Here are some simple definitions of terms that you will see throughout this site, and hear in and around the dance world. While by no means exhaustive, we hope these will enrich your experience of this form, whether as an audience member, a FRIEND, or Corporate Partner.
Ballet : a codified method of theatre dance, from the Latin, ballo - dance v . Finding its origins in sixteenth century Italian court dances, the technique races its roots and French association through Catherine de Medici (wife to the Duke of Orleans), the French crown (Louis XIV), French court composers and dancers (Lully, Noverre), into the public theatre, (Vestris, Comargo), and into the popular (romantic) vision of the early nineteenth century (Perrot, Taglioni). The technique of ballet dancing is based on a group of seven primary movements of the body, and has been modified over its history to serve the communicative and experimental goals of some of Europe's great theatre makers and patrons.
Romantic Ballet: in reference to the period approx.1830-1870, theatre dance, using what would become referred to as the "classical" ballet vocabulary, illustrating the mores or ideals of the associated and concurrent Romanticism within both European literature and music. Romanticism offers personified ideals of beauty, achievement of the sublime (often through the transcendence of death), illustrated folk tales, and in the end, some of the finest, if most tragic, love stories in the dance vernacular. The birth of Romantic Ballet is associated with Filippo Taglioni's creation of "La Sylphide" in 1832,(for his daughter Marie), in which the heroin, a tragic sylph, or forest sprite, displayed her virtuosity by dancing en pointe . This floating image became a hallmark of romanticism, both within the theatre dance vernacular, and the period as a whole.
Classical Ballet: in reference to works created in the period of dance following romanticism and preceding neo-classicism and modernism, approx 1870-1910, theatre dance. Most often associated with the works of collaborators M. Petipa and P.I. Tchaikovsky, for the Russian Imperial Theatre; Classical Ballet retains its "classical" moniker less for a restraint of emotion than its emphasis on form, proportion and exactitude. During this period, the craft of showmanship and the transportation of the audience to an exciting and fulfilling theatrical climax is exacted, giving us the penultimate pas de deux from each classical works, including "Le Corsaire," "La Bayadere," "the Sleeping Beauty," and "the Nutcracker."
Ballet Company: may refer simply to a group of persons who present or dance ballet. Use of the title Ballet Company, however, implies recognition to groups past, and their structures. A Classical Ballet Company might not only present classical ballets, but be expected to retain the structure and values of its predecessors, including personnel structure, aesthetic style, presentation format, community worth, and the presentation of shared or preceding repertoire.
Canadian Pacific Ballet derives its unique mission from the belief and understanding not only of these terms, but of their inherent value as part of today's arts community.
