16 questions · Music
On 23 February 1653 a fourteen-year-old dancer appeared on stage in Paris, covered in golden rays. In the “Ballet royal de la nuit” he played the rising sun, and he happened to be king: Louis XIV. The young monarch loved to dance, and at his court a courtly pastime became a stage art with fixed rules. In 1661 he founded the Académie royale de danse. That is why the steps still have French names all over the world: whether in Moscow, Tokyo or New York, a class begins with a plié at the barre, a turn on one leg is a pirouette and a stretched pose is an arabesque. In the nineteenth century Romanticism took over the theatre. In 1832 Marie Taglioni floated across the stage like an air spirit in “La Sylphide”, on the tips of her toes and in a calf-length tulle skirt. From these beginnings came the pointe shoe and the tutu, the emblems of the ballerina. Nine years later came “Giselle”, the story of a peasant girl who after her death falls among the Wilis, vengeful ghosts of jilted brides. In 1870 Paris saw “Coppélia”, in which a young man falls in love with a mechanical doll. Then the centre moved to Russia. The Frenchman Marius Petipa shaped in Saint Petersburg the style we now call classical and created “The Sleeping Beauty” with Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”, with the enchanted Princess Odette, and “The Nutcracker” remain among the most performed works of all. In the twentieth century Sergei Prokofiev wrote “Romeo and Juliet”. All of this is danced at great houses such as the Bolshoi in Moscow, the Mariinsky in Saint Petersburg and the Paris Opera, and the high point of the evening is usually the pas de deux.
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Swan Lake
Tchaikovsky’s ballet premiered in Moscow in 1877; the version by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, staged in Saint Petersburg in 1895, made it famous.
💡 Did you know? Odette and her dark double Odile are usually danced by the same ballerina.
Coppélia
The music is by Léo Delibes; the ballet premiered at the Paris Opera in 1870.
💡 Did you know? It is based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s story “The Sandman”.
Giselle
The music is by Adolphe Adam; it premiered at the Paris Opera in 1841.
💡 Did you know? The Wilis are ghosts of brides who died before their wedding, and they dance faithless men to death.
La Sylphide
Her father Filippo Taglioni choreographed it at the Paris Opera, where she seemed to float on the tips of her toes.
💡 Did you know? The version most often danced today is August Bournonville’s from Copenhagen (1836).
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
The Sleeping Beauty premiered in 1890 and The Nutcracker in 1892, both in Saint Petersburg.
💡 Did you know? Together with Swan Lake they are his only three ballets.
Sergei Prokofiev
He composed it in the mid-1930s; the “Dance of the Knights” is well known far beyond the theatre today.
💡 Did you know? Its first performance took place not in the Soviet Union but in Brno in 1938.
Louis XIV
The young king was a passionate dancer; the role helped earn him the name Sun King.
💡 Did you know? In 1661 he founded the Académie royale de danse.
French
This goes back to the French court, where ballet was given fixed rules in the seventeenth century.
💡 Did you know? That is why a class in Moscow, Tokyo or New York can be followed with the same words.
Pirouette
To avoid dizziness, dancers fix their eyes on a point and whip the head round on every turn.
💡 Did you know? In the third act of Swan Lake Odile turns 32 fouettés in a row.
Plié
Plié means “bent” in French; the exercise warms up knees, feet and hips.
💡 Did you know? A grand plié goes so deep that in most positions the heels leave the floor.
Arabesque
The name comes from the arabesques, the intertwined ornaments of Moorish art.
💡 Did you know? If the raised leg is bent instead of straight, the pose is called an attitude.
Tutu
The calf-length Romantic tutu appeared around 1832 with La Sylphide; the short one that sticks straight out is the classical tutu.
💡 Did you know? A classical tutu is often sewn from more than a dozen layers of tulle.
Pointe shoes
Their box is hardened from layers of fabric, paper and glue, not wood.
💡 Did you know? Professional dancers often wear out a pair in just a few performances.
Pas de deux
The grand pas de deux follows a fixed form: adagio, two solo variations and a joint coda.
💡 Did you know? Literally the French phrase means “step for two”.
Bolshoi Theatre
It traces its founding back to 1776; its counterpart in Saint Petersburg is the Mariinsky Theatre.
💡 Did you know? Bolshoi simply means “big” in Russian.
Marius Petipa
Born in Marseille, he worked in Saint Petersburg for about half a century and shaped classical ballet.
💡 Did you know? The version of La Bayadère (1877) still performed today is also his.
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