Corps de ballet

The corps de ballet are a group of dancers in a ballet company who are not soloists. They perform as a group (the Flowers in the "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker, for example) and at other times as a backdrop for the soloists (the peasants in the mad scene from Giselle).

Corps De Ballet Media

• Wiener Staatsoper Schwanensee Szene Akt4.jpg

  In this scene from Swan Lake, the corps de ballet is forming a "V" at the front of the stage. They are directing attention to the principal dancer in the spotlight. The dancers behind her are also corps de ballet and form a backdrop.

• Edgar Degas - Ballet at the Paris Opéra - Google Art Project.jpg

  This 1877 Edgar Degas painting, Ballet at the Paris Opéra, features not only the soloist but the corps de ballet.

• Edgar Degas - Ballet Rehearsal on Stage - Google Art Project.jpg

  Ballet Rehearsal on Stage, by Edgar Degas (1874)