No single person invented ballet. It began in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 1400s, moved to France with an Italian-born queen, and became a professional art under King Louis XIV, the “Sun King.” Because ballet was formalized in France, much of its vocabulary is still French, which is why your teacher says plié and not “bend.”
I’m an adult hobby dancer, and I’ve said “plié” thousands of times without ever asking why a class in America runs on French. So I went looking. The real story has wedding banquets, a teenage king dressed as the sun, and a dance academy that left no records behind. Here’s the short version, with sources.
It started in Italy, at the party
According to Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s brief history of ballet, ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century. Wikipedia’s History of ballet article and My Modern Met’s history of ballet say the same. These were lavish celebrations, especially aristocratic weddings, where dancing masters taught the steps and the nobles themselves performed.
It didn’t look anything like what we call ballet today. Wikipedia notes there were no tutus, ballet slippers, or pointe work yet. Women danced in formal gowns that covered their legs to the ankle, and the steps came from court dances. Early ballet was participatory, too: the audience joined the dance toward the end.
One of the first names we know is Domenico da Piacenza, a dancing master who lived from about 1400 to about 1470. His Wikipedia entry calls him the first known dancing master to leave published dance instructions.
And the word itself is Italian at the root. Wikipedia’s Ballet article traces “ballet” to the Italian balletto, a diminutive of ballo (dance), from ballare, “to dance.” English borrowed it from French in the 17th century.
My favorite early example: according to Wikipedia, at a 1489 ducal wedding in Tortona, the dance master Bergonzio Botta staged dances linked by a story about Jason and the Argonauts, with each dance matched to a different course of the dinner. Dinner and a show, very literally.
How ballet moved to France
The bridge to France was Catherine de’ Medici, an Italian noblewoman from Florence. She married the future King Henry II of France in 1533, as Wikipedia’s ballet de cour article notes, and brought her love of court festivals with her. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre says her elaborate festivals encouraged the growth of ballet de cour, or court ballet: a mix of dance, decor, costume, song, music, and poetry.
In 1573 she commissioned the Ballet des Polonais to honor Polish ambassadors visiting Paris. It was staged at the Tuileries Palace by the Italian-born dancing master Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, and it featured sixteen women, each representing a French province. Wikipedia and My Modern Met both describe it, and Wikipedia’s History of ballet article calls it the first ballet de cour.
Eight years later came the show that usually gets the “first ballet” title. The Ballet Comique de la Reine was performed in Paris on October 15, 1581, according to its Wikipedia entry. It was part of a court wedding celebration, it was based on the legend of the enchantress Circe, and it ran for more than five hours. Beaujoyeulx created the scenario and choreographed it.
Why does it count as the first? Wikipedia’s Beaujoyeulx article says it’s generally regarded as the first ballet because it had a storyline. The ballet de cour article adds that it was the first to fuse dance, poetry, music, and design into one coherent dramatic statement. So whether you say 1573 or 1581 depends on what you think a ballet needs: a dance, or a story told through dance.
These shows weren’t on a stage. Wikipedia explains that court ballets took place in large halls, with the audience on three sides, so the dances were built as geometric patterns meant to be seen from above. The engravings from 1581 show just how much scenery they packed in, including a fountain on wheels.
Louis XIV: the teenage king who danced the sun
Here’s where ballet gets its most famous fan. Louis XIV loved to dance, and he didn’t just watch. On February 23, 1653, the Ballet Royal de la Nuit premiered in Paris, and the fourteen-year-old king danced in it. Its Wikipedia entry and the History of ballet article both give his age as fourteen.
The ballet followed the four watches of the night, from sunset to sunrise. It had goddesses, werewolves, witches, thieves, and shepherds. At the end, Louis appeared as Apollo, the rising sun, bringing the night to an end. According to Wikipedia, that role is where his famous nickname, the Sun King, came from. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and My Modern Met tell the same story.
How long was it? Long. The Ballet Royal de la Nuit article says it took about 13 hours to perform, while the History of ballet article calls it a 12-hour ballet. Either way, it lasted all night, which was the point.
Wikipedia’s History of ballet article is clear that this wasn’t only about fun. Louis used dance to set the rules of court life and to keep the nobles busy and in line. Ballet was politics in costume.
1661: the first dance academy
In March 1661, Louis XIV founded the Académie Royale de Danse by letters patent. Its Wikipedia entry calls it the first dance institution established in the Western world. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and My Modern Met also date the academy to 1661.
It was made up of thirteen dancing masters, and Wikipedia notes that eight of them had danced with the king in the Ballet de la Nuit. On paper, the academy had sweeping powers. Its rules required new dances to be approved by its members before they could be performed, and teaching licenses had to go through them too.
Here’s the strange part: no document about the academy’s actual activity has survived. Wikipedia also notes that historians have argued the dancing masters themselves may have pushed for it, to raise the status of their profession.
Louis kept dancing for years, then stopped. Wikipedia’s History of ballet and French ballet articles both say he retired as a dancer in 1670.
Beauchamp, the five positions, and ballet on paper
If you’ve ever stood in first position, you’ve met the work of Pierre Beauchamp. He was Louis XIV’s dance teacher. According to his Wikipedia entry, he gave the king lessons for over twenty-two years.
Beauchamp is credited with codifying the five positions of the feet. Wikipedia’s History of ballet, French ballet, and ballet de cour articles all credit him with this. His own Wikipedia entry is more careful: it says the dancing master Pierre Rameau credited Beauchamp, writing some years later. I wrote a whole guide to the five ballet positions if you want to see what they look like today.
Louis also wanted a way to write dance down. The system that came out of this was later published in 1700 by Raoul-Auger Feuillet and became known as Beauchamp–Feuillet notation. The French ballet article says hundreds of dances were recorded in it, and that the notation is detailed enough that dances can be reconstructed today.
From the court to the stage, and the oldest ballet company
Ballet didn’t stay a hobby for courtiers. In 1669 Louis granted a privilege for an opera academy, and under Jean-Baptiste Lully it became the Académie Royale de Musique, the Paris Opera. Wikipedia’s Paris Opera Ballet article says that in Lully’s first opera, staged in 1672, the members of the court no longer danced. All of the dancers were professionals.
Women reached the professional stage in the 1680s. Wikipedia’s History of ballet article says women didn’t dance in the king’s ballets or on Paris stages until then, and the academy article links the arrival of female dancers at the Paris Opera to Le Triomphe de l’Amour in 1681. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre also dates ballet’s move from the courts to the stage to 1681.
The company that grew out of all this is still dancing. Wikipedia calls the Paris Opera Ballet the oldest national ballet company, and its French ballet article says it’s considered the world’s oldest ballet company. If you’ve wondered what an étoile is, it’s the Paris Opera Ballet’s top rank, which I cover in ballet company ranks, explained.
So why are ballet steps in French?
Because France is where ballet was formalized. Wikipedia’s Glossary of ballet explains that a large share of ballet’s terms are French because the art was formalized in France. The History of ballet article says the same thing about the Paris Opera Ballet: the predominance of French in ballet’s vocabulary reflects that history.
So the words you hear in class are, quite literally, French descriptions of what your body is doing:
- Plié: “bent”
- Tendu: “stretched”
- Relevé: “raised, lifted”
- Jeté: “thrown”
- Sauté: “jumped”
Once I learned the meanings, class corrections started to make more sense. “Your tendu isn’t stretched” is a bit of a tautology, but now I know why my teacher sighs.
Notice the words “a large share.” Not every ballet word is French. The glossary itself includes words from other languages, like adagio, from Italian. But the core vocabulary of the classroom came out of the French tradition.
What happened next (the short version)
The story didn’t end in Versailles. A few turning points that shaped the ballets you can see today:
- 1760: Jean-Georges Noverre published Lettres sur la danse et les ballets, arguing for the ballet d’action, where dance tells a story. Wikipedia, My Modern Met, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre all mention it.
- The Romantic era: ballets like La Sylphide and Giselle (1841) brought spirits, long tulle skirts, and pointe work. My Giselle guide is here, and the skirts are explained in types of tutus.
- Russia: Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and the Petipa–Ivanov Swan Lake became the grandest classical ballets.
- 1928: George Balanchine’s Apollo, which My Modern Met calls the first neoclassical ballet. Fittingly, it’s about Apollo, the same god Louis XIV played.
- 1948: New York City Ballet was founded. My Modern Met credits Balanchine, whose style has heavily influenced American ballet.
If this makes you want to see where 500 years of court parties ended up, start with my list of ten ballets for beginners. And for your first night at the theater, here’s what to wear and when to clap. No one will ask you to dance for 13 hours.
Spotted an error? Let me know.
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