Famous Ballets “E...-L...-”
for performance, language & visual arts, music, social studies, classrooms, home schoolers.

La Fille mal Gardee
Firebird
Giselle

Harlequinade
Les Indes Galantes
Jewels

La Fille mal Gardee, or The Wayward Daughter, is a two act comic ballet pastiche, or collection of popular music, choreographed by Jean Dauberval. It was inspired by a painting by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin and first staged in 1789.

The story is that the Widow Simone wants Lise to marry the rich but silly Alain, and not Lise's lover, Colas. The End? love conquers all.

The Firebird, a 1910 ballet by Igor Stravinsky and choreographed by Michel Fokine, is based on Russian folk tales of the magical glowing bird that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor.

The Firebird was the first production of Sergei Daghilev's Ballets Russes, and Tamara Karsavina danced the title role.

The story theme is the “hero's journey” ...

Giselle, a ballet in two acts set in the Middle Ages, tells the story of a peasant girl named Giselle whose heart is literally broken and dies young. Her ghost then arises to protect her lover from a group of evil female spirits, the Wilis, who seek to avenge Giselle's death by dancing young men into their own grave.

First staged in 1841, Giselle was inspired by the work of Romantic poet Heinrich Heine, with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier. The music was written by Adolphe Adam and original choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. Carlotta Grisi danced the original title role. The later choreography is from the revivals of Marius Pepita for the Imperial Russian Ballet.

FYI - The wild dancing of the Wilis can be traced by to the disease called Saint Vitus' Dance (Sydenham's chorea) where uncontrolled jerking movements affect primary young women. Saint Vitus is the patron saint of dance.

Harlequinade (AKA Les Millions d'Arlequin), a ballet in two acts with libretto and choreography by Marius Pepita and music by Riccardo Drigo, was created for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1900.

Les Indes Galantes (The Gallant Indies), an opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau, was first staged in 1735 and the last complete performance in 1761 with periodic revivals.

Jewels, which premiered in 1967, is considered the first full-length abstract ballet. It was created by George Balanchine for the New York City Ballet.

With dancers costumed as jewels, the three acts feature different composers: Emerald, Gabriel Faure; Rubies, Igor Stravinsky; Diamonds, Tchaikovsky.

L'éventail de Jeanne, or Jean's Fan, is a children's ballet choreographed in 1927, with music by ten friends of Parisian hostess and art patroness Jeanne Dubost. The children in her ballet school were the performers.

The composers included Maurice Ravel and Florent Schmitt.

The Little Humpbacked Horse ballet was first staged in 1864. It has been revived numerous times.

Based on a fairy tale by Pyotr Yeshov, the little horse helps Ivan, the peasant's son, meet all the unreasonable demands of the Tsar, capture the magic firebird, and marry the princess.