Yet the company is also dedicated to advancing the art of contemporary ballet. The company does this through new choreography and cross-disciplinary collaboration with visual artists and composers and extends the possibility of expression in dance within a virtual reality setting. A two-way commitment to tradition and innovation ensures that every performance is both familiar and unique—a promise of the long-term durability of the art.
With Petit Dance Co. venturing out on its new beginning, there is something to look forward to. Upcoming performances will give a glimpse of the whole range of the company’s abilities, ranging from the refined lines of classic ballet to the innovative creativity of new choreography. With each performance, the company hopes to reach both avid fans of dance and new customers who may be viewing ballet for the first time.

The experience is one of continuous discovery—of movement, of technology, and of community. The company wants to invite people to view dance not as performance, but as an open call to dream and to make.

Petit Dance Co., under the ardent inspiration of Anu Papp, stands at the threshold of a bold new epoch. Their dedication to authentic movement and artistic integrity sets them apart in the virtual dance world. With each step, the company reaffirms its allegiance to beauty, refinement, and the transformative power of ballet.

As Second Life expands, so will Petit Dance Co.—pioneering, inspiring, and inviting viewers to experience the magic of dance in an ever-expanding virtual world.

The Ballet’s Story: Desire and Freedom

“Not at Court” consists of three movements, each describing a facet of Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon life:

Act I – Arrival at Petit Trianon
The curtain rises upon a tableau of delicate expectation as Marie Antoinette makes her way into the gardens, with a courtly retinue at a deferent distance behind her. Choreography in the scene is stately and formalized, reflecting conventions she outgrows. Emerging, courtly decorum gives way to freer, more expressive movement as she sheds the royal restraint. Drapes of dancers produce rustling leaves and sunbeams, welcoming their queen into her paradise.

Act II – Friendship and Play
The second act is full of camaraderie and warmth. Marie’s inner circle of friends—Madame de Polignac, the Princess de Lamballe, and others—make appearances along with her in scenes of joy and fun. The ballet language is made more lighthearted, with skips and turns borrowed from games in meadows and spontaneous picnics in the shade of linden trees. Pastoral motifs are numerous, with dancers turning into lambs and shepherdesses, recalling the famous hamlet Marie had constructed to relive a simpler, rustic idyll.
With ensembles and duets, the ballet attempts to map the queen’s longing to be seen as not a monarch, but a woman among friends. Musical motifs are gentle, fluted and strung, creating a soundscape as lush and intimate as the gardens themselves.

Act III – Reflection and Fleeting Beauty
The last act is contemplative. With nightfall, Marie Antoinette walks alone, remembering the fleeting nature of her own happiness. The dance slows down, with more introspective solos—a sorrowful expression of the distance between promise and performance regarding freedom’s promise and the certainty of her impending destiny. Flickering dark shadows of courtiers and politics await in the background, a reminder that the world outside the Petit Trianon cannot forever be shut away.
But the ballet does not end in despair. Instead, it celebrates the queen’s determination to stand firm on beauty and joy even when the future of those things is threatened with uncertainty. The closing tableau finds Marie surrounded by her friends, bathed in a pale twilight, as the gardens twinkle with memory and hope.

Music and Scenic Design

This dance is choreographed by Second Life dweller and choreographer Anu Papp. The specially composed musical score for the production deftly mixes classical motifs with folk material—ethereal harpsichord solos marry effortlessly with rapturous dance rhythms.

Ambient soundscapes of birdsong, wind-blown rustling of leaves, and muffled church bell tones are integrated into the orchestration to surround the audience in the rich atmosphere of the gardens.

Scenic design is governed by the theme of transformation. Moving hedges, flower trellises, and subtle lighting effects work together to produce an ever-changing environment that mirrors Marie Antoinette’s change from form to freedom.

The stage effectively serves as a courtly and a wild setting, balancing form and randomness.

Escape, Identity, and the Price of Freedom

In its essence, “Not at Court” is an essay on desire to escape, to be oneself outside the burden of expectation. The Petit Trianon presented Marie Antoinette with a brief opportunity to be, fleetingly, uncovered—free to laugh, to cry, and to dream outside the confines of her public self.

The ballet asks its audience to consider the universal desire for escape from the necessities of life and the courage to seize such an opportunity. It asks us to be sympathetic towards a queen often maligned, revealing her vulnerability and humanity.

Through movement, music, and sets, “Not at Court” illuminates the conflict between duty and pleasure, and the bitter reality that even the most bewitched sanctuary cannot long insulate us from the external world.

“Not at Court”, as presented by the Petit Ballet Co., is more than a historical tableau. It is an invitation to step into a world of beauty, freedom, and introspection—to dance in the shadow and sunlight of Marie Antoinette’s fleeting happiness.

With every pirouette and pas de deux, the ballet beckons us to find our own Petit Trianon—a place to be ourselves, at least for a moment, far from the expectations of the court.

Come and spend an evening with us in which history is not only retold, but relived, and in which the light and unattached spirit of a queen leads us all into the green bosom of possibility.