Ballet blanc

[2][3] A precursor of the genre was Ballet of the Nuns, an episode in act 3 of Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le Diable.

The ghosts of cloistered nuns who, in life, were unfaithful to their vows are summoned from their graves to tempt the hero, Robert, with dancing, gambling, drink, and love making.

[5] The name of the genre is derived from the white costume designed by Eugène Lami for Taglioni, which became the recognized dress for dancers of the academic school.

[7] Ghosts, shades, shadows, spirits, and other elemental beings dominated ballet stages for decades after La Sylphide.

When a revised version was presented in Paris in 1909 by the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, it was given the more Romantic title of Les Sylphides.