Russia has a recognized tradition of ballet and Russian ballet has had great importance in its country throughout history. After 1850, ballet began to wane in Paris and concentrate in Denmark and, most notably, Russia thanks to masters such as August Bournonville, Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-L�con, Enrico Cecchetti and Marius Petipa. In the late nineteenth century, orientalism was in vogue. Colonialism brought awareness of Asian and African cultures, but distorted with disinformation and fantasy. The East was often perceived as a faraway place where anything was possible, provided it was lavish, exotic and decadent. Petipa appealed to popular taste with The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862), and later The Talisman (1889), and La Bayadere (1877). Petipa is best remembered for his collaborations with Tchaikovsky where he choreographed The Nutcracker (1892, though this is open to some debate among historians), The Sleeping Beauty (1890), and the definitive revival of Swan Lake (1895, with Lev Ivanov). These works were all drawn from western folklore.

Sergei Diaghilev brought ballet full-circle back to Paris when he opened his company, Ballet Russe. At the Ballet Russe Vaslav Nijinsky became famous for his leaps. Diaghilev and composer Igor Stravinsky combined their talents to bring Russian folklore to life in The Firebird and Petrushka. The most controversial work of the Ballet Russe was Rite of Spring. Many associate Rite of Spring with the lovely time-delayed sequences of growing flowers in Fantasia but the ballet shocked audiences with its theme of human sacrifice.

After the "golden age" of Petipa, Russian ballet entered a period of stagnation until Michel Fokine revitalized the art. He felt that the ballet of the time offered little more than prettiness and athletic display. For Fokine that was not enough. In addition to technical virtuosity he demanded drama, expression and historical authenticity. Fokine choreographed Sheherazade and Cleopatra and reworked Petrushka and The Firebird. One of his most famous works was The Dying Swan performed by Anna Pavlova. Beyond her talents as a ballerina, Pavlova had the theatrical gifts to fulfill Fokine's vision of ballet as drama. Legend has it that Pavlova identified so much with the swan role that she requested her swan costume from her deathbed.

By the mid-1930's that new generation of dancers and choreographers appeared on the scene. Ballet was popular with the public and both the Moscow based Bolshoi and the St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) based Kirov ballet companies were active.