Mitchel 1
Alyssa Mitchel
Professor Pileggi
Big History
8 Dec. 2011
The Evolution of an Increasingly Complex and Beautiful Art: Ballet
In David Christian, Cynthia Brown and Craig Benjamin’s account of Big History:
Between Nothing and Everything, they take us through the story of the universe’s evolution.
Their story begins with the big bang, transitions to stars, galaxies, chemical elements, leads up to
the establishment of the earth and our solar system, then moves towards the origination of life
and eventually to humans, who created city states and agriculture, leading to modernization in
the industrial revolution. Similar to this creation story, ballet also has a story. Ballet started off as
a recreational social event in ancient and is now a valued, athletic, collaborative and growing art
form that is appreciated worldwide. Through the eight thresholds of ballet’s evolution, it is
evident that this art form continues to evolve as our society modernizes.
Scientists have proved that the universe, like all other aspects of the world, has an origin.
David Christian explains in his work, Big History: Between Nothing and Everything, that 13.7
billion years ago something took place that started to shape space, matter, energy and time. He
notes that, “space itself may have been no larger than an atom. It was also inconceivably
hot…As it expanded, however, it was also cooling rapidly” (10-11). Similar to the creation of
our universe, the art of ballet also had a starting point. Ballet started taking place during the
dance ceremonies of primitive Greek tribes around 1500 BC. During this period of time, dance
was used as a religious ritual and performers started learning that they needed “to discipline
themselves and their movements to communicate the meaning of the ritual and fill the now
Mitchel 2
limited dance space” (Lawson 1). Themes of classical ballet started emerging in the “tragodia”
(Lawson 2) also known as the goat song. In this performance, a priest who also had the skills of a
poet would sing the tale of his god while his followers would dance and mime the god’s actions.
The audience was encouraged at the very end of the performance to participate, joining the
chorus in dances of rejoice and sorrow. The chorus ranged from about “twelve to fifty and could
be of either sex, according the needs of the drama” (Lawson 5). Chorus members made the entire
performance (comprising of actors, musicians and principal performers) more entertaining to
watch. The Chorus danced many movements of continuity such as the “chains and kolos”
(Lawson 5) where dancers would link hands, elbows, shoulders and hands. These movements
connected the chorus to the orchestra. During the 8th century BC (History World 1), dancers
started performing at the Olympic games and in widely known Greek theatres. Moreover, a key
invention of the Greeks that enabled the art of ballet to evolve was the pantomimi. While during
many performances the main actors spoke words, the Greeks transitioned into inventing dancemimes where an actor would use pantomime to act the story of a hero while a singer and flute
player would play along to add intensity to the performance. (Lawson 7) This would later have
an impact on the future structure of ballet.
According to David Christian, the universe’s expansion led to more complexity and
organization. As huge clouds of dark and atomic matter collapsed on themselves, heating up to
high temperatures, smaller clouds began to go through the same processes. The author explains
that “at this temperature, protons began to collide so violently that they began to fuse
together…This process is known as fusion” (Christian 17). Similar to the process of fusion
within stars, the art of ballet changed. European societies began creating horse ballets in the
thirteenth century, and royalty implemented dinner-ballets in the fifteenth century to honor the
Mitchel 3
marriage of Isabella of Aragon and the Duke of Milan in 1489 (Lawson 11). Ballet began to be
an art valued by royalty. France and Italy both created the court ballet, which “served secular
rather than religious functions…The different components of a court ballet – dance, poetry,
music and design – were usually coordinated by an organizer who supervised the entire
production” (Au 12). However, from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, ballet was known to be
a social event and the dancer’s movements were not organized or taken seriously by the directors
of court ballets. In fact, “the dancers were amateurs, the dancing masters had only to see that
their steps conformed to the design, music and above all, the niceties of social behavior”
(Lawson 18). However, ballet became more complex as it spread throughout Europe. Soon, it
would obtain a structure, technique, and levels of professionalism, different elements and
equipment.
As we venture into the third threshold, Christian explores a whole new level of
complexity: the creation of chemical elements. The author shows that while stars were comprised
of mostly hydrogen and some helium, “To create new elements it was necessary to smash simple
atoms together so violently that the protons in their nuclei fused together to form nuclei with
large atomic numbers” (Christian 20). Relating chemical complexity to the third threshold of
ballet’s history, in the seventeenth century ballet transitioned from being a social and recreational
activity into something that was taken very seriously, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, pointe shoes were invented using these chemical elements. At the turn of the
seventeenth century, ballet in France turned into a professional art. In 1672, Jean Baptiste
Colbert, the French Minister of Finances, created the Academy of Painting and Sculpture in
France, and persuaded King Louis XIV multiple times, to authorize l’Académie royale de
Musique (later known as the Paris Opera ballet). Jean Baptiste Lully was one of the most
Mitchel 4
important arts supporters of this time and, “Under his leadership, ballet and opera made the
transition from court entertainments to professional arts” (Au 25). He abandoned the idea of
masquerades and created the new impression that dancers should be able to use their bodies as a
means of expression without overly-exaggerated costumes. Standards began rising to much
higher levels as professional dancers were required to do combinations of physically demanding
steps in both their training in the academy and in their performances. These technical feats
required “a high degree of training and skill” (Au 23). During the eighteenth century, inventor
Charles Didelot created a flying machine which lifted dancers upward, “allowing them to stand
on their toes before leaving the ground” (“History of Pointe Shoes”). This creation inspired more
choreographers to incorporate pointework into their own masterpieces. At the beginning of the
nineteenth century, pointe shoes were solely comprised of leather soles and were highly padded
because they lacked comfort. However, in the late nineteenth century, pointe shoes were
becoming sturdier and were “darned” at the tip (“History of Pointe Shoes”). The shoes contained
a box with many layers of fabric and a strong sole, lacking nails and providing a little more
comfort. The American Journal of Sports Medicine notes that shoes were (and still are) basically
comprised of “a paper-mâché or cardboard shell…The pointe shoe is made up of the toe box,
shank, and the outer material is one of the most important tools of the dancer…The conical toe
box consists of layers of burlap, cardboard, or paper, or a combination thereof, that have been
saturated with glue” (555). If we break down some of these components, we see that cardboard is
made from wood, coming from trees. Wood contains about 45-50% carbon, 6.0-6.5% hydrogen,
38-42% oxygen, .1-.5% nitrogen and .05% sulphur (1). Glue on the other hand is made of water,
coagulants and adhesive substances, some of which include sulfurous acid, phosphoric acid,
Mitchel 5
alum and zinc oxide. (1) After the creation of pointe shoes, the standards of the art of ballet
continued to rise, and dancers had to meet these expectations.
The fourth threshold of big history marks the creation of the earth and the solar system.
As Craig Benjamin says, “planets and other objects of the solar system were formed out of a
flattened disk of gas and debris that formed around the embryonic sun” (53). Another form of
complexity included the earth’s chemical differentiation where portions of heavy metals sank
toward the center of the planet producing a dense iron core. During this melting, the planet
caused lighter masses of molten rock to rise toward the surface, where they began to solidify and
form the crust (Benjamin 39). The fourth threshold of the art of ballet also emphasizes a new
form of complexity. During the middle of the nineteenth century, ballet had already acquired
several new characteristics, including pointe-work, the tutu, performing stories of fantasy and the
desire to create an illusion of “weightlessness and effortlessness” (Au 45) while physically
enduring challenging movements. However, the greatest change that came about in the
nineteenth century was the invention of the Romantic ballet. Romantic ballets were inspired by
literature, as they provided themes. They were also influenced by exotic locations and history,
which is why many Romantic ballets have “medieval settings” (Au 45). Just as the planets all
orbit the sun, have masses that can overcome strong forces and clear the neighborhood around its
orbit (Benjamin 37), dancers started to depend on one another to take on roles and duties.
Choreographer Filippo Taglioni choreographed La Sylphide, which his daughter and student
Marie Taglioni performed in its premiere in 1832, demonstrating “expressive
potential…effortlessness, lightness and fluidity” (Au 50). Marie Taglioni who was the lead sylph
had to work with her partner in performing their pas de deux. Just as the moon has “a major
impact on the earth…it was the moon that prevented [the earth’s] tilt from becoming more
Mitchel 6
prounounced” (Benjamin 36), dancers performing a pas de deux (or a “step of two”) had to work
together and support one another to properly execute steps. While men would be in charge of
lifting women up into the air, women needed to have strong abdominal muscles and legs that
would make it easy for a man to carry them. Therefore, as more challenging pas de deuxs were
being choreographed such as those in the ballets, Giselle and La Fille Mal Garde, dancers
depended on one another in order to successfully achieve the choreographer’s work.
As Cynthia Brown explains, the fifth threshold included a whole new dynamic on earth:
the emergence of life. The emergence of life included “the move from the relative simplicity of
atoms and molecules in the brew of the early planet to the greatly increased complexity of living
cells…capable of reproducing…and adapting overtime” (55). Just as atoms and molecules grew
into living cells, the art of ballet popularized and grew, spreading to Russia. Russian ballet
became prominent at the end of the nineteenth century. While the transition between living
prokaryotes and eukaryotes took about 1.3 billion years, the transition between ballet being
centered in France and England to Russia took some time as well (although much less time than
1.3 billion years!). Until the nineteenth century, “Russia played the role of follower rather than a
leader in the world of dance. This situation was reversed, however” (Au 62) when Russia created
and developed classical ballets. At the turn of the twentieth century in Russia, “classical ballet,
[was] exemplified by the works of the French-born choreographer Marius Petipa (1818-1910),
and the beginning of a new approach to choreography instigated by the Russian Mikhail Fokine
(1880-1942)” (Au 62). Petipa traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1847 where he played lead
roles in ballets including Esmeralda and Faust, and started staging and choreographing works of
his own including La Bayadére and Paquita (63). As Cynthia Brown describes, about 2.5 billion
years ago eukaryotes started appearing on earth and could respire and reproduce (73). Living
Mitchel 7
organisms started interacting with other species. The same is true for the ballet world. In 1880,
the director of the Russian Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolojsky, “decided to capitalize upon the
public’s interest in ballet by commissioning a ballet score from Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who
had already gained some fame as a composer. Vsevoloksky selected the story of The Sleeping
Beauty” (64). Therefore, ballet was evolving and spreading to different countries and continents,
such as life was spreading throughout the world in big history’s fifth threshold. More complexity
arose as choreographers needed to be able to work musically mathematically with composers in
order to create successful ballets.
In the sixth threshold, the appearance of hominies marked a new level of growth on earth.
Cynthia Brown explains that, “a group of great apes known as the Hominies evolved over the
last 8 million years…[and] some species [eventually] became more and more like us” (84). Our
ancestors were adapting and growing, just as the world of dance started changing in many ways.
Moving to the twentieth century, the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts was a
dance school in Los Angeles, California founded in 1915 by dancers Ruth St. Denis and Ted
Shawn. This school not only trained dancers very well, but also moved towards more modern
dance styles. Denishawn was known as one of the new American dance schools at the time that
was rebelling by branching away from classical ballet. As Cynthia Brown ties us to the very first
humans, some of Denishawn’s students included protégées and the first true modern dancers,
Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. All three of these dancers “began by
repudiating the glamour and exoticism that had given Denishawn much of its appeal, for they
believed that dance should provoke, stimulate and inform rather than simply entertain” (Au 119).
Humphrey created the movements of fall and recovery, experimenting with gravity and balance,
while Weidman used humor in his choreography to point out human faults. Graham, who is
Mitchel 8
considered to be one of the most influential modern dancers of all time, started creating her own
modern technique. She developed contractions and releases, valuing the importance of breathing.
These methods “could also be applied to other parts of the body. As Graham developed her
dance technique she added shapes like the spiral (a basic form in nature) to give a more lyrical
dimension to her dancing” (Au 120). Similarly to the evolving and developing hominines that
Brown describes in the sixth threshold of big history, new shapes, movements and techniques
were evolving in the dance world. There were many other choreographers during the early and
mid-twentieth century whose goals were to encounter relevance to modern life through dance
and choreography. Therefore, the world of dance gained a new form of complexity. In addition
to the numerous ballet companies in world such as the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet and the
St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre, American modern companies such as the Martha Graham Dance
Company, Denishawn Company and the Horton Dance Group began to arise.
In the seventh threshold of big history, cities, states and empires appeared along with the
implementation of agriculture. Cities had “a complex internal division of labor, with most people
working full-time in some specialized occupation” (Brown 160) while a state had “political,
social and economic hierarchies” (161). Just as societies were becoming more complex and
differentiated, with the potential to build up resources through collective learning, several ballet
companies started appearing throughout Britain, France and particularly the United States during
the mid-twentieth century. A number of choreographers entered the dance world and vastly
changed it. Focusing on American ballet companies, George Balanchine was a choreographer
who “sought to develop an American style of ballet grounded on the vocabulary and discipline of
the Russian tradition” (Au 133). Balanchine came to the United States in 1933 and produced the
School of American Ballet (SAB). SAB became a place where highly talented dancers could
Mitchel 9
train and eventually join elite companies. While Balanchine created new versions of classical
ballets such as The Nutcracker (1954) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1962), he also created
neoclassical ballets including The Four Temperaments (1946) and Episodes (1959) (Au 143144). Balanchine was a music master in addition and used every aspect of music to ignite his
choreographic visions. Another American choreographer, Jerome Robbins, who choreographed
West Side Story fused “a mixture of ballet, jazz, and realistic movement [that] was not only
convincing but endearing so much so that he…expanded the ballet into highly successful musical
comedy.” (Au 148) While many choreographers emerged during the mid and late twentieth
century, one who changed the racial inequalities within the dance world was Alvin Ailey. After
receiving his training and undertaking Lester Horton’s ballet company, Ailey created his own
company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during 1958 in the midst of the Civil Rights
Movement. Ailey influenced dance companies all around the world to accept black dancers into
the dance world. Mr. Ailey eliminated stereotypes and integrated his company five years after its
birth. He created works relating to his childhood, to race, and to current issues such as racial
inequality. It is without a doubt that Mr. Ailey created a new understanding and respect for
African Americans in the harsh dance world. (“About Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater”)
Because of the profound impact that many choreographers had on both ballet and modern dance
during the twentieth century, the dance world expanded and the public came to accept new forms
of dance. In addition to cherishing old story and Romantic ballets, dancers were performing
works that told modern-day stories, connecting to social and political issues.
As David Christian describes in chapter 10, the eighth threshold of the modern era of
industrialization generated increasing rates of innovation. Specifically, “human communities
gained access to vastly more energy and resources than ever before, and that fact alone was
Mitchel 10
enough to cause profound changes [in]…increasing resources…energy supplies…and related
technologies” (296). Today in the dance world many companies are performing both original
classical and romantic ballets and in addition, choreographers are continuing to create works of
their own. Further, more companies and schools are collaborating with each other, gaining new
resources and establishing relationships with each other in the dance world. For example, this
past year, the San Francisco Ballet season consisted of original ballets such as Swan Lake and
Coppelia, but also had choreographer and artistic director of the Hamburg Ballet, John
Neumeier, choreograph the masterpiece, “The Little Mermaid”, a heart-breaking ballet based on
the original tale of the Little Mermaid written by Hans Christian Anderson. Neumeier
incorporates more “gymnastic and athletic than balletic” movements, and “The little mermaid’s
arm and hand movements are reminiscent of classical Balinese and Thai dance” (Koh 2). Ballet
schools are also changing for the better, as well. While in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
it was very common for ballet teachers to train their students using negative physical and verbal
abuse, more dance academies are focusing on positively supporting and guiding their dancers in
a healthier environment. Margaret Swarthout, former soloist of the Royal Ballet in London, is
now the artistic director of Marin Dance Theatre (MDT). Swarthout’s school provides every
dancer with high quality training, for those seeking careers, in a positive environment. She
reminds her students that “excellence is a habit” and gives them the proper technique and
coaching that will only benefit them once they enter the dance world. The curriculum at MDT
not only provides ballet technique, but also pointe work, private coaching with Mrs. Swarthout
herself, contemporary dance, nutrition lectures and rehearsals. San Francisco Ballet soloist,
James Sofranko even collaborated with MDT this past summer to choreograph a work on the
pre-professional dancers. Therefore, people from different parts of the dance world are coming
Mitchel 11
together to collaborate with one another. Dance is modernizing and becoming more positive.
More students are being encouraged, and in Mrs. Swarthout’s words, “the only person to
compare yourself with is you and no one else.”
Humans have impacted our world, environmentally, politically and socially. Similarly,
ballet has impacted both the dance world and non-dance world. By performing works tracing
back to the eighteenth centuries, schools and companies show how we can connect to our roots
and appreciate where the art of ballet came from. By creating new works of art relevant to social
issues, politics and other current events, dancers and choreographers have the potential to
express emotions that they might otherwise not be able to communicate verbally. Ballet and
modern dance are becoming more popular than ever, not only on stage, but in films such as
“Black Swan” and “First Position: A Documentary.” The world of ballet is growing, changing,
reflecting and catching the attention of the rest of society. Now the question is, “What will be the
ninth threshold of the evolution of ballet?”
Works Cited
“About Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.” Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Alvin
Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc., 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.
Au, Susan, and Selma Jeanne Cohen. Ballet and Modern Dance: Second Edition. New York:
Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2002. Print.
Blachford, Stacey L., ed. Enotes.com. Gale Cenage, 2002. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.
Christian, David, Cynthia Brown and Craig Benjamin. Big History: Between Nothing and
Everything. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print.
Cunningham, Bryan W., et al. “A Comparative Mechanical Analysis of the Pointe Shoe Toe
Mitchel 12
Box.” The American Journal of Sports Medicine 26 (1998): 555. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
Gascoigne, Bamber. “History of Dance.” HistoryWorld. HistoryWorld, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
“History of Pointe Shoes.” Ascweb. UCSD, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
Koh, Barbara. “San Francisco Ballet’s “’The Little Mermaid.’” About.com. The New York
Times Company, 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.
Lawson, Joan. A History of Ballet and its Makers. London: Dance Books Ltd., 1976. Print.
Parke, Janet. “A Brief History of the Pointe Shoe.” Parkenet.org. Parkenet.org, 2009. Web. 15
Nov. 2011.
“Properties of Wood.” Paperonweb.com Paperonweb, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.