If you, like me, have trouble tracking your left foot and your right foot, this brief history of the Ballet might help. Just remember three simple steps: Italy, France, and Russia.

Step One, Italy. European ballet began in the 1400s in Italy. Important secular occasions at court would feature dancing (ballo, dance, and balletto, little dance) by courtiers, who would wear court attire. At these first ballos, the audience would participate at the end. Eventually, these ballos began to be held together by some slim narrative, usually a Greek myth, such as Jason and the Argonauts.

Italy ceased to be the center of ballo in 1533, when Catherine de Medici married the future king of France. Catherine brought her love of all the arts, including dance, to the French Court, and provided serious financial support. Ballet especially served the interests of the monarchy: It displayed the glory of France, kept the nobility entertained, and brought them firmly into the court structure.

Step Two, France. The accession of Louis XIV to the French throne marked an important milestone in the history of ballet. The king was taught dancing from an early age and, unusually for a monarch, himself danced pivotal roles. When just 14, he debuted as the god Apollo in a ballet composed and choreographed by Jean Baptiste Lully.  Dressed all in gold, young Louis wowed the court and forever sealed his identity as “The Sun King.”  Before he got to be too old, the king was featured in over 75 elaborate ballets.

Louis insisted upon the very highest technical standards for his ballets, and in 1661 founded the Académie Royale de Dance to sustain such standards. The aristocrats, only the men at first and later the ladies, joined in the ballets. All had to learn exacting dance technique, etiquette, and grace in dress and speech. Everything was codified. All this helped divert the nobles from their traditional martial educations into refined court behavior. The Sun King had them where he wanted them.

Slowly over Louis’s 72-year reign, these elaborate dance pantomimes evolved into something more closely resembling what we think of as ballet. Male and female dancers adopted costumes more suited to motion. What had been performed exclusively at court started to be presented in spaces available to the bourgeoisie as well. Demand grew for professional dance companies, and importantly, training schools to support them.

It wasn’t long until a new ballet ideal emerged: not the resplendent mostly male dancers of Louis XIV’s court but refined, ethereal, female creatures so light they appeared to fly. These leading ballerinas became the first international superstars. A century after Louis’s reign, dancing en pointe, reserved exclusively for women, became the rage. Professional librettists crafted stories for ballets, and in the emerging romantic spirit of the times, these stories often were based on uncanny folktales featuring a spirit-like ballerina. Giselle, one of the oldest romantic ballets, is still performed today.

Step Three, Russia. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the courts of France and Russia were closely intertwined. Russia took the ballet to its heart, and developed its technique to an unprecedented level. Ironically by 1850, ballet was declining in France, while great choreographers in Denmark and Russia were perfecting their art. One of the greatest, Marius Petipa, collaborated with Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky to create the great Russian ballets we know today: Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake. By this time romanticism had faded but Orientalism was in full flower, and all these ballets were based on exotic folktales.

Following the Russian Revolution, much of the artistic community fled Russia, but even during the Soviet period, the government strove to maintain the grand ballet tradition, building schools and rebuilding Russian ballet almost from scratch. More than ever before, these schools were emphasizing technique, especially strength and endurance, to the point where no dancer in Western Europe could match them.

Which takes us, in a way, to Rite of Spring. Three Russians in France, Igor Stravinsky the composer, Sergei Diaghilev, the impresario-founder of the emigré company Ballets Russes, and Vaslav Nijinsky, the dancer-choreographer together created a revolutionary ballet defying musical tradition and ballet tradition while still sticking to the romantic spirit by basing it on a Russian folktale. The Russian painter Nicholas Roerich designed the costumes (thought by some to have caused the riots at the premiere, not the music nor the dancing). Russia, then, gave back to France its gift of ballet.

France and Russia are also responsible for bringing ballet to the United States. Soviet émigré and Ballets Russes alumnus, George Balanchine, came to New York to found the New York City Ballet and to be its director, and often its choreographer, for 35 years. Other schools sprang up elsewhere to promote the fusion of classical ballet and modern dance.

And so, as in the waltz when the first three steps — left, right, left — are then reversed — right, left, right — to complete the box, we have returned to where we began. There are many other dance traditions, from home, and from around the world; the folklórico of Latin America, the ancient and refined dances of India, and of course, our own multifaceted American styles. Which brings us the second ballet that the Symphony will present on September 24th. Debuting with us for the first time will be members of the East Coast Contemporary Ballet, presenting their interpretation of Daniel Bernard Romain’s Hip-Hop Essay for Orchestra.