His first professional appearances occurred as a youth in Paris at the Opéra-Comique, at Fontainebleau, in Berlin before Frederick II and his brother Prince Henry of Prussia, in Dresden and Strasburg.

Prior to Noverre, ballets were large spectacles that focused mainly on elaborate costumes and scenery and not on the physical and emotional expression of the dancers.

The ballets of which he was most proud were his La Toilette de Vénus, Les Jalousies du sérail, L'Amour corsaire and Le Jaloux sans rival.

In 1787, Pierre Gardel inherited the throne and Paris Opera, and carried out Noverre's ideas on costume and thoughts on ballet pantomime.

(Chazin-Bennhaum) He composed Les Caprices de Galathée, for example, and garbed his dancers in tiger skins and shoes made of tree bark.

He began his research for his essays in Drury Lane, London, where he choreographed for his own troupe of dancers at the Theatre Royal under the direction of David Garrick.

Sallé had studied in Paris with Françoise Prévost, who was a known predecessor of dramatizing ballet with her virtuosic acting and expressive performance.

[5] * Salle had studied in Paris with Francoise Prevost who was an established predecessor of the dramatic style of ballet demonstrated through her virtuosic acting and expressive performances.

Additionally, she collaborated with the naturalised British composer George Frideric Handel during his 1734-35 London Opera season during which her pantomimes became a forerunner of Noverre's ballet d'action--.

Although she retired from the public stage in 1741, she continued to influence the dance community through her coaching and choreographic innovations at Opéra-Comique in 1743, which happens to be when Noverre made his debut.

[5] Social and economic factors, in what was unequivocally a “man’s world” allowed Noverre to bring forth his ideologies surrounding the evolution of dance.

Although historians have grappled with the duality of Sallé's role in dance history, it is precisely these aspects that deem her the true inventor of the ballet d'action that was to sweep the late eighteenth-century stage under Noverre's creative efforts and leadership.

Although he is recognized for his rejection of the dancer's mask, it is most probable that his action would have been motivated by Sallé's “noble, expressive and spiritual countenance,” which inspired particular comment in his Letter.

Noverre's text demanded an end to repressive traditions peculiar to the Paris Opera Ballet, such as stereotypical and cumbersome costumes, and old-fashioned musical styles and choreography.

He criticized the Paris Opera Ballet[8] use of the mask because it restricted the dancer from showing facial expressions that could bear meaning on their characters.

Noverre specifically dealt with seven major points in his treatise: Noverre's Les Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets had lasting impact on ballet ideology as his text has been printed in almost every European language and his name is one of the most frequently quoted in the literature of dance (Lynham 13).

To mark the bicentenary of the death of Jean-Georges Noverre, two academic meetings were held which explored aspects of biography, dance, and performance.