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A dancer stands at the bar in a ballet class . The teacher says , " Plié . " The dancer bends her knees . Then the teacher says , " Jeté . " That is a jump , a " throwing " step . In ballet schools around the world , teachers use many French words . The story begins in Paris , long ago . King Louis XIV loves to dance . As a teenager , he danced the rising sun in a big show in 1653 . In 1661 the king founded a royal dance academy in Paris . It had thirteen dancing masters . The king 's own dance teacher was Pierre Beauchamp . People remember him for the five positions of the feet . Dancers still learn them today . In 1700 a book showed how to write dances on paper . So the art got names , and the names were French . Ballet itself began in Italy , in the courts of the Renaissance . Even the word comes from Italian . But France wrote the art down . Today a dancer hears " pas de deux . " It means " a dance for two . " Every plié carries a little of the king 's Paris . 
