Ballet started in Italy over 500 years ago and quickly became popular in France and Europe.

The first official ballet was Le Ballet Comique de la Reine (The Comic Ballet Of the Queen)

Women were not allowed to dance in public until 1681, so couldn't join the ballet!

Professional ballet dancers wear pointe shoes, this so they can dance on their toes.

During a ballet, a male dancer can lift over 1 & a half tonnes worth of ballerinas! That's the same as picking up a Hippo!

Most ballerinas wear out two or three pairs of ballet slippers per week!

It can take between 60 - 90 hours to make a professional tutu, that's almost 4 days. Wow!

The amount of energy needed to perform a ballet is about the same as playing two full football matches or running 18 miles.

The Nutcracker is a famous ballet by Tschaikovsky which people enjoy around Christmas. It was first performed in Russia in December 120 years ago but people did not like it!