Ballet in Western Culture is a history of the development of ballet designed for dance history courses. After a brief discussion of the origins of dance through the middle ages, the author then traces the beginnings of ballet to Renaissance spectacle in Italy and the beginnings of ballet in France. In the second part of the book, the maturation of ballet as a style is studied, from the 1600s through the 1800s, in France, Russia, and other major European countries. Finally, the last part of the book focuses on the changes in ballet through the 20th century, including major movements in the U.S. and Europe. Nicely illustrated with historic prints and photos, the book is easy to read and ideally suited to the dance history student, addressing both historical issues and the evolution of ballet technique.
Part One: From Folk Expression to Seventeenth Century Court Dance 1. Origins of Dance 2. Renaissance Spectacle in Italy 3. The Ballet de Cour in France. Part Two: Emergence of Ballet as an Art Form: Seventeenth to Ninteeenth Century 4. Baroque Ballet 5. The Advamncement of Professional Ballet 6. Growth and Refinement of Classical Ballet 7. The Foundations of Romantic Ballet 8. The Romantic and Post-Romantic Ballet 9. The Evolution of Ballet in Russia 10. Imperial Russian Ballet Part Three: The Flourishing of Ballet in the Twentieth Century 11. Sergie Diaghilev and the New Dance 12. The Ballet Russes from the Pursuit of the Avant-Garde to Neoclassicism 13. Ballet in the Twentieth Century 14. The Development of Ballet in the United States. Chronology. Glossary. Bibliography. Ballets. Index
