The All-Time Best Ballets

Over 6.2K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The All-Time Best Ballets
Voting Rules
Best ballets of all time. Vote up the best, most beautiful ballets.

Back before movies and television, some of the most popular forms of entertainment were live plays at the theatre, operas, symphony concerts, and ballet. While most of these forms of entertainment have faded away to a degree, ballet is still a very popular art form that is extremely powerful and inspirational. What are the best ballets of all time? There's more to this art form than just The Nutcracker.

Some of the most famous ballets of all time have remained classic greats for decades, and are still widely celebrated today. However, some modern ballets appear on this list as well.

This list features the best ballets in history, ranked as the best by the community and including, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Romeo & Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Le Corsaire, Cinderella, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Vote up the best ballet below or add one you love that isn't already on the list.

Most divisive: The Bright Stream
Ranked by
  • Swan Lake
    1

    Swan Lake

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
    1,902 votes
  • The Nutcracker
    2

    The Nutcracker

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
    1,692 votes
  • The Sleeping Beauty
    3

    The Sleeping Beauty

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
    1,233 votes
  • Giselle
    4

    Giselle

    Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, Théophile Gautier
    1,254 votes
  • Romeo & Juliet
    5

    Romeo & Juliet

    Sergei Prokofiev
    1,099 votes
  • Coppelia
    6

    Coppelia

    Léo Delibes, Charles Nuitter
    789 votes