文章大意：芭蕾舞发源于意大利，从17世纪后传入俄国后一直欣欣向荣。出了很多优秀的艺术家和作品，外国舞派也对俄国芭蕾舞发展有着影响。后期以戏剧味发展主流，一直讲到本世纪70年代的发展。
第一段讲17世纪俄罗斯对待芭蕾的态度。
第二段讲两任沙皇罗曼诺夫和彼得大帝对待芭蕾的不同。
第三、四段讲几位艺术家在俄罗斯的遭遇，其中有普希金，尼金斯基(Nijinsky)。
The History of Russian Ballet
17th Century
Ballet in Russia was created by foreigners and yet it is most definitely "Russian". In the 17th century ballet was introduced into Russia by the second Romanov ruler Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich (1629-1676, reigned from 1645) for his wedding festivities.
Peter the Great (1672-1725, reigned from 1682) took a personal interest in dancing at his court by bringing in Western dances and taking part in them himself. With the help of his prisoners from the Swedish wars -- the Swedish officers -- he taught his courtiers.
18th Century
The dissemination of ballet in Russia and its deep rooted appeal to all Russians can be traced back to those nobles who, often living so far away from the capital, commanded their own entertainment, setting up ballet troupes often composed of serfs who had been trained at the Imperial School.
The formal beginning of Russian ballet can be traced back to a letter written in 1737 to the Empress Anne (1693-1740, reigned from 1730) by the teacher of gymnastics at the Imperial Cadet School.
The letter states: "I humbly ask Your Majesty that I shall be given twelve children -- six males and six females -- to create ballets and theater dances using twelve persons of comic and serious character. These pupils, by the end of the first year, will dance with cadets; in two years they will execute different dances; in three years they will not be less than the best of foreign dancers."
The request by Frenchman Jean Batiste Lande (died 1748 in St Petersburg) was granted on May 15, 1738 and the first Russian school of dancing was given two rooms in the Old Winter Palace.
Later this school became the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School.
Imperial patronage always ensured that ballet in Russia remained a vigorous art form. Successive tsars invited foreign ballet masters to develop the art. The history of the Russian ballet consists of the gradual absorption of this foreign knowledge by the Russians themselves until the art became indigenous.
Catherine the Great, a great patron of the arts, established the Directorate of the Imperial theaters, giving it control over ballet. At a Moscow Orphanage in 1774 she started a ballet school under the direction of Filippo Beccari. In 1765 she brought the Italian dancer-composer-choreographer Domenico Angiolini (1731-1803) to St Petersburg. Angiolini composed the first heroic Russian ballet Semira in 1772. He was one of the first choreographers to move away from ballet as a divertissement, a mere history in costume, to a psychological drama.
