This concise historical account traces the development of ballet from its earliest beginnings with Noverre and the Ballet D'Action through its full flowering in England, America, France and Russia. The influences of trends like romanticism and folkart, the impact of choreographers like Fokine, Diaghilev and Balanchine, the genius of the dancers themselves -- Nijinsky, Pavlova, Fonteyn -- and the creation of the Ballets, Les Sylphides, Ciselle, Swan Lake -- contribute to the dynamic and informative portrait of an evolving art. The student of ballet and theatre with a taste for the intellectual as well as the artistic aspects of ballet will be enlightened.