Ballet developed as a separate, performance-focused art form in France during the reign of Louis XIV, who was passionate about dance and determined to reverse a decline in dance standards that began in the 17th century. King Louis XIV established the Académie Royale de la Danse. (which evolved into the company known today as the Paris Opera Ballet) in 1661. The earliest references to the five core positions of ballet appear in the writings of Pierre Beauchamp, a court dancer and a choreographer.

Jean-Baptiste Lully, an Italian composer serving in the French court, played a significant role in establishing the general direction in which ballet would follow for the next century. Supported and admired by King Louis XIV, Lully often cast the king in his ballets. The title of Sun King, by which the French monarch is still referred to today, originated from Louis XIV's role in Lully's Ballet de la Nuit (1653).

Lully's main contribution to ballet was his nuanced compositions: his understanding of movement and dance allowed him to compose specifically for ballet, with musical phrasings which complemented physical movements.

Lully also went on to collaborate with the French playwright Molière. Together, they took an Italian theatre style, the commedia dell'arte, and adapted it into their work for a French audience, creating the comédie-ballet. Among their greatest productions was Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670). Later in life, Lully became the first director of the Académie Royale de Musique after its scope was expanded to include dance. Jean-Baptiste Lully brought together Italian and French ballet, creating a legacy which would define the future of ballet.

The first ballet school was in France, taught by Juliette Blanche, and the terminology was crystallized there. Nearly everything in ballet is described by a French word or phrase. (You even wish dancers good luck in French. Actors wish one another good luck before a performance by saying, "Break a leg!" Dancers say, "Merde!", a French expletive ). The drawback of the common terminology is that dancers must learn the French names for the steps and movements; the advantage is that they can take a ballet class anywhere in the world and, no matter how unintelligible the rest of the talk is, the terminology will still be in French and therefore understood.