The origins of classical ballet harken back to the Renaissance period when dance became an inseparable part of court rituals and a symbolic expression of political ideas. Dance embodied the ideals of a harmonious society governed by celestial spheres and dominated by grace and beauty. In the early court ballets, kings and queens participated in the performances alongside their courtiers and professional dancers. Before the establishment of the first professional Academy of Dance in seventeenth-century France, Italians were the most acclaimed teachers and theorists of dance in Europe.

The very word "ballet," which is used in today’s English in the French spelling, had its origin in Italian "balletto," a diminutive of "ballo" (dance), which in turn comes from Latin "ballo," "ballare," meaning "to dance." The different traditions of ballet demonstrate a sequence of historical canons, which never existed in isolation from each other but were intertwined and enriched each other. These historical canons did not remain frozen in time but continuously contribute to many excellent ballet schools existing in the world today. These schools empower classical dance to grow through the centuries and to renew its historical achievements in relation to the contemporary world.

The training of a classical dancer is a long and demanding process, in which physical and expressive, technical and artistic, traditional and innovative aspects come closely together. It is often said that dancing requires a harmony of body and soul. This harmony is not arbitrary. Any movement or pose in classical ballet is harmonized through a position of the arms, a direction of gaze, a tilt of the head, and a height of extensions, among other factors. All these important aspects are interpreted differently in different schools. These differences are grounded in centuries of performing traditions, theoretical writings, aesthetic preferences, and cultural context. Although each of these schools strives to instill in a physically singular body a certain imprint of a school’s uniform manner of executing steps or holding positions, the ultimate task of immersing a contemporary dancer into a certain tradition is to reveal the dancer’s creative individuality, which is the greatest treasure that classical dance offers to viewers and a secret of its continuity.

French School

When Henri II, the future French King, married the Florentine princess Catherine de Medici in 1533, he could not predict that his Italian wife would bring to France at least two unquestionable cultural treasures—a taste for court ballet and her exquisite library. Court ballet found fertile ground in France, where it became tightly linked with court etiquette. Louis XIV, dubbed the Sun King in association with the Greek god Apollo, was a gifted and passionate dancer. The foundation of the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661 was one of the earliest decrees that the young king signed after becoming an absolute monarch. This decision had a long-lasting influence on the tradition of dance everywhere in the world: dance became an art supported and cultivated by the state. The king charged his Academy of Dance with the task of systematizing the technique of dance and teaching it to his courtiers. Only highly qualified teachers were allowed to give instructions in dance in France.

Working side by side with the foremost writers, poets, composers, painters, and sculptors of seventeenth-century France, the ballet masters of Louis XIV’s period transformed dance from a pastime into a professional occupation of intellectual depth, artistry, and technical agility equal to those of other creative arts. Pierre Beauchamps, the first director of the Royal Académie of Dance, a famous dancer and choreographer, developed a system of dance notation for his numerous choreographic creations at the court, starting with the system of the five basic positions of the feet, which is used in ballet to this day.

In 1672, the Academy of Music under the directorship of Jean-Baptiste Lully amalgamated with the Academy of Dance. The two joint academies founded a performing company, the Paris Opéra. In 1713, the Conservatoire of Dance at the Paris Opéra began to admit younger students with the purpose of training them for the corps de ballet of the Paris Opéra. The special examination system ensured the progress of its students and their advancement to upper levels of training. This model influenced other European schools of dance. The school produced many outstanding dancers over the three centuries of its existence. Its technical clarity and stylistic purity developed in proximity with the productions of the Paris Opéra in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which featured such outstanding dancers as Jean Balon, Louis Duport, Marie Camargo, Gaetano and Auguste Vestris, Jules Perrot, Lucien Petipa, Arthur Saint-Léon, Carlotta Zambelli, among others. The legendary ballerina Marie Taglioni joined the Paris Opéra in 1832 with her signature role in the ballet La Sylphide. In her retirement years, Marie Taglioni, an exemplary technician of dance, started the tradition of master classes, which she gave to the advanced dancers of the Paris Opéra.

The terms applied to positions and types of movements developed in the French school remain the lingua franca of classical ballet today. The clarity of position and effortless passage between them, the maintenance of a strong axis in a dancer’s body, which allows for an elegant refinement of steps and footwork, stability of balances, and regal interiority of emotions remain the distinct features of the French school.

Russian School

Classical dance came to Russia soon after the Westernization reforms introduced by Tsar Peter the Great. In 1738, Empress Anna established the Imperial Theatre School and invited the French ballet master Jean-Baptiste Landé as its director. The Academy was located in the Winter Palace and trained young boys and girls at the state’s expense, preparing them for the Imperial Russian theatres. Classical dance quickly became one of the most admired art forms among the Russian public and was generously supported by the ruling tsars. The rapid development of the Russian school in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is credited to the confluence of several European schools and the cultural cosmopolitanism of the Russian capital. French masters such as Charles Didelot, Jules Perrot, and Arthur Saint-Léon, Italians including Pierina Legnani, Carlotta Brianza, and Enrico Cecchetti, and the Danish Christian Johannson, a student of August Bournonville, worked side by side with Russian performers and choreographers.

In 1847, Marius Petipa, a French dancer, choreographer, and teacher, assumed the position of premier danseur at the Imperial Theatres of St. Petersburg. This marked a significant moment in the history of Russian and global ballet. Over his sixty-year career in Russia, Petipa created many of the best-known ballets in today’s classical repertoire, including Don Quixote (1869), La Bayadère (1877), The Sleeping Beauty (1890), and Raymonda (1898). He perfected the structure of narrative ballet, allowing dancers—particularly ballerinas—to showcase their technical virtuosity through impeccably structured pas de deux and variations. His corps de ballet scenes evoked magnificent tableaux vivants, creating the illusion of theatrical mystery. Some of Petipa’s finest dancers, including Ekaterina Vazem, Nicolas Legat, Olga Preobrazhenskaya, Lubov Egorova, and especially Agrippina Vaganova, later became remarkable teachers who transformed stage practice into codified training systems.

Agrippina Vaganova, formerly a soloist with the Imperial Ballet, played a transformative role in the history of Russian and world ballet. Her exceptional pedagogical and organizational skills preserved the best elements of the Imperial tradition during and after the Communist Revolution. Vaganova taught at the Leningrad State Choreographic School (now the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) from 1920 until her death in 1951. In 1934, she published the treatise The Principles of Classical Dance, which remains foundational for many ballet schools worldwide. At the core of the Vaganova system is a progressive training approach (spanning seven to eight years) focused on strengthening the core, elongating the limbs, articulating the feet, and achieving expressive coordination between the upper and lower body. This coordination, reinforced by integrated musicality, contributes to the striking plasticity and expressiveness of dancers trained in the Vaganova method. Her methodology remains central to institutions such as the Moscow State Academy of Choreography (Bolshoi Ballet Academy) and numerous schools worldwide founded by her students.

Danish School

The rise of the Danish ballet school is inseparable from the legacy of August Bournonville (1805–1879), an exceptional choreographer, teacher, and theorist. Born to a French father and a Swedish mother, Bournonville trained under the famed dancer August Vestris, who elevated male dance technique to new heights. While studying in Paris, Bournonville absorbed the spirit and aesthetics of Romanticism. However, he chose to dedicate his life to the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, which he directed from 1830 until his death and for which he created around sixty ballets.

Bournonville’s 1836 restaging of La Sylphide, originally choreographed by Filippo Taglioni for the Paris Opéra in 1832, introduced a distinct Danish interpretation of the Romantic ballet. In his version, the Sylph was not an ethereal, wispy figure but rather a more grounded embodiment of folklore and poetic supernaturalism. Lucile Grahn, the legendary Danish Sylphide, danced the role with restraint and simplicity, aligning her character with the real world and domestic warmth. Bournonville revised the French choreographic structure to foster direct dialogue between characters through movement. His choreography, demanding for both male and female dancers, avoided unnecessary embellishments and dramatic exaggerations.

His other enduring works—such as Napoli (1842), The Conservatoire (1849), and The Flower Festival in Genzano (1858)—presented joyful, community-focused stories featuring ordinary people. Unlike his contemporaries, Bournonville avoided themes of mythology or history, instead highlighting Scandinavian folklore and ethics. To bring his ideas to life, he developed specific technical requirements.

Bournonville inherited from Vestris many secrets of male dance technique that had faded in nineteenth-century France. His male dancers executed virtuosic jumps, pirouettes, and entrechats with full extension and turnout—techniques still valued today. He declined to choreograph solely for ballerinas en pointe, instead emphasizing the dignity and clarity of movement through graceful épaulement and low arm positions. He cautioned against overextensions or anatomical distortions. In his theoretical writings, Bournonville championed dance as an unpretentious, natural expression of the human soul. His allegro technique demanded exceptional leg precision and quickness, always maintaining the fluid phrasing of movement. This conversational ease, though difficult to master, is a defining trait of the Bournonville style.

The Bournonville method has been carefully preserved within the Royal Danish Ballet and has influenced choreographers far beyond Denmark, most notably George Balanchine. Erik Bruhn, a brilliant Bournonville student and celebrated twentieth-century dancer, carried the tradition to the National Ballet of Canada, where he served as artistic director from 1983 to 1986.