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Ballet, as an art originated in the 16th century, during the Renaissance. At that time, it was only performed in the European palace courts during the masques. This form of court ballet existed mainly in France under Louis XIV (The Sun King) who also performed as a skilled and enthusastic dancer.
By the 1600s ballet began to evolve from a pastime enjoyed only within the privacy of palace courts to a popular sort of entertainment in theatres. A French ballet dancer, Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810) helped codify the pioneering principes of what was to become modern day ballet. (This is the reason why French words are employed to describe the movements in ballet technique.)
The credit (or blame!) for inventing pointework goes too Marie Taglioni. She was one of the first pioneers to perform en pointe, in 1832, in "La Sylphide" the first ever full length ballet en pointe. Since then, a lot of improvements have been made to pointe shoes - they are now supportive enough to hold us on our toes for longer than a few seconds.
And to this day, "La Sylphide" is still one of the most famous ballets, and is performed by some of the major ballet companies in Europe.
