Ballet is so beautiful to watch but the training is insane!  
It really is. Modern ballet is a highly technical art form. Gosh, it even has its own vocabulary - based on French I believe.
I had forgotten the link with French.  Do you know the history of ballet in France?  I wonder when it became popular.
An aristocrat called Catherine de' Medici brought it from Italy to France in, I believe, the 15th/16th centuries.
I have read about the Medici family, especially Catherine, but had no idea there was a link with ballet.  Catherine was a formidable woman.
Indeed she was. At a time when women were not outwardly particularly powerful, she was governor and regent of France!
I think she was regent during a very dicey time in France.  I think they were at war for many years.
There was a civil war going on and she tried to bolster the royal profile with lavish cultural displays. I think that's where ballet comes in.