Ballet History

In the articles I read about the history of ballet I was astonished to learn how much the dance has and has not changed over the centuries. Ballet transformed from a dance performed casually by kings to a show performed by professionals. The dance is and seemingly always has been associated by high social class. Originally Ballet was performed by kings and nobles inside of court. This was shocking to me because I had expected the dance to have its roots as merely a performance for kings. The articles stated that it was more of a casual dance until Louis XIV made the dance more rigorous requiring dancers to have formal lessons. Moreover, I was suprized to learn that the first ballerinas were men. Today ballet is notorious for being performed