Ballet is originally an italian dance form
Interesting. I did not know that. I always assumed ballet originated from Russia.
I think it traveled there after the renissance. 
I do enjoy ballet. My favorite ballet is actually a Russian male named, Rudolf Nureyev.
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev ( , ; 17 March 1938 – 6 January 1993) was a Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is regarded by some as the greatest male ballet dancer of his generation.
Nureyev was born on a Trans-Siberian train near Irkutsk, Siberia, Soviet Union to a Tatar Muslim family. He began his early career with the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg. He defected from the Soviet Union to the West in 1961, despite KGB efforts to stop him. This was the first defection
Manuel Legris, principal dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet nominated by Rudolf Nureyev in New York.
Nureyev put it like this: "I approach dancing from a different angle than those who begin dancing at 8 or 9. Those who have studied from the beginning never question anything." Nureyev entered the Vaganova Ballet Academy at the age of just 17 staying there for only 3 years compared to dancers who usually become principal dancers after entering the Vaganova school at 9 and go through the full 9 years of dance education. Vladimir