Romantic ballet

Romantic ballet is a nineteenth-century tradition that paired supernatural or folkloric stories with ethereal heroines and the developing pointe technique. Its works often contrast an idealized supernatural world with ordinary human life.

Pointe technique: A ballet technique in which dancers support their weight on the tips of their toes inside reinforced shoes. Its development helped create the weightless, otherworldly image central to Romantic heroines.
La Sylphide: A ballet about a Scottish farmer who abandons his fiancée to pursue a supernatural sylph. Its 1832 production established a defining pattern of mortal desire and elusive spirit.
Filippo Taglioni: An Italian ballet dancer and choreographer who created the original production of La Sylphide. He choreographed the 1832 work that made his daughter Marie an emblem of the ethereal heroine.
Gas lighting: An illumination system that burns manufactured gas to produce light. It enabled more controlled theatrical lighting for moonlit and ghostly scenes.
Marius Petipa: A French ballet dancer and choreographer who became a leading figure in Russian ballet. His later productions preserved and reshaped works inherited from the Romantic repertory.
Ballet blanc: A ballet scene or work featuring a corps de ballet in white, often with a supernatural or dreamlike atmosphere. The white-clad ensemble made the supernatural world visible onstage.
Giselle: A ballet in which a young woman dies of heartbreak and joins the Wilis, spirits of betrayed brides. Its tragic heroine and supernatural second act became hallmarks of the tradition.
Marie Taglioni: An Italian-Swedish ballerina celebrated for her pointe dancing and role in La Sylphide. Her performance helped define the light, elevated style associated with Romantic ballet.
Wired flying: A theatrical technique that uses concealed wires and harnesses to lift performers above the stage. It let sylphs and spirits appear to float beyond ordinary human limits.
Imperial Ballet: The ballet institution supported by the Russian imperial court, centered in St. Petersburg. It became a major home for staging and transmitting Romantic-era ballets.

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