Ballet terminology..confused??

[Xena]

I have to ask this question, naive as it may seem, especially after having danced ballet for absolutely ages.

I was having a discussion with a friend who is a musician, and we were talking about the French language and I ended up talking about how ballet is expressed in French terms. So I rattled off the following: barre, adage, allegro, petit allegro, grand allegro as examples of what I do in class. At which point my friend, rightly pointed out that allegro is Italian. I am now confused as to why? I know adage is French and that petit and grand are French, but allegro is Italian, isn't it? The French for allegro is allègre, but we definitely don't use that term.

Could somebody please explain? as I couldn't.

Thanks

Jeanette

[Alexandra]

It's a good quesition -- perhaps because "alegro" is also a musical term, and, in some [imaginary] peace treaty during the Renaissance, it was agreed that Italy got music and France got dance!

Ballet (ballo) started in Italy in the Renaissance, and the Italian dancing masters were brought to Paris by Catherine de Medici. Dance terms were in Italian for several generations. Then when French ballet masters, like Pierre Rameau, began writing books, they wrote the terms in French. (And good to see you on this side of the board, Xena!!)

[rg]

some things just stick, i'd venture.

perhaps allegro was just 'unshakable' in usuage once ballet was formulating its lingo.

also rem. the term 'ballerina' is also not french; 'ballerine' is.

so i guess, as with almost all ventures there are just exceptions.

all of this is simply conjecture, to be sure.