The Routledge Introduction to Ballet, its Culture and Issues

As an introduction to ballet’s history, culture, and meanings, this book draws on the latest ballet scholarship to describe the trajectory of a dance form that has risen to global ubiquity and benefited from many diverse influences along the way.

Organized around themes, the book explains how the manners, style, and hierarchies of ballet became such a strong part of its DNA. It addresses the origins of ballet’s aristocratic vocabulary and the ways in which it may be interpreted now, incorpor...