It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded as one of the four most prominent ballet companies in the world, together with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg and the Royal Ballet in London. The principal dancers give dance performances each year, primarily at the Palais Garnier.
The school celebrated its tercentennial in The competition for admission to both institutions is extremely fierce. On 28 June , Louis XIV granted a privilege to the poet Pierre Perrin giving him a monopoly to form a separate academy for the performance of opera in French.
In , Lully purchased Perrin's privilege and also obtained new letters patent limiting the use of musicians and dancers by other French companies. Lully and Quinault continued to collaborate on a series of successful productions, in the process creating a new genre of French opera in which dance interludes played an important part in the musical drama.
Jean-Baptiste Dubos explains that Beauchamps and des Brosses were responsible for the ballets ordinaires , while d'Olivet specialized in ballet-pantomime :. This last was composed solely of pantomimic gestures by men seized with cold, and he did not introduce a single usual dance step into it. Initially the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet were all male. Mademoiselle de la Fontaine — became the first professional ballerina when she danced in the premiere of Lully's ballet Le Triomphe de l'Amour on 21 January The operas of Rameau , and later Gluck , raised standards for the dancers.
Jean-Georges Noverre was a particularly influential ballet master from to He created the ballet Les petits riens in on Mozart 's music. Maximilien Gardel was ballet master from , with his brother Pierre Gardel taking over after Maximilien's death in In , Pierre Gardel was succeeded as ballet master by Jean-Louis Aumer , who was however highly criticized for using too much mime and failing to use choreography which furthered plot or character.
