Ballet master

Historic use of gender marking in job titles in ballet (and live theatre) is being supplanted by gender-neutral language job titles regardless of an employee's gender (e.g. ballet master in lieu of ballet mistress, wig master as an alternative to wig mistress).

His duties included creating ballets, dances in operas, commissioning music, and presiding over the teaching of the dancers and style desired.

It was this head ballet master who had the responsibility of the artistic directorship of a particular group of dancers or of a theatre.

Since the early 20th century, primarily after the disbandment of the original Ballets Russes, the title has been used more to describe the master teachers/assistant directors of a ballet company, (previously known as second ballet master), with the head of a company being referred to as the artistic director.

In recent years, companies have quietly begun to change the title's name given its hierarchical and dominating connotations.