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Classic Ballet

By monicalaurel
  • 1489

    Before 1700s

    In Tortone, Italy, Bergonzio di Botta conducts his ballet dinner.
  • 1581

    Before 1700s

    Before 1700s
    Balthasar de Beaujoyeaux choreographed the first ballet, Le Ballet Comique de la Reine, in 1581.

  • Before 1700s

    Before 1700s
    Verona's Teatro d'Olympico has a raised platform arch stage.

  • Before 1700s

    Before 1700s
    Thoinot Arbeau wrote the first French book on dance Orchésographie, which included a description of the turn-out.

  • Before 1700s

    Before 1700s
    In Le Ballet de la Nuit, Louis XIV (Sun King) danced the Sun God. Pierre Beauchamps, his dance teacher, began to develop a dance vocabulary.
  • Period: to

    Before 1700s

    Louis Pécourt was the first male professional dancer.

  • Before 1700s

    Before 1700s
    The Académie Royale de Danse was founded by Louis XIV.
  • Period: to

    Before 1700s

    Mlle. LaFontaine - first professional female dancer

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    The opera house was home to the Académie Royale de Danse.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    Dancing Master was written by Pierre Rameau, a French dancing master. The relevance of the five positions was underlined in this work.

  • 18th Century

    Marie Carmargo made her first appearance. In 1727, her rival Marie Salle made her debut.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    In only a tunic, Marie Salle makes her Pygmalion.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    In St. Petersburg, Jean-Baptiste Landé established the Imperial Ballet School. Read more about Russian Ballet's Beginnings and the Bolshoi Ballet's Beginnings.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    The "Shakespeare of Ballet," Jean-Georges Noverre, stages his first ballet in Lyon and publishes his dancing ideas.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    Letters on the Dance, by Jean-George Noverre, was published.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    Catherine the Great establishes the Imperial Theatre Dictorate.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    Gardel Maximilien removes his mask.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    In Philadelphia, America's first male dancer, John Durang, performs.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    La Fille Mal Gardee was choreographed by Dauberval. It is the oldest ballet on the stage today.

  • 18th Century

    18th Century
    French Revolution begins.

  • 18th Century

    In Charleston, South Carolina, the first American ballet company performs. More information regarding the origins of American ballet can be found here.

  • 19th Century

    19th Century
    Napoleon is proclaimed French Emperor.

  • 1820

    1820
    An Elementary Treatise on the Theory and Practice of the Art of Dancing was written by Carlo Blasis.

  • 1828

    1828
    An Elementary Treatise on the Theory and Practice of the Art of Dancing was written by Carlo Blasis.

  • 19th Century

    19th Century
    The Code of Terpsichore is published by Carlo Blasis.

  • 19th Century

    19th Century
    The "romantic phase" began with Filippo Taglioni's La Sylphide.

  • 19th Century

    19th Century
    Carlotta Grisi stars in Giselle, a ballet choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot and directed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot.

  • 1842

    Christian Johansson went to Russia with Marie Taglioni and stayed to become one of Russia's top teachers.

  • 19th Century

    19th Century
    Jules Perrot choreographed Pas de Quatre at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.

  • 19th Century

    Fanny Elssler and Jules Perrot are sweeping Russia. Perrot was the director of the Maryinski Ballet for ten years.

  • 19th Century

    19th Century
    The Imperial School graduates Lev Ivanov, the first Russian-born innovator.

  • 19th Century

    19th Century
    Perrot is replaced as the Bolshoi's director by Arthur Saint-Leon.

  • 19th Century

    Marius Petipa, who was a tyrant for 30 years, succeeds Arthur Saint-Leon as director of the Bolshoi.

  • 19th Century

    19th Century
    Aurthur Saint-Leon returns to Paris to choreograph Coppelia, the Paris Opera's final big ballet. Ballet died out in the West due to the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of Paris.

  • 19th Century

    19th Century
    Enrico Cecchetti becomes a dancer and ballet master at the Imperial School 1890.

  • 19th Century

    The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg hosts the first performance of Petipa's The Nutcracker.

  • 20th Century

    20th Century
    With his Ballet Russe, Sergei Diaghilev brought ballet back to the western world.

  • 20th Century

    20th Century
    Sol Hurok starts to organize his first concerts.

  • 1910

    The first Ballet company in America, Chicago Opera Ballet

  • 20th Century

    Russian revolution

  • 1929

    The Dorothy Alexander Concert Group started - later to become the Atlanta Civic Ballet

  • 1933

    René Blum and Colonel de Basil formed the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo after Diaghilev's death, carrying on the ballet heritage. The Nazis assassinated Blum at Auschwitz.

  • 1933

    Adolph Bolm founded the San Francisco Ballet.

  • 1933

    1933
    In Hartford, Connecticut, Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine found the School of American Ballet.

  • 1934

    The Philadelphia Ballet evolved from the Catherine Littlefield Ballet Company.

  • 1934

    New York City became the home of the School of American Ballet.

  • 1937

    The Mikhail Mordkin Ballet is the precursor to the American Ballet Theatre.

  • 1948

    Ballet Society becomes The New York City Ballet.

  • 1954

    Joffrey Ballet gives its first concert at the 92nd Street Y.

  • 1969

    Eliot Feld's first Company started.

  • 1971

    Dance Theatre of Harlem gave its first concert at the New York City Guggenheim Museum.