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Dictionary definition: ballet
- Article from:
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music
- Author:
Copyright© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
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ballet.
Entertainment in which dancers, by use of mime, etc., perform to mus. to tell a story or to express a mood. The ballet was largely developed in the courts of Fr. and It. during the 16th and 17th cents. and especially in that of Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715), where
Lully
was in charge of the mus. The ballets of this period were danced by the court itself and were very formal (gavottes, minuets, chaconnes, etc.), heavy dresses being worn, with wigs, high heels, and other trappings of court life. But the first ballet is generally held to have been the
Balet comique de la Royne
given in Paris in 1581.
Even in the days of the ballerina Camargo (1710–70), who introduced ...