======Ballet======
=====Object Information=====
  * **Type:** [[Muggle]] art form; a type of performance [[dance]].
  * **Associations:** [[Harry Potter]]'s cultural perspective; a [[musical box]] in the [[Room of Requirement]].
=====Description and Appearance=====
Ballet is a real-world [[Muggle]] performance [[dance]] characterized by its grace, precision, and highly formalized steps and gestures. Within the //Harry Potter// narrative, the concept of ballet is used to represent a type of formal activity that a young teenage boy like [[Harry Potter]], influenced by his practical and anti-intellectual upbringing with the [[Dursleys]], would find undesirable or embarrassing.
His perception of it as "bad" highlights a typical adolescent awkwardness towards formal [[dance]], divorced from any understanding of it as an art form. This contrasts with the magical context in which its music later appears, suggesting a beauty and sadness that Harry's initial judgment misses.
=====Magical Properties and Usage=====
The concept of ballet appears in two distinct ways within the story, one mundane and one magical:
  - **Narrative Usage:** During the [[Yule Ball]], a flustered [[Harry Potter]] internally reflects on his inability to [[dance]]. He thinks that having to learn would have been terrible, concluding that social [[dance]] was //"almost as bad as ballet."// Here, "ballet" is used as a rhetorical benchmark for an activity he considers extremely unpleasant, reflecting his personal discomfort and cultural background.
  - **Magical Manifestation:** A magical [[musical box]] discovered in the [[Room of Requirement]] is described as tinkling "out a strangely sad, ballet-music-like tune." The magical property of this object is its ability to produce this specific, melancholic music. Its usage contributes to the atmosphere of the vast, cluttered room, which houses countless lost or hidden magical objects, each with its own mysterious history.
=====History=====
The term is mentioned on two known occasions in the mid-1990s.
The first instance occurs on 25 December 1994, during the [[Yule Ball]] at [[Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry]]. As [[Harry Potter]] sat miserably on the sidelines, he lamented his lack of dancing ability and compared the unpleasantness of the situation to ballet.
The second mention is in the autumn of 1995. While searching for a suitable place to hold [[Dumbledore's Army]] meetings, [[Dobby]] the [[house-elf]] showed Harry the [[Room of Requirement]]. Among the myriad of hidden items within the room was a dusty [[musical box]] playing a tune that resembled ballet music.
=====Role in the Story=====
Though a minor detail, "ballet" serves to flesh out both character and setting in the wizarding world.
Firstly, it helps to ground [[Harry Potter]]'s character. His dismissal of ballet as something "bad" is a realistic trait for a fourteen-year-old boy raised in a non-artistic [[Muggle]] environment, adding a layer of authenticity to his adolescent perspective.
Secondly, the "ballet-music-like tune" from the [[musical box]] in the [[Room of Requirement]] transforms the mundane concept into something magical and poignant. It adds to the sense of wonder and hidden history within the room, demonstrating how even elements of [[Muggle]] culture can find a strange, new life within the magical world.
=====Behind the Scenes=====
Ballet is a real-world performance [[dance]] that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert [[dance]] form in France and Russia. Its appearance in the books is a direct reference to this well-known [[Muggle]] art form.