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There can be no absolute certainty as to when ballet was invented and by whom, but dance historians generally consider the Ballet Comique de la Royne Louise (Dramatic Ballet of the Queen Louise) as the performance that started it all. This celebrated event, held in Paris on 15 October 1581, was the first to boast some of the distinctive components of the ballet genre, such as a well-planned storyline, which provided the pretext for a series of spectacular ‘numbers’ of carefully planned dancing in which the performers could show off their skills. Most significant was the ‘theatrical’ or ‘dramatic’ aspect of the whole performance, as so clearly stressed in the ballet’s title (‘comique’ translates as dramatic in French). The Ballet Comique did not take place on a stage but in the Salle Bourbon of the Louvre Palace which was arranged like a theatre, so that the viewers could see the performance almost in the same way as we watch ballet today.
Catherine de Medici and the ballet de cour - Royal Opera House
