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27-511: The Royal Caledonian Ball is a ball held annually in London for the benefit of Scottish charities. With few exceptions, the Royal Caledonian Ball has been held annually since 1849, and is the oldest charity ball in the world. The ball dates to the 1840s, when George, Duke of Atholl and his wife, Anne , wanted to entertain their Scottish friends residing in London. By 1849, it had become

54-505: A formal dancing party in French in the 12th century. The ballo was an Italian Renaissance word for a type of elaborate court dance, and developed into one for the event at which it was performed. The word also covered performed pieces like Il ballo delle ingrate by Claudio Monteverdi (1608). French developed the verb baller , and the noun bal for the event—from where it swapped into languages like English or German—and bailar ,

81-451: A foundation that would later develop into the codified ballet technique. An important step towards the ballet de cour in its final form was done during the reign of Louis XIII , with such rich and ravishing ballets de cour as La Délivrance de Renaud and the Ballet de la Merlaison . The ballets de cour developed into the comédie-ballet and then the opéra-ballet during the second half of

108-499: A fundraiser for Scottish charities helping vulnerable schoolchildren, the homeless, and cancer patients. The Royal Caledonian Ball has been held every year since, except during the Boer War , World War I and World War II ; following the death of King Edward VII on 6 May 1910, and during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The ball has been under the royal patronage since Edward VII. Since

135-550: A phase where they poked fun at manners and affectations of the time, and they moved into a phase where they became enamoured with pantomime. At the time of the court ballet's birth, a similar art form appeared in Italy called opera . The difference between the two crafts is that the developing phenomenon in Italy focused on the singing aspect of performance, whereas in France, movement was front and centre. Early court ballets were influenced by

162-493: A strict social code with mistakes in choreography scrutinized and a loss of prestige would follow excessive dance errors. Ballets de cour Ballet de cour ("court ballet") is the name given to ballets performed in the 16th and 17th centuries at courts . The court ballet was a gathering of noblemen and women, as the cast and audience were largely supplied by the ruling class. The festivities, which were descendants of festivals, processions and mummeries dating back to

189-656: A tartan sash. Indeed, it was the only socially acceptable opportunity to wear full tartan outside Scotland. The event is known for its Scottish country dancing , and it is traditional for guests at the ball to dance every reel : Traditionally, the Duke and Duchess of Atholl are the first couple to start the dance, followed by his private army, the Atholl Highlanders . The ball supports numerous charities in Scotland and has raised an estimated £3 million since its inception. Among

216-457: Is considered the most important composer of music for ballet de cour and instrumental to the development of the form. During his employment by Louis XIV as director of the Académie Royale de Music , he worked with Pierre Beauchamp , Molière , Philippe Quinault and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine to develop ballet as an art form equal to that of the accompanying music. Ballet des Polonais

243-545: The Académie de Poésie et de Musique , founded in 1570 by the poet Jean-Antoine de Baif and the composer Thibault de Courville. The aim of the Academie was to revive the arts of the ancient world in order to harmonize dance, music, and language in a way that could result in a higher level of morality. It was from this marriage of traditional grand spectacle and conscious measured order that court ballets were born. Jean-Baptiste Lully

270-640: The Duchess of Bedford . The Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels in 1815, dramatically interrupted by news of Napoleon's advance, and most males having to leave to rejoin their units for the Battle of Waterloo the next day, has been described as "the most famous ball in history". Balls also took place in Colonial America especially after the early 18th-century. The wealthy who participated in these dances followed

297-580: The 17th century. This was a fully operatic form that included ballet as a prominent feature of the performance. Beauchamp, superintendent of the ballet and director of the Académie Royale de Danse , codified the five positions based on the foundations set down by Thoinot Arbeau in his 1589 Orchésographie . Emphasising the technical aspects of dance, Beauchamp set out the first rules of ballet technique. The emphasis on turnout , light costumes, female dancers, and long dance sequences with light, flexible footwear, all first seen in L'Europe galante (1697),

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324-653: The 1930s, the event has been held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, London . The Queen was often in attendance. In recent years, the ball has been featured in the Bystander section of Tatler . The Royal Caledonian Ball dress code stipulates that male attendees wear Highland evening dress , evening tails with white tie , or mess dress . Women should wear floor-length evening dress or mess dress; tartan sashes are encouraged. Originally, men wore full evening tartan while women were dressed in white, with

351-508: The 19th century, the dance card became common; here ladies recorded the names of the men who had booked a particular dance with them. The grandest balls were at the French court in the Chateau de Versailles , with others in Paris. At royal balls, most guests did not expect to be able to dance, at least until very late in the night. Indeed, throughout the period dancers seem to have been a minority of

378-568: The Duc de Joyeuse, the plot based on Ulysses’ encounter with Circe was symbolic of the country's desire to heal old wounds and restore peace after religious civil wars. Reaching new heights in scale and diversity, the lavish five-hour production included a three tiered fountain, palace, garden, townscape, and chariot-floats. As with Ballet de Polonais , Beaujoyeulx choreographed and oversaw the Ballet Comique , using form, geometry, measure, and discipline as

405-406: The French court were part social dance and part performance. It declined in the later 17th century, whereupon the formal ball took over as a grand and large evening social event. Although most were strictly by invitation only, with printed invitations coming in the mid-18th century, some balls were public, either with tickets sold or in cases such as the celebration of royal events, open to anyone who

432-634: The Middle Ages, looked more like a modern-day parade, than what people today would identify as a ballet performance. Where early court ballet differed from its predecessors, is that it was a secular, not religious happening. It was a carefully crafted mixture of art, socializing, and politics, with its primary objective being to exalt the State. Because these celebrations occurred long before the proscenium stage had been invented, and were instead executed in large halls with audience members stacked up on three sides of

459-451: The Spanish and Portuguese verbs for 'to dance' (although all three Romance languages also know danser , danzar , and dançar respectively). Catalan uses the same word, ball , for the dance event. Ballet developed from the same root. Elite formal dances in the Middle Ages often included elements of performance, which gradually increased until the 17th century, often reducing

486-471: The amount of dancing by the whole company. Medieval dance featured many group dances, and this type of dance lasted throughout the period when Baroque dance became common and occurred on until at least the 19th century, when dances for couples finally took over the formal dance. Many dances originated in popular forms but were given elegant formalizations for the elite ball. Dancing lessons were considered essential for both sexes. The ballets de cour at

513-554: The charities the ball supports are Queen Victoria School in Dunblane , Erskine Hospital , and St Catherine’s Homeless Project in Edinburgh . 51°30′35.0″N 0°09′17.3″W  /  51.509722°N 0.154806°W  / 51.509722; -0.154806 Ball (dance party) The word ball derives from the Latin word ballare , meaning 'to dance', and bal was used to describe

540-547: The elaborate entertainments common in royal celebrations and aristocratic weddings of France and Italy. When the Florentine Catherine de’ Medici married the French King Henri II in 1533, French and Italian culture enmeshed as Catherine brought from her native Italy her penchant for theatrical and ceremonial events, including elegant court festivals . A more deliberate contribution the court ballet resulted from

567-563: The guests, and mostly drawn from the young and unmarried. Many guests were happy to talk, eat, drink, and watch. A bal blanc ("white ball", as opposed to a bal en blanc , merely with an all-white theme) was or is only for unmarried girls and their chaperones, with the women all in white dresses. The modern debutante ball may or may not continue these traditions, but are typically worn with pure white Ball gown and opera-length white gloves . A well-documented ball occurred at Kingston Lacy , Dorset , England, on 19 December 1791. The occasion

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594-533: The intricate figure dancing involved in the Ballet des Polonais marked the beginning of the French style that would become the dominant continental school over the next century. The first ballet de cour to fuse dance, poetry, music and design into a coherent dramatic statement was the Ballet Comique de la Reine , performed in 1581. As part of the wedding celebration for the queen's sister, Marguerite of Lorraine and

621-406: The most beautiful ballet ever made on earth, the court observer Brantôme recounted that they "danced their ballet so curiously designed, with so many turns, swerves, and sinuosities, interlacings and minglings, confrontations and withdrawals, that [it was surprising that] no lady ever failed to be at her appointed turn or place." Although its combination of verse, song and dance had been used before,

648-471: The performance, early court ballet's choreography was constructed as a series of patterns and geometric shapes that were intended to be viewed from overhead. Once the performance was through, the audience was encouraged to join the dancers on the floor to participate in a "ball" which was designed to bring everyone in the hall into unanimity with the ideas expressed by the piece. As they developed through time, court ballets began to introduce comedy, went through

675-500: Was appropriately dressed. It was at The Yew Tree Ball at Versailles in 1745 (a public ball celebrating the royal wedding of Madame de Pompadour 's son), that Pompadour was able to meet the disguised King Louis XV , dressed as a hedge. The distinction between a less formal "dance" and a formal "ball" was established very early, with improvised dancing happening after dinner, as it occurred in Jane Austen 's Persuasion (1818). In

702-554: Was one of the first works to be recognized as a true court ballet. The spectacle was commissioned by Catherine de’ Medici in 1573 to celebrate the election of her second son, Henry of Anjou, as King of Poland. Performed at the Tuileries Palace and organized by the Italian dancing master, Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx , the hour-long ballet consisted of sixteen amateur French ladies representing the sixteen provinces of France. Describing it as

729-429: Was to celebrate the completion of major alterations to the house and the event was organized by Frances Bankes, wife of Henry Bankes , owner of the house. The event involved 140 guests, with dancing from 9pm to 7am, interrupted by supper at 1am. They would all have had dinner at home many hours earlier, before coming out. Other, grander, balls served supper even later, up to 3.30 a.m., at an 1811 London ball given by

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