Romantic Ballet Guide: 5 Famous Romantic Ballets

Romantic ballet was a performing arts movement in the nineteenth century emphasizing supernaturally inflected storytelling and innovations in ballet dancing and dress.

In contrast to classical ballet and its emphasis on form, the Romantic ballet period highlighted mood and emotion in its choreography. It borrowed from the other art forms of the Romantic era, such as novels, poetry, and music, to create its overall sense of ethereal beauty and charm. Still, this didn’t prevent Romanticism’s sense of magic and wonder from permeating into otherwise classical works—like Peter Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.

From early performances at the Paris Opera House to contemporary reimaginings in New York City, Romantic ballet’s enduring legacy is to inspire a sense of awe at its dancers’ athletic prowess and grace as well as its stories’ wondrous twists and turns.

Romantic ballet’s mysterious and exquisite style is notable for numerous reasons. Here are five of the most significant:

1. 1. Pointe work: The centrality of pointe work—the ability of ballerinas to balance themselves completely on the tips of their toes—is one of the most enduring and identifiable ballet techniques of the period. Previously, wires had been required to prop up dancers attempting to engage in this kind of choreography, but the Romantic period gave rise to the early development of pointe shoes specifically designed to facilitate this feat of balance and athleticism.
2. 2. Romantic tutus: Long, flowing, white tulle skirts—or tutus—were considered an essential wardrobe item of this epoch in the history of ballet. These skirts gave the corps de ballet—the body of the ballet, comprising the majority of the dancers—an angelic elegance and sense of flight.
3. 3. Centrality of ballerinas: The Romantic period foregrounded female dancers—or ballerinas—in contrast to the past prominence of male dancers. Romantic ballerinas often took on the title role in these graceful ballets and thus enjoyed a certain level of fame.
4. 4. Illusion of weightlessness: Flowing tutus, gas lighting trickery, and magnificent pointe work led to the illusion of dancers gracefully levitating on stage. Lithographs of the era cemented this illusion when they advertised these ballets with drawings of the main ballerinas floating. Stage managers sometimes used wires to make the dancers take flight.
5. 5. Supernatural themes: Like plenty of other tales spun in the Romantic era, Romantic ballets were no strangers to introducing mystical and miraculous elements into their stories. This predilection for supernatural and even eerie elements is a hallmark of most of this era’s dance narratives.

Romantic ballets were a popular fixture of nineteenth-century bourgeois society. These are five whose legacies are among the most prominent:

1. 1. La Sylphide (The Sylph): Thia ballet follows the tragic love story of a sylph (an air spirit) and a Scotsman. Choreographer Filippo Taglioni and his daughter, the Romantic ballerina Marie Taglioni, collaborated to bring the first version of this ballet to life. Their choreography has been lost to history, but the second version—choreographed by August Bournonville—is still occasionally performed.
2. 2. Pas de Quatre (Step of Four): The esteemed ballet master Jules Perrot intended this ballet to be a showcase for a quartet of the most illustrious ballerinas of the Romantic era. Lucile Grahn, Fanny Cerrito, Carlotta Grisi, and Marie Taglioni danced solo and together in this superstar-laden spectacle.
3. 3. Coppélia: Arthur Saint-Léon choreographed this comedy of errors featuring a doll come to life and a young man who’s fallen for her. Its focus on love and magic is indicative of the Romantic ballet period’s storytelling priorities.
4. 4. Le Diable Boiteux (The Devil Upon Two Sticks): Jean Coralli’s ballet is notable for its introduction of the Spanish cachucha dance. The ballerina Fanny Elssler performed it as a solo and skyrocketed to stardom.
5. 5. Giselle, ou Les Wilis (Gisele, or The Wills): Choreographed to the haunting music of Adolphe Adam, this ballet is the story of a peasant girl who finds herself among the ghosts of jilted lovers after she is cast aside by a suitor herself. Its first performances brought together the ballet masters Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli to direct the ballerina Carlotta Grisi in the title role.

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