What is the oldest surviving ballet?
If by “surviving” you mean, continually in the repertory of a company in essentially its original form, the oldest ballet is apparently The Whims of Cupid and the Ballet Master, choreographed in 1786 by Vincenzo Galeotti for the Royal Danish Ballet. La Fille Mal Gardée is sometimes said to be the oldest, but it appeared three years later than Whims and the original choreography (by Jean Dauberval) is lost, while the Danes have preserved the choreography of Whims largely intact. An earlier candidate could be Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos, choreographed by Jean Favier in 1688, but this has survived only in notation and while it has been reconstructed in modern times, it does not appear to have been continually in any company’s repertoire. • When was the first ballet school started? The Académie Royale de la Danse was founded in 1661 by Louis XIV of France. (We are told that his sobriquet, le Roi Soleil, “the Sun King,” stemmed from his performance as Apollo in Le Ballet de la Nuit, alth
