Ballet is a paradox: much loved but little studied. It is a beautiful fairy tale; detached from its origins and unrelated to the men and women who created it. Yet ballet has a history, little known and rarely presented. These great works have dark sides and moral ambiguities, not always nor immediately visible. The daring and challenging quality of ballet as well as its perceived 'safe' nature is not only one of its fascinations but one of the intriguing questions to be explored in this Companion. The essays reveal the conception, intent and underlying meaning of ballets and recreate the historical reality in which they emerged. The reader will find new and unexpected aspects of ballet, its history and its aesthetics, the evolution of plot and narrative, new insights into the reality of training, the choice of costume and the transformation of an old art in a modern world.

芭蕾舞是一个悖论：备受喜爱却鲜有研究。它是一个美丽的童话；脱离了它的起源，与创造它的男人和女人没有关系。然而，芭蕾舞有一段历史，鲜为人知，也很少被介绍。这些伟大的作品都有阴暗面和道德上的模糊性，并不总是也不会立即显现。芭蕾舞的大胆和挑战性以及它被认为的 "安全 "性质，不仅是它的魅力之一，也是本附录中要探讨的引人入胜的问题之一。这些文章揭示了芭蕾舞的构思、意图和基本含义，并再现了它们出现的历史现实。读者将发现芭蕾舞的新的和意想不到的方面，它的历史和美学，情节和叙事的演变，对训练的现实的新见解，服装的选择和现代世界中古老艺术的转变。