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ballet

ballet

19 3.7
Music written to go with a dance performance
  • noun
  • /bæˈleɪ/
translation icon : ballet
  • As a choreographer... ...Gene staged this exciting and bittersweet ballet... ...to Richard Rodgers' "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"... ...from Words and Music.
  • Firebird ballet
  • Royal Ballet
  • Winnipeg Ballet

Examples

  • When Igor Stravinsky wrote his ballet, The Rite of Spring...

  • Aaron Copland made extensive use of folklore in his ballet Billy the Kid.

    Academic text (2011)
  • I'm just working on the score of my new ballet, The Red Shoes.

  • The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is generally regarded as one of the finest ballet companies in the world.

    Academic text (1996)
  • Jeanette was a professional ballet dancer in the Arizona Ballet Company.

    Blog text (9)
  • In Russia, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet had its first complete performance in St. Petersburg.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • On their second evening, they met for the premiere of Molière's comic ballet La princesse d'lide.

    Academic text (2001)
  • The music composed for the new ballet, The Nutcracker, captivated everyone in the theater.

  • She loves to listen to the ballet scores of famous composers like Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky.

  • Composing a new ballet requires a deep understanding of both music and dance.

Compounds

12 3.0

A person who trains in ballet and performs with a ballet company

A group of dancers who perform ballets

A traditional dance style with precise, formal movements performed to classical music

corps de ballet
  • Specialized
1 9.5

A group of dancers who perform together to support the lead dancers

A man who directs, teaches, and rehearses dancers in a ballet company

A woman who teaches, rehearses, and directs dancers in a ballet company

A dance show on stage with trained dancers that tells a story

1 3.2

A very short, lightweight piece of clothing worn by ballerinas

A kind of dance that mixes classical steps with newer, freer movements

comedy ballet
  • Specialized
6.2

A ballet that tells a funny story using dance

ballet position
  • Specialized
5.1

A traditional body pose used in ballet, often showing the feet

How Complex

ballet
19 3.7
dance music
16 1.4

Surface Forms

ballet singular
ballets plural

Etymology

The musical sense of ballet comes from the same Italian balletto 'little dance'. So a ballet as music is music written to go with that staged 'little dance'.