ABSTRACT
Backstage, classical ballet culture differs from contemporary ballet and dance culture in the emphasis on tradition and hierarchy. This chapter explains that in the light of modern ideas of personal expression and laws on democracy in the workplace, traditional deference and discipline are increasingly being questioned at the three classical companies in this study, but not necessarily changed all that much. There are extensive notions in the ballet world with respect to body types and movement talents. The ballet body types can be divided into categories according to kinds of roles in classical ballets. Classical ballet is easily identified as a cultural artefact, even ‘unnatural’, as it so happens the dancers themselves exclaim. In the productions of the classical ballets in France during Romanticism, when many of the ballets that still are danced came about, it was the man who supported the woman, lifted her, and held her when she was pirouetting.
