Ballet is a form of dance that was developed in the 16th century. The courts of France danced it. As it developed through the years, it has evolved. Ballet holds to the traditions of the Russian, French and Italian styles. Ballet is a series of highly defined steps strung together into sentences. These dance sentences are the basic language of ballet. Pantomime and body language is added to fit the music. In doing this, ballet choreographers have been able to tell a story as in Swan Lake as “The Dying Swan”. Every ballet class, for children over the age of 5 should include work at the ballet barre, as shown here. The exercise these girls above are doing is called grand battements. Ballet barre is important to learn the range of movements used in ballet, while holding the placement needed during execution. A ballet lesson is divided into 6 sections. Barre, Centre Work, Adage, Petit Allegro, Grand Allegro and Reverence. For a more complete description of these please see Ballet Class Structure.