A narrative ballet or story ballet is a form of

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

that has a

plot Plot or Plotting may refer to: Art, media and entertainment * Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction Music * ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava * The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003 Other * ''Plot' ...

and

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

s. It is typically a production with full sets and costumes. It was an invention of the eighteenth century. Most romantic and classical ballets of the 19th century were narrative ballets. Among the most well known are '' Swan Lake'', '' The Sleeping Beauty'', and ''

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

''. For these and other classic narrative ballets it is common for ballet directors to create their own choreography, while maintaining the plot and music used by the original 19th-century choreographer.

Kenneth MacMillan Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 192929 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977, and its principal choreographer from 1977 until his death. E ...

and Frederick Ashton were

neoclassical ballet Neoclassical ballet is the style of 20th-century classical ballet exemplified by the works of George Balanchine. The term "neoclassical ballet" appears in the 1920s with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, in response to the excesses of romanticis ...

choreographers that created original narrative ballets in the 20th century. Narrative ballets are essential to a

ballet company A ballet company is a type of dance troupe which performs classical ballet, neoclassical ballet, and/or contemporary ballet in the European tradition, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-round ba ...

's repertoire, because they tend to generate the highest sales and bring families with children to see the ballet. Many newer narrative ballets are adapted from familiar stories or literature because they are recognizable to audiences.

Notable narrative ballets

* '' Swan Lake'' * '' Giselle'' * ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchai ...

'' * '' Romeo and Juliet'' * ''

L'histoire de Manon ''L'histoire de Manon'', generally referred to as ''Manon'', is a ballet choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan to music by Jules Massenet and based on the 1731 novel '' Manon Lescaut'' by Abbé Prévost. The ballet was first performed by The Royal ...

References

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* Ballet terminology {{ballet-stub

Notable narrative ballets

See also

References

Sources