Both France and Italy were the premier countries for development in ballet, and the French were responsible for introducing the new reformed ballet to Russia. This cultural exchange would prove ironic in a hundred years when Russia would take ballet and reform all of France and the rest of Europe. .
Russian Ballet began in the late 1600's as a dance school for boys at the Kremlin under direct order of Tsar Alexis (Lawson, 88). The leader of the new school was a Military specialist who knew nothing of dance or ballet, but understood body movement, and at best was only able to condition the boys for the rigors of dance (88). However, he remained in charge of the school until the death of the Tsar, when the school was shut down. For half a century the Country simply continued to practice the ancient ways of Russian Folk Dance. But in mid 1700's Peter the Great re-opened the school as a ballet for school for all children, and the school quickly blossomed into to Russia's first ballet company, The Bolshoi Company (88). Soon after The Bolshoi School's creation, the St. Petersburg Imperial School of Ballet was created by the French ballet master Charles-Louis Didelot, exclusively for the study of new and reformed techniques of the French and Italians (44). The new methods and practices of ballet created in St. Petersburg quickly made it to Moscow, where they were incorporated as well. However the Moscow ballet continued to keep a lot of the old style ballet, thus creating an obvious difference between the two schools, and an extreme rivalry that would follow in the years to come. So fierce was the rivalry between the two schools, that each school had a fan base completely devoted to one school and despising the other. For example: When the Russian Prima Ballerina- Elena Andrelenova, a graduate of the Imperial School, was sent to the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet to star in a performance, her presence caused an uproar for the devoted fans of the Bolshoi Ballet.
