Ballet in a broader sense refers to all dances.
With the concept of ballet in the correct sense, we can analyze the process of ballet as a dance form from time to time. Any kind of new things in addition to its historical background, geographical background and cultural background, but also some key figures to play a major role in inspiring and advancing, ballet is no exception.
Ballet was born in the 15th century in Italy during the Renaissance, this art form was born at this time is a profound historical reasons. Renaissance, under the influence of humanist thinking, people began to pay attention to the value and role of the human body itself, the rapid development of the social economy, people began to pursue their own value and the harmonious beauty of art after the abundance of food and clothing to create the conditions. The popularization of science and culture enabled people to break free from obscurantism and begin to pursue the true and beautiful artistic experience. In the upper echelons of society, the princes and nobles competed to use art as a tool to show off their power, hoping to use art to expand political influence, and therefore do not hesitate to spend a lot of money to compete with the competition. Culture and art in this period of unprecedented development, in the ancient folk dance on the basis of a new, with a fixed style and the basic skills of the art form - early court ballet was born. The first large-scale ballet in history, the Queen's Comedy Ballet, was staged in 1581, which was the first more complete ballet, was prepared for the wedding of Queen Louise Marguerite of France and the Duke of Yao Yao Si. With its lavish costumes and large cast, the performance lasted more than five hours and can be considered the founding work of the ballet art. The author of the play is an Italian musician, choreographer Boloye, he created the dance drama, not to express the story or plot, but only for the court service, for the performance of the power of the nobility of the palace, the grandeur and noble status and service. For example, a sparkling jewel on the queen's white dress is enough to show the degree of luxury of the nobility of the palace. This can be regarded as the origin of ballet.
Any kind of art form, after the creation of further improvement and development, so as to have a tenacious vitality, in order to eternal artistic youth. In the flood of time, only by combining the characteristics of the new era, art can play the role of "high platform education", ballet is also so.
European ballet in the Renaissance period, the end of the 17th century gradually declined, because the material basis for its existence - Europe's feudalism is losing, as the superstructure of the art form of ballet naturally began to decadence. To the 18th century, because of industrialized production and the rise of the British emerging bourgeoisie gradually stepped onto the stage of history, so the ballet revived, and in the second half of the 18th century as an independent art form and existence. The development of ballet art can be basically divided into three stages: the classical ballet period, the Romantic ballet period, and the contemporary ballet period.
Classical ballet
Classical ballet is based on the ancient Greek and Roman folk dance of the family as the basis for the emergence of a natural and pure style of performance, and the field of open-air dance is its most obvious feature.
In the second half of the 19th century, classical ballet reached its peak in Russia, replacing France as the center of the world ballet. In its heyday, Russia has a "Sleeping Beauty" (1890), "The Nutcracker" (1892) and "Swan Lake" (1895), represented by a large number of classic plays, music authors for the Russian music world immortal master Tchaikovsky. Known as the "father of classical ballet", the French ballet master Marius Petipa moved to Russia from France, the development of the art of Russian ballet can be said to contribute. He created 54 full-length ballets and re-staged 17 traditional ballets. In addition to these three amazing works, he also staged Don Gioconda and The Dancing Lady. In addition, Petipa created two major dance forms, the pas de deux and the character dance.
The Russian classical ballet, with its increasingly powerful political and economic background, a change in the French aristocracy of the delicate habits, majestic and strong, the power to force people, but also added the personality characteristics of the Russian people, once represented the top level of the world ballet. If the Romantic ballet to soft and beautiful, then the classical ballet is to win the power and drama.
Romantic ballet
In the early 19th century, dance dramas mostly depicted fairies and supernatural spirits as the dominant way, and later evolved into the specialized art of highlighting a variety of spiritual beings, and the dance dramas produced at this stage had romantic plots and illusions of reality, which is why this stage is called the Romantic stage.
Paris, as the center of ballet activity, has appeared to "Nymphs" (1832), "Giselle" (1841), and "Gabrielle" (1870) as the representative of a large number of heirloom classics. In this period, ballet created the fairy tale orientation on the subject matter, laid down the "light and airy" feeling on the aesthetic concept, and determined the "vertical and upright" posture on the movement, which had a significant and far-reaching influence on the creation, training, performance and appreciation of ballet in the future. The classic ballet was performed in 1832. In the classic ballet "Nymphs" performed in 1832, the heroine Tarioni pioneered the use of special dancing shoes and danced on the tips of her toes, which has become a model for the rest of the world. By this time, ballet had already been transferred from the court to the people, staged in major theaters, and the number of outstanding actresses was endless. The skirt is getting shorter and shorter, the posture is getting lighter and lighter, etc. gradually become the symbol of romantic ballet. Romantic ballet is the most important stage in the history of ballet.
Contemporary ballet
By the middle of the 20th century, the traditional ballet model and techniques were gradually broken, the movement is becoming more and more diversified, and the dance drama is also out of the limitations of the plot, and has become a tool for emotional expression, which combines a variety of modern and contemporary elements of the form of dance is known as modern ballet.
Ballet since the beginning of the 15th century, has gone through the simple mat ballet, gorgeous symbolism ballet (Romantic ballet), solemn classical ballet, fresh and energetic modern contemporary ballet these courses. However, this linear progressive development, not each stage is completely stagnant death before the development of the next stage, but a historical stage gradually covered, gradually replace the next historical stage, progressive progress.
The ballet form is based on this gradual evolution, upgrading and perfecting. 20 century ballet development into the era of diversification, the emergence of a variety of styles and interactions, schools of thought and the integration of the situation, with iconography is umbrella-type focal point of radiation. Modern exploratory new works of charm, the 19th century classic dance drama is still the scenery, symphonic ballet and theater ballet parallel not contrary to the long masterpieces and exquisite works of art, the injection of various national cultures make the ballet more and more colorful.
Ballet art continues to develop, once and for all the decline and prosperity, after successive generations of artists combined with the characteristics of the times on its reform, still has a tenacious vitality, which shows that the ballet for a long period of time since the establishment of the scientific and complete training system does have its own unique features. At the same time, the reform of ballet also shows its broad inclusiveness and absorptive capacity. Any form of art, including ballet, under the guidance of survival as the first priority, must continue to develop, innovate, adapt to the needs of the new period, adapt to the needs of the audience's senses, and further enhance themselves while playing a role in guiding the taste of art appreciation. Only in this way can ballet flourish. It can be envisioned that the future development of ballet is bound to further absorb the spirit of the times and accept the cultural nourishment, and only in this way, ballet as an art form can constantly play its artistic charm. Suggest that you read a book Ballet aesthetic orientation and value of my answer is still satisfied with it