ABSTRACT
With the ballet lessons came a decorum of politeness, a chivalry in the studio as well as outside it that echoed courtly manners all the way back to the fourteenth century, when ballet was first practised in Italy, descending through King Louis XIV of France, and through the court of the Russian tsars. A central dichotomy in the ballet world is the one separating the act of doing ballet from watching ballet. The dichotomy between doing ballet and watching ballet can fruitfully be related to Merton’s discussion on insiders and outsiders. The notion of the ballet world as a closed world is something dancers agree with, albeit reluctantly. Other sensitive issues in the ballet world concern the use of drugs, the prevalence of anorexia or conditions close to it, and AIDS. The Royal Swedish Ballet has operated at the intersection of national and transnational ballet and dance, often serving as a transit place for dancers and choreographers of transnational fame.
