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In Tortone, Italy, Bergonzio di Botta conducts his ballet dinner.
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Balthasar de Beaujoyeaux choreographed the first ballet, Le Ballet Comique de la Reine, in 1581.
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Verona's Teatro d'Olympico has a raised platform arch stage.
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Thoinot Arbeau wrote the first French book on dance Orchésographie, which included a description of the turn-out.
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In Le Ballet de la Nuit, Louis XIV (Sun King) danced the Sun God. Pierre Beauchamps, his dance teacher, began to develop a dance vocabulary.
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Louis Pécourt was the first male professional dancer.
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The Académie Royale de Danse was founded by Louis XIV.
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Mlle. LaFontaine - first professional female dancer
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The opera house was home to the Académie Royale de Danse.
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Dancing Master was written by Pierre Rameau, a French dancing master. The relevance of the five positions was underlined in this work.
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Marie Carmargo made her first appearance. In 1727, her rival Marie Salle made her debut.
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In only a tunic, Marie Salle makes her Pygmalion.
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In St. Petersburg, Jean-Baptiste Landé established the Imperial Ballet School. Read more about Russian Ballet's Beginnings and the Bolshoi Ballet's Beginnings.
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The "Shakespeare of Ballet," Jean-Georges Noverre, stages his first ballet in Lyon and publishes his dancing ideas.
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Letters on the Dance, by Jean-George Noverre, was published.
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Catherine the Great establishes the Imperial Theatre Dictorate.
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Gardel Maximilien removes his mask.
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In Philadelphia, America's first male dancer, John Durang, performs.
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La Fille Mal Gardee was choreographed by Dauberval. It is the oldest ballet on the stage today.
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French Revolution begins.
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In Charleston, South Carolina, the first American ballet company performs. More information regarding the origins of American ballet can be found here.
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Napoleon is proclaimed French Emperor.
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An Elementary Treatise on the Theory and Practice of the Art of Dancing was written by Carlo Blasis.
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An Elementary Treatise on the Theory and Practice of the Art of Dancing was written by Carlo Blasis.
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The Code of Terpsichore is published by Carlo Blasis.
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The "romantic phase" began with Filippo Taglioni's La Sylphide.
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Carlotta Grisi stars in Giselle, a ballet choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot and directed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot.
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Christian Johansson went to Russia with Marie Taglioni and stayed to become one of Russia's top teachers.
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Jules Perrot choreographed Pas de Quatre at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
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Fanny Elssler and Jules Perrot are sweeping Russia. Perrot was the director of the Maryinski Ballet for ten years.
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The Imperial School graduates Lev Ivanov, the first Russian-born innovator.
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Perrot is replaced as the Bolshoi's director by Arthur Saint-Leon.
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Marius Petipa, who was a tyrant for 30 years, succeeds Arthur Saint-Leon as director of the Bolshoi.
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Aurthur Saint-Leon returns to Paris to choreograph Coppelia, the Paris Opera's final big ballet. Ballet died out in the West due to the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of Paris.
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Enrico Cecchetti becomes a dancer and ballet master at the Imperial School 1890.
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The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg hosts the first performance of Petipa's The Nutcracker.
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With his Ballet Russe, Sergei Diaghilev brought ballet back to the western world.
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Sol Hurok starts to organize his first concerts.
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The first Ballet company in America, Chicago Opera Ballet
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Russian revolution
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The Dorothy Alexander Concert Group started - later to become the Atlanta Civic Ballet
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René Blum and Colonel de Basil formed the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo after Diaghilev's death, carrying on the ballet heritage. The Nazis assassinated Blum at Auschwitz.
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Adolph Bolm founded the San Francisco Ballet.
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In Hartford, Connecticut, Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine found the School of American Ballet.
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The Philadelphia Ballet evolved from the Catherine Littlefield Ballet Company.
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New York City became the home of the School of American Ballet.
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The Mikhail Mordkin Ballet is the precursor to the American Ballet Theatre.
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Ballet Society becomes The New York City Ballet.
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Joffrey Ballet gives its first concert at the 92nd Street Y.
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Eliot Feld's first Company started.
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Dance Theatre of Harlem gave its first concert at the New York City Guggenheim Museum.