From Technique to Tutus: The History of Ballet

Published October 8, 2026

From Technique to Tutus: The History of Ballet

I was sitting in the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts watching A.V.A. Ballet Theatre and the Reno Phil’s beautiful performance of Sleeping Beauty and I wondered about the history of ballet. Who created this dramatic art form? What are its origins?

So after the performance, I did a little investigating. I love Google.

Ballet began during the Italian Renaissance, a period in European history that is considered the cultural bridge between modern history and the Middle Ages.

The word ballet comes from the Italian word ballare, which means to dance. In the 15^th century noblemen and women enjoyed lavish celebrations where dance and music were featured. Masters of dance taught the intricate steps to the royals and the court participated in the performances.

Catherine de Medici of Italy, a great patron of the arts, married the French King Henry II and introduced and funded early dance styles into court life in France. She created the Ballet de Cour, the ballet of the King’s court. Her ballet program included dance, decor, costume, song, music and poetry.

In the early years of ballet, the dancers wore masks, heavy layers of silk clothing, pantaloons, and enormous headdresses. The costumes were beautiful but restricted the dancer’s movements. Dance moves were small hops, curtsies, promenades, and slow turns. Their dancing shoes had short heels and looked like dress shoes rather than any modern ballet pointe shoe.

The formal vocabulary and terminology of ballet was gradually standardized in French over the next 100 years. During his reign, French King Louis XIV helped to popularize the art form. He was an ardent dancer himself and performed in many ballets. His love of ballet nurtured its advancement from a past time for amateurs to a work requiring professional expertise.

In 1661, the first ballet academy opened in Paris and the art form moved from the King’s court to the stage. Early on, ballet was incorporated with the Paris Opera, also founded by King Louis XIV. By the mid 1700s, French ballet master Jean-Georges Noverre defied the opera-ballet relationship, believing that ballet should stand on its own. He believed the ballet should have dramatic and expressive movement that would expose relationships between the dancers. He introduced the “ballet d’action,” a theatrical style of ballet that conveys a narrative. Noverre’s work is considered the precursor to the narrative ballets of the 19^th century.

Ballet soon became an independent form of art and its popularity spread from the heart of Europe to other nations. By 1850, Russia had become the most prominent creative center of the dance world, and ballet was continually evolving. New looks and theatrical features became prevalent. Dancing en pointe became wildly popular during the early part of the 19^th century. For my ballet-challenged friends like me, en pointe is a classical ballet technique requiring the dancers to support all of their body weight on the tips of fully extended feet. Pointe dancing was reserved back then for women only.

The Russians excelled as ballet choreographers and composers and famous ballets such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty were created. These ballets were meant to highlight classical technique – pointe work, high extensions, precision of movement, and turn-out to the fullest. For the ballet-challenged, turnout is the outward rotation of the legs from the hip.

These ballets also had complicated choreography that showed off demanding steps, leaps and turns that were woven into the story. The classical tutu was introduced at this time to reveal a ballerina’s legs and the difficulty of her footwork and movements.

In the early 20^th century, choreographers began to experiment with different types of ballet style. George Balanchine, a Russian emigrant to America, was the founder and choreographer for the New York City Ballet. He introduced what is now known as neo-classical ballet, an extension on the classical form. He also is considered by many to be the ultimate innovator of the contemporary “plotless” ballet. With no fixed story line, its purpose is to use movement to express the music and to focus on human emotion.

Other ballet styles that have developed in the 19^th and 20^th centuries include the Royal Academy of Dance, with set standards of teaching; Vaganova, a Russian method of ballet; American Ballet Theater, a ballet technique combining artistic training with the basics of dancer health and child development; Cecchetti, a program which ensures that each part of the body is worked evenly by combining different types of steps into planned routines; and Bournonville, a 19^th century technique of the French school of classical dance.

Alexander Van Alstyne, the artistic director for A.V.A. Ballet Theatre, has been trained in many of these dance styles and incorporates them in each of his classical and contemporary ballets. What’s interesting to me about the history of ballet is that it seems to be continually evolving. This evolution has allowed the art form to maintain its popularity over seven centuries.

Steve Trounday is a board member at A.V.A. Ballet Theatre, the resident ballet company of the Pioneer Center. A.V.A. Their next production is the holiday classic The Nutcracker December 11-13 with the Reno Phil.