approach to the
interrelationship between the performing arts.[71]

The well-documented Joyeuse magnificences of 1581 provide the clearest evidence of the
influence of this artistic movement on Catherine de' Medici's entertainments. The chief composer
of music for the performances was Claude Le Jeune (15281600). His musique mesure was
played at the wedding itself, and his song "La Guerre" was sung during a foot-combat in the
Louvre. He also wrote the music for an elaborate show on a sun-moon theme, once again
setting vers mesurs to musique mesure.[72] For the Ballet Comique de la Reine, the music was
composed by the Sieur de Beaulieu. The musicians were fully incorporated in the dramatic
whole: on one side of the performing space was a cloud containing costumed singers and
musicians, and on the other, a grotto, guarded by Pan, containing a second band of musicians.
Further groups of singers and musicians made various entries and exits during the five-and-ahalf-hour performance. At one stage, Circe turned the dancers and musicians to stone.[73] When,
at the climax of the show, Jupiter descended from the heavens, forty singers and musicians
performed a song in honour of the wisdom and virtue of the Valois monarchy.[74]Published
accounts praised the length and variety of the music. The Jupiter music was called the "most
learned and excellent music that had ever been sung or heard".[75]
The intermedio [intermdjo] (also intromessa, introdutto, tramessa, tramezzo, intermezzo),
in the Italian Renaissance, was a theatrical performance or spectacle with music and often dance
which was performed between the acts of a play to celebrate special occasions in Italian courts. It
was one of the important predecessors to opera, and an influence on other forms like the English
court masque. Weddings in ruling families and similar state occasions were the usual occasion
for the most lavish intermedi, in cities such as Florence and Ferrara. Some of the best
documentation of intermedi comes from weddings in the Medici family, in particular the 1589
Medici wedding,[1] which featured what was undoubtedly both the most spectacular set of
intermedi, and the best known, thanks to no fewer than 18 contemporary published festival books
and sets of prints that were financed by the Grand Duke.[2]
Intermedi were written and performed from the late 15th century through the 17th century,
although the peak of development of the genre was in the late 16th century. After 1600 the form
merged with opera, for the most part, though intermedi continued to be used in non-musical
plays in certain settings (for example in academies), and also continued to be performed between
the acts of operas.

The fifteenth century witnessed vastly increased freedoms, most particularly in terms of what is
actually perceived as 'harmony' and 'polyphony' (the simultaneous movement of two or three
interrelated parts). Composers (although they were barely perceived as such) were still almost
entirely devoted to choral writing, and the few instrumental compositions which have survived

often create the impression (in many cases entirely accurately) of being vocal works in disguise,
but minus the words.
There is obvious new delight in textural variety and contrast, so that, for example, a particular
section of text might be enhanced by a vocal part dropping out momentarily, only to return again
at a special moment of emphasis. The four most influential composers of the fifteenth century
were Dunstable, Ockeghem, Despres and Dufay.
The second half of the 16th century witnessed the beginnings of the tradition which many music
lovers readily associate with the normal feel of 'classical' music. Gradually, composers moved
away from the modal system of harmony which had predominated for over 300 years (and still
sounds somewhat archaic to some modern ears), towards the organisation of their work into
major and minor scales, thereby imparting the strong sensation of each piece having a definite
tonal centre or 'key'.
This was also something of a golden period for choral composition as a seemingly endless flow
of a capella (unaccompanied) masses, motets, anthems, psalms and madrigals flowed from the
pens of the masters of the age. In addition, instrumental music came into its own for the first
time, especially keyboard music in the form of fantasias, variations, and dance movements
(galliards, pavanes etc.). Composers of particular note
include Dowland, Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons,Frescobaldi, Palestrina, Victoria, Lassus, Alonso
Lobo, Duarte Lobo, Cardoso and Gesualdo.

17TH CENTURY French ballet

Comdie-ballet

English country dance

In the French courts during the 17th Century, ballet first begins to flourish with the help of
several important men: King Louis XIV, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Pierre Beauchamps, and Molire.
The combination of different talents and passions of these four men shaped ballet to what it is
today.
LOUIS XIV Louis XIV, the King of France from 1638 to 1715, was a ballet enthusiast from a
young age. In fact his birth was celebrated with the Ballet de la Felicite in 1639. As a young boy,
he was strongly supported and encouraged by the court, particularly by Italian-born Cardinal
Mazarin, to take part in the ballets. He made his debut at age 13 in the "Ballet de Cassandre" in
1651. Two years later in 1653, the teenage king starred as Apollo, the sun god, in The Ballet of
the Night or in French, Le Ballet de la Nuit. His influence on the art form and its influence on

him became apparent. His fancy golden costume was not soon forgotten, and his famous
performance led to his nickname, the Sun King. In the ballet, he banishes the night terrors as he
rise as sun at dawn. His courtiers were forced to worship him like a god through choreography.
They were made clear of the glory of King Louis XIV and that he had absolute authority both on
and off the dance floor.[1] The ballets that young King Louis performed in were not as strenuous
as the ballet that is familiar today.[2] The form of entertainment was actually called ballets
dentres. This refers to the small divisions, or entries, that the ballets were broken up into. For
example, Le Ballet de la Nuit, comprised over forty of such entries,[2] which were divided in to
four vigils or parts. The whole spectacle lasted 12 hours.
Throughout his reign, Louis XIV worked with many influential people in his court dances. He
worked alongside poet Isaac de Benserade, as well as designers Torelli, Vigarani and Henry de
Gissey, which made fashion and dance closely interlinked. Possibly his greatest contribution to
the French court was bringing composer/dancer Jean-Baptiste Lully. Louis supported and
encouraged performances in his court as well as the development of ballet throughout France.
Louis XIV was trained by Pierre Beauchamp. The King demonstrated his belief in strong
technique when he founded the Acadmie Royale de Danse in 1661 and made Beauchamp
leading ballet master. King Louis XIVs and Frances attempt to keep French ballet standards
high was only encouraged further when in 1672 a dance school was attached to the Acadmie
Royale de Musique.[3] Led by Jean-Baptiste Lully, this dancing group is known today as The
Paris Opera Ballet.
The king was very exacting in his behavior towards his dancing. In fact, he made it a daily
practice to have a ballet lesson every day after his morning riding lesson.[4] As the French people
watched and took note of what their leader was doing, dancing became an essential
accomplishment for every gentleman.[4] Clearly ballet became a way of life for those who were
around King Louis XIV. If one looked at the culture of seventeenth-century France, one saw a
reflection of an organized ballet that was choreographed beautifully, costumed appropriately, and
performed with perfect precision.[according to whom?] Louis XIV retired from ballet in 1670.
Jean-Baptiste Lully[edit]
Perhaps one of the most influential men on ballet during the seventeenth century was Jean
Baptiste Lully. Lully was born in Italy, but moved to France where he quickly became a favorite
of Louis XIV and performed alongside the king in many ballets until the kings retirement from
dance in 1670.[3] He moved from dancer for the court ballets to a composer of such music used in
the courts. By the time he was thirty, Lully was completely in charge of all the musical activities
in the French courts.[4] Lully was responsible for enlivening the rather slow stately dances of the
court ballets.[3] He decided to put female dancers on stage and was also director of the Acadmie

Royale de Musique.[3] This company's dance school still exists today as part of the Paris Opera
Ballet. Since dancers appeared in the very first performances the Opera put on, the Paris Opera
Ballet is considered the worlds oldest ballet company.[1] When Lully died in 1687 from a
gangrenous abscess on the foot which developed after he stuck himself with the long staff he
used for conducting, France lost one of the most influential conductors and composers of the
seventeenth century.[3] However, Lully did not work alone. In fact, he often worked in
collaboration with two other men that were equally influential to ballet and the French culture:
Pierre Beauchamps and Molire.
Pierre Beauchamps[edit]
Beauchamps was a ballet-master who was deeply involved with the creation of courtly ballets in
the 1650s and 1660s.[4] However, Beauchamps began his career as the personal teacher to Louis
XIV. Beauchamps is also credited with coming up with the five fundamental foot positions from
which all balletic movements move through.[1] Beauchamps techniques were taught throughout
France in secondary schools as well as by private teachers.[5] Contemporary dancers would
astonish Beauchamps at their ability to have 180-degree turnout. Beauchamps dancers wore
high-heeled shoes and bulky costumes which made turnout difficult and slight.[1] One of the first
things that Lully and Beauchamps worked together on was Les Ftes de lAmour et de Bacchus,
which they called opra-ballet.[5] Theopra-ballet is a form of lyric theatre in which singing and
dancing were presented as equal partners in lavish and spectacular stagings.[3] The Les Ftes de
lAmour et de Bacchus, one of their first and most famous collaborations, consisted of excerpts
from court ballets linked by new entres stages by Beauchamps.[5]Customarily, King Louis and
courtiers danced in the court ballets; however, in this new form of entertainment, the opraballet, all of the dancers were professionals.[5] Beauchamps not only collaborated with Lully, but
he also had the great privilege to partner with Molire during his lifetime.
Beauchamps also originated the Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, which provided detailed
indications of the tract of a dance and the related footwork. Starting in 1700, hundreds of social
and theatrical dances were recorded and widely published in this form. Although this has been
superseded in modern times by even more expressive notations, the notation is sufficiently
detailed that, along with contemporary dancing manuals, these dances can be reconstructed
today.
Molire[edit] Comdie-ballet is a genre of French drama which mixes a
spoken play with interludes containing music and dance.
Molire was a well-known comedic playwright during that time period. He and Beauchamps
collaborated for the first time in 1661, which resulted in the invention ofcomdie-ballet.[6] His

invention of comedies-ballets was said to be an accident. He was invited to set both a play and
court ballet in honor of Louis XIV, but was short of dancers and decided to combined the two
productions together. This resulted in Les Facheux in 1661. This and the following comdieballets were considered the most important advance in baroque dance since the development of
Renaissance geometric figures.[6] One of the most famous of these types of performances was Le
Bourgeois gentilhomme, which is still performed today and continues to entertain audiences.
[1]
The idea behind a comdie-ballet was a combination of spoken scenes separated by balletic
interludes; it is the roots for todays musical theatre.[1] Many of Molire's ballets were performed
by Louis XIV. According to Susan Au, the king's farewell performance was Molire's Les
Amants magnifiques in 1670. Not only were these types of performances popular in the courts,
but they helped transition from courtiers being the dancers to using actors and professional
dancers, soon to be known as ballerinas.[1] The comdie-ballets helped to bring understanding
between the court and the commoners as the transition from court ballets to a more common
place ballet occurred.
With Molire writing the dialogue and directing, Beauchamps choreographing the ballet
interludes, and Lully composing the music and overseeing the coming together of all the dancers
and actors, these three giants of men worked together to create many beautiful pieces of art for
King Louis XIV.
A country dance is any of a large number of social dances of the British Isles in which couples
dance together in a figure or "set", each dancer dancing to his or her partner and each couple
dancing to the other couples in the set.[1] A set consists most commonly of two or three couples,
sometimes four and rarely five or six. Often dancers follow a "caller" who names each change in
the figures.
Introduced to France and then Germany and Italy in the course of the 17th century, country
dances gave rise to thecontradanse, one of the significant dance forms in classical music.
Introduced to America by French immigrants, it remains popular in the United States of
America as contra dance and had great influence upon Latin American music ascontradanza.
The Anglais (from the French word meaning "English") or Angloise is another term for the
English country dance.[2][3] A Scottish country dance may be termed an Ecossaise. Irish set
dance is also related.
During the Baroque period, the foundations were laid for the following 300 or so years of
musical expression: the idea of the modern orchestra was born, along with opera (including the
overture, prelude, aria, recitative and chorus), the concerto, sonata, and modern cantata. The
rather soft-grained viol string family of the Renaissance was gradually replaced by the bolder

violin, viola and cello, the harpsichord was invented, and important advances were made in all
instrumental groups.
Until about 1700, the old modes still exerted themselves from time to time by colouring certain
melodic lines or chord progressions, but from the beginning of the 18th century the modern
harmonic system based upon the major and minor scales was effectively pan-European. Choral
music no longer dominated, and as composers turned more and more to writing idiomatic
instrumental works for ensembles of increasing colour and variety, so 'classical' music (as
opposed to 'popular') gradually began to work its way into the very fabric of society, being
played outdoors at dinner parties or special functions (e.g. Handel's Water Music), or as a
spectacle in the form of opera. On a purely domestic level, every wealthy lady would have a
spinet to play, and at meal-times the large and rich houses would employ musicians to play what
was popularly called Tafelmusik in Germany, of which Telemann was perhaps the most famous
composer.
Of the many 17th century composers who paved the way for this popular explosion of 'classical'
music, the following were outstanding: Monteverdi, Corelli, Alessandro
Scarlatti, Schutz,Buxtehude, Purcell and Lully. Yet, the most popular composers of the period,
indeed those who seem to define by their very names the sound of Baroque music at its most
colourful and sophisticated are Johann Sebastian Bach, Handel, Telemann, Rameau, Franois
Couperin,Domenico Scarlatti, and Vivaldi, all of them at their creative peak during the first half
of the 18th century.
18TH CENTURY
18th century

Baroque dance

Opra-ballet

Ballet d'action

Baroque dance is dance of the Baroque era (roughly 16001750), closely linked with Baroque
music, theatre and opera.

The majority of surviving choreographies from the period are English country dances, such as
those in the many editions of Playford's The Dancing Master. Playford only gives the floor
patterns of the dances, with no indication of the steps. However other sources of the period, such
as the writings of the French dancing-masters Feuillet and Lorin, indicate that steps more
complicated than simple walking were used at least some of the time.
English country dance survived well beyond the Baroque era and eventually spread in various
forms across Europe and its colonies, and to all levels of society. See the article on English
country dance for more information.
French dance types include:

Allemande

Bourre

Canarie (canary)

Chaconne

(French) courante

Entre grave

Forlane (forlana)

Gavotte

Gigue

Loure (slow gigue)

Menuet (minuet)

Musette

Passacaille (passacaglia)

Passepied

Rigaudon

Sarabande

Tambourin

The English, working in the French style, added their own hornpipe to this list.
Many of these dance types are familiar from baroque music, perhaps most spectacularly in the
stylized suites of J. S. Bach.[4] Note however, that the allemandes, that occur in these suites do
not correspond to a French dance from the same period.
Opra-ballet (French; plural: opras-ballets)[1] was a popular genre of French Baroque lyric
theatre,[2] combining elements of opera and ballet,[3] "that grew out of the ballets entres of the
early seventeenth century".[4] It differed from the more elevated tragdie en musique as practised
by Jean-Baptiste Lully in several ways. It contained more dance music than the tragdie, and the
plots were not necessarily derived from classical mythology and allowed for the comic elements,
which Lully had excluded from the tragdie en musique after Thse (1675). The opraballet consisted of a prologue followed by a number of self-contained acts (also known
as entres), often loosely grouped around a single theme. The individual acts could also be
performed independently, in which case they were known asactes de ballet.
The first work in the genre is generally held to be Andr Campra's L'Europe galante ("Europe in
Love") of 1697,[5] but Les Saisons[6] of 1695 is so typical of the genre that it is mentioned as the
most distinctive prototype of this sort of composition,[4] although the latter has a mythological
plot. Famous later examples are Les lmens (1721) by Destouches, Les Indes galantes (1735)
and Les ftes d'Hb (1739) by Jean-Philippe Rameau.
Ballet d'action is a ballet movement started by French choreographer Jean Georges Noverre in
1760. It involves expression of character and emotion through dancers' bodies and faces, rather
than through elaborate costumes and props. The movement began due to Noverre's negative
reaction to what he considered the dancers' undue focus on technical expertise and neglect of the
true purpose of ballet. In his book Lettres sur la danse et les ballets, Noverre asserted that the
purpose of ballet is "to represent characters and express their feelings" [1]. He advocated a move
away from the use of bulky costumes to express character; instead, he stated that only the
dancers' movements should matter. It was toward this end that Noverre developed ballet d'action.
Some dance historians maintain that earlier choreographers developed ballets in the ballet
d'action style [2] even though Noverre is widely recognized as the principal innovator of the
movement.
The Baroque era witnessed the creation of a number of musical genres which would maintain a
hold on composition for years to come, yet it was the Classical period which saw the

introduction of a form which has dominated instrumental composition to the present day: sonata
form. With it came the development of the modern concerto, symphony, sonata, trio and quartet
to a new peak of structural and expressive refinement. If Baroque music is notable for its textural
intricacy, then the Classical period is characterised by a near-obsession with structural clarity.
The seeds of the Classical age were sown by a number of composers whose names are now
largely forgotten such as Schobert and Honnauer (both Germans largely active in Paris), as well
as more historically respected names, including Gluck, Boccherini and at least three of Johann
Sebastian Bach's sons: Carl Phillip Emmanuel, Wilhelm Friedmann and Johann Christian (the socalled 'London' Bach). They were representative of a period which is variously described as
rococo or galante, the former implying a gradual move away from the artifice of the High
Baroque, the latter an entirely novel style based on symmetry and sensibility, which came to
dominate the music of the latter half of the 18th century through two composers of extraordinary
significance: Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

19TH CENTURY
The Romantic ballet is defined primarily by an era in ballet in which the ideas
of Romanticism in art and literature influenced the creation of ballets. The era occurred during
the early to mid 19th century primarily at the Thtre de l'Acadmie Royale de Musique of
the Paris Opera Ballet and Her Majesty's Theatre in London. The era is typically considered to
have begun with the 1827 dbut in Paris of the ballerina Marie Taglioni in the ballet La Sylphide,
and to have reached its zenith with the premiere of the divertissement Pas de Quatre staged by
the Ballet Master Jules Perrot in London in 1845. The Romantic ballet had no immediate end,
but rather a slow decline. Arthur Saint-Lon's 1870 ballet Copplia is considered to be the last
work of the Romantic Ballet.
Furthermore, the development of pointework, although still at a fairly basic stage, profoundly
affected people's perception of the ballerina. Many lithographs of the period show her virtually
floating, poised only on the tip of a toe. This idea of weightlessness was capitalised on in ballets
such as La Sylphide and Giselle, and the famous leap apparently attempted byCarlotta
Grisi in La Pri.

Other features which distinguished Romantic ballet were the separate identity of the scenarist or
author from the choreographer and the presence of specially written music as opposed to
a pastiche typical of the ballet of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The invention of gas
lighting enabled gradual changes and enhanced the mysteriousness of many ballets with its softer
gleam. Illusion became more diverse with wires and trap doors being widely used.
It wasn't until the rise of Peter the Great that Russian society opened up to the West. St.
Petersburg was erected to embrace the West and compete against Moscows backwardness. Yet
the challenge to become European collided with the reality of Russian isolationism: In
striking contrast to their west European counterparts, the Russian elite lived unadorned lives: in
wooden houses and slept on benches (or on top of the warm stove) and their clothing and
manners resembled those of peasants: rough and indecorous. Men coveted long and bushy black
beards, which they took to be a sign of godliness and masculinity (God was bearded and women
couldn't grow one). Only demons were depicted as clean-shaven. Fancy foreign dress was
prohibited, and foreigners living in Moscow were quarantined in their own German Suburb, a
ghetto of European culture coveted by a few and dismissed by most. Muscovite society was not
society in any form recognizable in the West.[2]
Peter the Great created a new Russia which rivaled the society of the West with magnificent
courts and palaces. His vision was not to bring Russia to the West, but to bring the West to
Russia. He created a court system like that in the West through legal edicts and strict rules. In the
West art was an evidence of cultural freedom, but in Russia it was a deliberately controlled
expression and advancement. The rules were carefully laid out in The Honorable Mirror of
Youth, a compilation of Western courtesy books designed to educate courtiers in the intricacies of
refined behavior, including dancing.[3] Classical ballet entered the realm of Russia not as
entertainment, but as a standard of physical comportment to be emulated and internalized-an
idealized way of behaving.[4] The aim wasnt to entertain the masses of Russians, but to create a
cultivated and new Russian people.
In the early 19th century, the theaters were opened up to anyone who could afford a ticket. There
was a seating section called a rayok, or 'paradise gallery', that consisted of simple wooden
benches. This allowed non-wealthy people access to the ballet, because tickets in this section
were inexpensive.[5]

The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (1864)

Le Roi Candaule (1868)

Don Quixote (1869)

La Bayadre (1877)

The Sleeping Beauty (ballet) (1890)

The Nutcracker (1892)

The Awakening of Flora (1894)

Swan Lake (1895)

Raymonda (1898)
As the Classical period reached its zenith, it was becoming increasing clear (especially
with the late works of Beethoven and Schubert) that the amount and intensity of
expression composers were seeking to achieve was beginning to go beyond that which a
Classically sized/designed orchestra/piano could possibly encompass. The next period in
musical history therefore found composers attempting to balance the expressive and the
formal in music with a variety of approaches which would have left composers of any
previous age utterly bewildered. As the musical map opened up, with nationalist schools
beginning to emerge, it was the search for originality and individuality of expression
which began here that was to become such an over-riding obsession in the present
century.

The Romantic era was the golden age of the virtuoso, where the most fiendishly difficult
music would be performed with nonchalant ease, and the most innocuous theme in a
composition would be developed at great length for the enjoyment of the adoring
audience. The emotional range of music during this period was considerably widened, as
was its harmonic vocabulary and the range and number of instruments which might be
called upon to play it. Music often had a 'programme' or story-line attached to it,
sometimes of a tragic or despairing nature, occasionally representing such natural
phenomena as rivers or galloping horses. The next hundred years would find composers
either embracing whole-heartedly the ideals of Romanticism, or in some way reacting
against them.

Of the early Romantic composers, two Nationalists deserve special mention, the
Russian Glinka(of Russlan and Ludmilla fame) and the Bohemian Smetana (composer of
the popular symphonic poem Vltava or 'The Moldau'). However, the six leading
composers of the age were
undoubtedly Berlioz, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt and Verdi.

With the honourable exceptions of Brahms and Bruckner, composers of this period shared a
general tendency towards allowing their natural inspiration free rein, often pacing their
compositions more in terms of their emotional content and dramatic continuity rather than
organic structural growth. This was an era highlighted by the extraordinarily rapid appearance of
the national schools, and the operatic supremacy of Verdi and Wagner. The eventual end of
Romanticism came with the fragmentation of this basic style, composers joining 'schools' of
composition, each with a style that was in vogue for a short period of time.