Brief History of Ballet

In order to gain as much information for the ballet dance as possible I started to explore its origin from the beginning. For that reason, I made a research on some of the most important historical moments which were essential for the development of the ballet dance as the contemporary art which it is nowadays.
 The ballet dance has emerged in the 15th century in Italian Renessaince and then has been spread to France. The first ballet performances were attended by aristocrats and were organised as lavish events and spectacles mostly in courts.
The most famous aristocrat who had a great influence in spreading and funding the ballet dance from Italy to spain was Catherine de Medici, the wife of King Henry II. The Italian noble woman created a programme called Ballet de Cour had a great contribution of the developing of arts, inspired by her father-in-law King Francis I of France who was famous of hosting great number of artists in his court. The programme Ballet de cour included also costumes, decor, music and poetry.

Henry XIV in the role of Appolon

Another great influential name in the Ballet de cour was Louis XIV (also known as Louis The Great and The Sun King). He was a great fan of ballet and also a dancer himself. He played more than 80 roles in 40 major ballet performances among which Apollo and Netpune in Les Amantes Magnifiques (1670), and an Egyptian in Le Mariage Force (1664). The Sun King is considered as a patriarch of the Classical ballet in the mid 17th and early 18th century. One of his most noticable contribution to the ballet dance was hiring the composer of his court ballet dances Jean Baptiste Lully in 1661and establishing Academie D'Opera (1670) - an which produced French Opera performances.

Interesting fact about the early court ballet performances were that they were entirely danced by men until 1681. Another interesting aspect of court dances was that the performers and performances were seen from three sides until they were moved to stage where seen only from one side.
In 1672, Jean Baptiste Lully renamed Academie D'Opera into Academy Royal de Musique and soon after that his applyed his vision turning courts dances into art spectacles by trained dancers as the performances continue to developed through the next decades with more specialised choreography.
Latest important happening in the Classical ballet was the establishing of the dance school of the Paris Opera which is the oldest one which still exists.
The next important stage of ballet was the Romantic ballet which was mostly developed in the mid 19th century. This movement was developed mostly by some French venues and also Her Magesty's Theatre in London. The Romantic ballet is considered to have begun in 1827 with the ballet performance La Sylphide with the particiation of the ballerina Marie Taglioni. After the first court performances were danced mostly by men, in the romantic ballet the focus of the dances is moved to the figure of the female dancer - the ballerina. The dances from this era also started to apply some prototypes of the modern ballet dancer which I'll explore in a separate article. Another interesting aspect of the Romantic dance performances were the theatre sound and light effects part of the performance, including gas lighting and candles.

An example of the extravagant costumes Serge
Diaghilev was using in his performances.
Costumes for brigands in Fokine's ballet
"Daphnis and Chloe", designed by
Leon Bakst, 1912

During the the end of 19 and the beginning of 20th century, some other countries started to promoted and develope the ballet as a dance. Ballet becomes extremely popular in Russia brought from Paris by Serge Diaghilev. Diaghilev estalish a Russian ballet company called The Ballet Russes in 1911 which became famous with extraordinary costume designs. He's performances were a mixture of fashion, theatre and daily life. Although, most of the time his company was struggling financially and existed for less than 10 years, his performances continue to an inspiration for some modern ballet performances today.
Nowadays, most of the classic ballet performances are still being performed around theatres and halls worldwide. Although, there is some critism about the lack of creation of new ballet performances, there are many choreographers who are applying ballet techniques in their performances.
"Ballet is still relevant because it still has the capacity to move, challenge, excite, provoke, our human sensibilities in ways no other art form can." (full interview:) -  says Wayne McGregor, British contemporary choreographer and director, who is applying some ballet techniques in his art work.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballets_de_cour
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_de'_Medici#Patron_of_the_arts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ballet#Russia
http://www.pbt.org/community-engagement/brief-history-ballet
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/o/origins-of-ballet/
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides/Entertainment/Ballet.pg_0.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_ballet
http://danceinhistory.com/2014/01/16/the-ballets-de-cour-of-louis-xiv/
http://californiaballet.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/louis-xiv-and-the-birth-of-classical-ballet/
http://dance.about.com/od/historyofdance/f/Court_Ballet.htm
http://californiaballet.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/louis-xiv-and-the-birth-of-classical-ballet/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France#Ballet
http://www.russianballethistory.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_ballet
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/d/diaghilev-and-the-ballets-russes/
http://www.randomdance.org/wayne_mcgregor

http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_02/dec02/interview_wayne_mcgregor.htm

[digital image] Available at: http://residencesarabande.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/la-danse/ [Accessed 28/05/14]
[digital image] Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/d/diaghilev-and-the-ballets-russes/ [Accessed 28/05/14]