Ballet is considered the youngest of all performing arts, commonly accepted as starting in 1581 with the staging of the first official ballet in Paris. It is clear that some form of dance has been a feature of religious ceremony from the days of early man to celebrations in the first temples, but few realize that social dance also has its roots in the ancient world. Archeological evidence has supported the theory that dance conforming to specific forms appears to have been taught in India around 6000 B.C. and reliefs and paintings from the First Dynasty of Egypt, (around 3000 B.C.) have been discovered showing musicians and dancers. With the spread of trade throughout the Mediterranean, Egyptian dance was surely brought to the Greeks and then later to the Romans. Though no significant change occurred in the style of dance under these empires, Patrician members of society began to withdraw from participating in dances of the crowds and became the first official audiences. Dance remained primarily a social custom throughout the middle ages. It took the renaissance movement in Italy to propel it towards to the performing art we engage in today.
The Italian renaissance was a period of renewed interest in the classical world and it was a reaction to the mediaeval period that had emphasized a more practical scholasticism. The thinkers of the renaissance, or renaissance humanists, believed that educations should include the arts in order to allow students to express themselves with eloquence and clarity. During this time, ruling families would hold huge pageants to honor special occasions such as a birth or a marriage. At this time the dancers were made of members of hosting family and their prestigious guests. These pageants often consisted of dancers parading out to a theme that would represent the various courses of feast. In 1489, Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, married Isabella of Aragon in Tortona and an elaborate dance entertainment was arranged for the celebrations by the Italian dance master Bergonzio di Botta. The dances were linked by a slim narrative and each corresponded to a different course for the dinner.
As the staging and choreography for these spectacles became more and more spectacular (great artists of the day like Leonardo da Vinci were hired to direct and create the scenery and props), the hosts turned to hired dancers to complete the programs. The choreography was adapted from court dance steps and performers dressed in the restrictive fashions of the times.
As early as the 1400s, the first so called "ballet masters" appeared. Domenico da Piacenza may not have been the greatest of these but is undoubtedly the most famous ballet master of the era due to his prolific writing on the subject of dance. In his most famous work, De Arte Saltandi ed Choreas Ducendi (On the Art of Dancing and Conducting Dances), his use of the term ballo over the word danza, both of which mean "dance" in Italian, is credited with the creation of the word "ballet" as it is used today.
When the Italian Catherine de Medici married France's Henri duc d'Orleans, she brought her enthusiasm for dance to France and provided great financial support to the arts. Queen Catherine's glittering entertainments supported the aims of court politics and usually were organized around mythological themes. Under her patronage a distinctive new art form, the ballet de cour (ballet of the courts), emerged.
1581 is considered the year that marks the birth of ballet in its modern incarnation. The first technical guide to ballet, Il Ballarino, was written in Italy by Fabritio Caroso and Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx staged the most important production in dance history called Ballet Comique de la Reine for Queen Louise of France. It may have had an audience of as many as ten thousand people and lasted over 5 hours. Owing to its synthesis of dance, music, verse, and setting, the production of the Ballet Comique de la Reine is regarded by scholars as the first authentic ballet.
The Italian renaissance was a period of renewed interest in the classical world and it was a reaction to the mediaeval period that had emphasized a more practical scholasticism. The thinkers of the renaissance, or renaissance humanists, believed that educations should include the arts in order to allow students to express themselves with eloquence and clarity. During this time, ruling families would hold huge pageants to honor special occasions such as a birth or a marriage. At this time the dancers were made of members of hosting family and their prestigious guests. These pageants often consisted of dancers parading out to a theme that would represent the various courses of feast. In 1489, Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, married Isabella of Aragon in Tortona and an elaborate dance entertainment was arranged for the celebrations by the Italian dance master Bergonzio di Botta. The dances were linked by a slim narrative and each corresponded to a different course for the dinner.
As the staging and choreography for these spectacles became more and more spectacular (great artists of the day like Leonardo da Vinci were hired to direct and create the scenery and props), the hosts turned to hired dancers to complete the programs. The choreography was adapted from court dance steps and performers dressed in the restrictive fashions of the times.
As early as the 1400s, the first so called "ballet masters" appeared. Domenico da Piacenza may not have been the greatest of these but is undoubtedly the most famous ballet master of the era due to his prolific writing on the subject of dance. In his most famous work, De Arte Saltandi ed Choreas Ducendi (On the Art of Dancing and Conducting Dances), his use of the term ballo over the word danza, both of which mean "dance" in Italian, is credited with the creation of the word "ballet" as it is used today.
When the Italian Catherine de Medici married France's Henri duc d'Orleans, she brought her enthusiasm for dance to France and provided great financial support to the arts. Queen Catherine's glittering entertainments supported the aims of court politics and usually were organized around mythological themes. Under her patronage a distinctive new art form, the ballet de cour (ballet of the courts), emerged.
1581 is considered the year that marks the birth of ballet in its modern incarnation. The first technical guide to ballet, Il Ballarino, was written in Italy by Fabritio Caroso and Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx staged the most important production in dance history called Ballet Comique de la Reine for Queen Louise of France. It may have had an audience of as many as ten thousand people and lasted over 5 hours. Owing to its synthesis of dance, music, verse, and setting, the production of the Ballet Comique de la Reine is regarded by scholars as the first authentic ballet.
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