Neoclassical ballet

Balanchine's 1928 Apollon with Serge Lifar, one of the first neoclassical ballets

Neoclassical ballet is a 20th-century style of ballet grounded on classical ballet. It retains classical technique (especially that of the pointe shoe), but the style is shorn of classical ballet's dramatic and romantic excesses.

The style emerged in the 1920s with reference to the ballets of Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. Balanchine brought the style to maturity with sleek, sophisticated ballets that focused on technique rather than plot and drama.

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