Writing in 1829, a Russian critic referred to the art of ballet as an "impossible project"--impossible because it strives "to give an expressive language to body movements," while completely avoiding spoken dialogue. This impossibility generated an anxiety that, no less than the balletic triumphs typically addressed in historiography, has been fuelling ballet's existence to this day. Some critics of ballet, like Leo Tolstoy, were eager to see this art discontinued for good, which indeed co...

Writing in 1829, a Russian critic referred to the art of ballet as an "impossible project"--impossible because it strives "to give an expressive language to body movements," while completely avoiding spoken dialogue. This impossibility generated an anxiety that, no less than the balletic triumphs typically addressed in historiography, has been fuelling ballet's existence to this day. Some critics of ballet, like Leo Tolstoy, were eager to see this art discontinued for good, which indeed co...