Ballet originated in Italy and flourished in France. The word "ballet" was originally the English translation of "French" ballet, which means "dancing" or "dancing". At first, ballet was a kind of mass entertainment or square dance in Europe. In the process of development, it has formed a strict norm and a form of deconstruction. Its main feature is that actresses have to wear special pointed shoes and dance on tiptoe. As a comprehensive stage art, ballet was formed in the French court in the17th century. 16 1 year, French king Louis XIV ordered the establishment of the world's first royal dance school in Paris, which established five basic feet and seven hands for ballet, giving ballet a complete set of movements and systems. These five basic feet have been used to this day.

Ballet is to use music, dance and pantomime to perform dramatic plots. Actresses often dance on tiptoe. Meaning: ① A form of stage dance, namely European classical dance, commonly known as ballet. This is a traditional European dance art with strict norms and structural forms, which is formed on the basis of folk dances all over Europe and has been continuously processed, enriched and developed for centuries. /kloc-after the 0/9 th century, an important technical feature is that actresses have to wear special tiptoe shoes and dance on tiptoe, so some people call it tiptoe dance. (2) Ballet, originally referred to as the dramatic art that takes European classical dance as the main means of expression and combines music, pantomime, stage art and literature to express a story or an emotional festival, is called classical ballet (or classical ballet). After the emergence of modern dance in the 20th century, modern ballet, which combines modern dance and classical dance techniques as the main means of expression, is called modern ballet. Gradually, the word ballet has also been used to refer to ballet works with other dances as the main means of expression, although it is different from classical ballet or modern ballet in dance style, structural characteristics and expression techniques. (3) A considerable part of the dance works created by modern choreographers have no story content and plot. The directors use European classical dance or modern dance, or combine them to express a certain mood, artistic conception, or the author's understanding of a musical work. These are also called ballet.

Ballet originated from the old Latin ballo. At first, the word only refers to dancing, or performing dancing in public, and has no meaning of theatrical performance. As a stage art, ballet was conceived in the grand banquets and entertainment activities in Italy during the Renaissance and formed in the French court in the17th century. This kind of court ballet is actually a comprehensive performance of dance, singing, music, recitation and drama with a loose structure under a unified theme. Designed by a professional dance teacher, with the king and nobles as actors and the female role played by men. The performance venue is in the center of the palace hall, and the audience is watching around the hall. Actors wear leather masks to mark different roles, so it is also called masked ballet.

166 1 year, Louis XIV ordered the establishment of the Royal Dance Academy in Paris. 65438+ Li Sailiu Bishop's Palace Theatre began to be used for ballet performances in 1970s. The change of the venue and the audience's viewing angle has caused the change of dance techniques and aesthetics, and the standing posture of the actors has become more and more open, thus formally determining the five basic positions of the feet, which has become the basis for the development of ballet technology. Professional ballerinas came into being and gradually replaced aristocratic amateurs. Professional ballerinas also began to perform on stage, and dance techniques developed rapidly. Ballet performance has gradually changed from a social activity of self-entertainment to a theatrical performance art. Ballet in this period was subordinate to opera, and it was actually a series of dance performances that the court composer J.B. Lurui added to the opera, but the plot seemed irrelevant. It's called ballet or ballet opera at this time. This situation continued until the middle of18th century. Novel,/kloc-a ballet master in the 0/8th century, is the most influential dance innovator in the history of ballet. He put forward the idea of "drama ballet" for the first time in the "Dance and Dance Drama Express" published by 1760, emphasizing that dance is not only a physical skill, but also a tool for drama expression and ideological exchange. Novel theory has promoted the innovation wave of ballet. With the continuous efforts of him and many other actors and directors, ballet has carried out a series of reforms in content, theme, music, dance techniques and clothing. These reforms finally separated ballet from opera and formed an independent drama art.

In the history of ballet development, there are two main aesthetic views that have been at work. One view is that ballet is a kind of "pure dance", and B.de Beaujoyeulx, an Italian dance teacher in the16th century and director of the Queen's comedy "Ballet", thinks that ballet is a "geometric combination of several people dancing together". This view focuses entirely on the formal beauty of ballet, almost completely ignoring the content or plot of ballet, which often leads to the simple pursuit of superb and gorgeous skills. /kloc-before the middle of the 0/8th century, this view was dominant in ballet creation. Another view emphasizes that ballet is a kind of "dramatic dance", and the theory of "plot ballet" in the novel represents this view most intensively. He believes that in a ballet work, dance should show dramatic content, "the plot and dance design should be unified, and the story with clear logic and easy understanding should be the central theme, and solo dance and dance fragments unrelated to the plot should be cancelled." In the dance drama, "not only the dancing skills are dazzling, but also the audience is moved by dramatic performances". The above two main points are still valid today. Many directors devote themselves to creating dramatic or melodramatic ballet works, while some directors are keen on ballet without melodrama and pay attention to formal beauty. The excellent plays in the two works are appreciated by the audience and often staged as reserved plays. Since the 20th century, the influence of various literary thoughts on ballet creation has become more and more obvious, and many works with different styles have appeared.

Choreography is a key figure in creating a ballet work. He conceived a ballet structure or a dance structure according to a literary script (or a story, a poem or a musical work), and then the actors reflected it. Choreographers and actors must master ballet language (or ballet vocabulary)-ballet technical skills, and the ability to express specific content or emotions in ballet language. The director should know what he is good at and what he can't express; On the other hand, actors should be well-trained, able to adapt and creatively reflect the ideas of choreographers. Only with these basic conditions can ballet creation be carried out and completed. The structural forms of ballet are: solo dance, duet, threesome dance, foursome dance, group dance and so on. Classical dance, personality dance (stage folk dance, folk dance), modern dance, etc. According to the above forms, the structure of multi-act ballet (on and off, such as Swan Lake), single-act ballet (such as Fairy) and ballet sketch (such as ballet) developed to a high degree of standardization and stylization in the late19th century, which affected and restricted the development of ballet. In a large number of ballet works created by directors in the 20th century, these norms and procedures have been greatly broken, and new explorations and creations are constantly emerging.