Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

Many early ballets combined dancing

with opera or scenes from a play. The

dramatic ballet, which tells a story

through dance, was developed in the

1700s. Choreographers (who create a

dance’s steps and movements) and dancers

of the time also began to use new,

more expressive steps and gestures.

In the mid-1800s French dancer and

choreographer Marius Petipa moved to

Russia and established Saint Petersburg

as the major center for ballet. Petipa and

composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky created

several famous ballets, including

Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The

Nutcracker.

In the early 1900s Sergey Diaghilev

founded a company called the Ballets

Russes. Among his associates were

famous composers and artists and such

great choreographers and dancers as

Ballet dancers use five basic positions of the feet and arms in all of their dancing.

Dancers perform the ballet Swan Lake.

14 Ballet BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Michel Fokine, Leonide Massine, Vaslav

Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, and George

Balanchine. The Ballets Russes toured

widely and greatly influenced dancers in

theWest. Many of its artists later moved

to the United States.

Balanchine founded what became the

New York City Ballet in the 1940s. He

choreographed more than 150 works for

the company, several featuring music by

Igor Stravinsky. The company that

became the American Ballet Theatre

began performing in 1940. It is also

based in New York City.

Other great companies, such as the

Royal Ballet of England and the Royal

Danish Ballet, also flourished in the

1900s and beyond. In Russia the

Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Kirov

Ballet in Saint Petersburg continued to

uphold the highest standards.

#More to explore

Dance

Balloon

Like airships, balloons are lighter-thanair

craft. They are filled with a gas or

heated air that makes them float in the

air. Early experiments with balloon

flight led to the development of the

motor-powered airship and later the airplane.

Types of Balloons

Balloons come in all shapes and sizes,

from small toy balloons to large

passenger balloons. They can be used

for advertising purposes, for scientific

experiments, for entertainment, or for

recreation. Giant balloons of cartoon

characters and other entertaining

subjects are familiar sights in parades.

These are controlled by people on the

ground, who carry them along the

parade route. Scientific balloons and

those used for recreation are free to

move through the air as they are guided

by a pilot.

How Balloons Fly

A balloon rises because it is filled with a

gas that is lighter than air. The lightest

gas is hydrogen. Hydrogen, however,

catches fire and explodes easily. Helium

is almost as light as hydrogen, and it

does not burn. Helium is used for balloons

that are held down with ropes,

such as the ones seen in parades. Some

free passenger balloons are also filled

with helium or with hydrogen. Others

are filled with heated air, which is lighter

than unheated air. For long-distance

Balloons are popular features of

many parades.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Balloon 15

 

balloon flights a combination of helium

and hot air is used.

A free passenger balloon has a huge gas

bag, or envelope. It is filled through an

opening at the bottom, called the neck

or appendix. In a hot-air balloon, a propane

burner at the neck keeps the air

inside the bag hot. The entire bag is

enclosed in a strong net. A basket is

attached to the net and hangs underneath

the bag. This holds the passengers.

At the top of the bag is a valve for releasing

gas. This valve is connected to a cord

that usually runs through the bag and

out the neck. It hangs within reach of

the person operating the balloon. Bags

of sand are hung around the basket for

ballast, or extra weight, so that the balloon

does not rise too fast.

The balloon rises gently after the cables

holding it on the ground are unhooked.

The movement of the balloon is largely

controlled by the wind. The main control

the balloonist has is to move the

balloon up and down. As ballast is

thrown overboard, the balloon rises. As

gas is released through the valve, the

balloon drops.

History

Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne

Montgolfier were two brothers who

lived in France. They made the first

successful experiments with hot-air

balloon flights in 1783. The first

balloon passengers were a sheep, a

rooster, and a duck, but soon afterward

two men sailed for 5.5 miles (9

kilometers) over Paris.

Soon others began experimenting with

balloons. Some people focused on the

sport of trying to make longer and

longer flights. Others saw balloons as

useful tools, especially during wartime.

During the American CivilWar and

WorldWar I, armies used balloons to

spy on their enemies. Today scientists

send tools up in balloons to gather

information about the weather and the

upper atmosphere.

Free balloons are still used for sport and

adventure. In 1999 Bertrand Piccard

and Brian Jones became the first balloonists

to complete a nonstop voyage

around the world. Three years later U.S.

adventurer Steve Fossett became the first

person to complete the trip alone. In

Albuquerque, New Mexico, and other