Ballet

Telly in ballet slippers.

Sam the Eagle with Nureyev.

The Cube.

Herry Monster and his ballerina doll.

The Muppets

• The Great Muppet Caper (1981) included a water ballet sequence with Miss Piggy, that took a week to film.

• Miss Piggy appeared in a parody of Degas' 1881 sculpture "The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years" in the 1984 Miss Piggy's Art Masterpiece Calendar, and later reissues Miss Piggy's Treasury of Art Masterpieces and Jim Henson's Muppet Masterpieces Calendar.

• The second act of The Muppet Show On Tour (1984) featured the character performing "Water Ballet: The Queen of the Mermaids/Le Paradise Couchon."

• A 1985 episode of PBS series Great Performances was hosted by Kermit and Miss Piggy. The episode featured the San Francisco Ballet performing Cinderella (from Prokofiev's score).

• The Summer 1987 issue of Muppet Magazine included "Rarely Sighted Muppets" with Susan Kaminski spotting a lavender ballet monster.

The Muppet Show

• In episode 105, the Muppet Newsman reports about a chicken that have been hired by the Royal Danish Ballet.

• episode 213 of the series featured legendary ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. He danced with a specially-made, full-body Ballerina Pig (Graham Fletcher), with whom he performs Swan Lake.

• In episode 222, Miss Piggy overhears Kermit tell Scooter that she's getting too fat to do her ballet number next week, so she goes on a diet.

• Episode 315, with Lesley Ann Warren, features her and Doglion performing Beasty and the Beaut.

• Royal Ballet dancers Graham Fletcher, Michael Coleman and Julian Hosking appear as the Mutations in The Muppet Show episode 318.

• In episode 409, Statler and Waldorf complain that the opening numbers are too weird -- "what do you have tonight, a Chinese gorilla dancing ballet?" Embarrassed, Kermit cancels the opening number, infuriating the Chinese gorilla who was planning to dance ballet.

• Along with the above-mentioned Ballerina Pig, Graham Fletcher performed Fletcher Bird and the Giant Spider on the show.

• Philip Casson directed roughly half of the episodes of The Muppet Show (with Peter Harris); Casson began his career by training as a dancer, and performed as both a dancer and choreographer with Ballet Montmartre.

Sesame Street

• New York City Ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell appeared in several segments beginning in the late 1970s.

• The 1981 storybook ABC Toy Chest shows that Herry Monster has a ballerina doll.

• Ann Marie DeAngelo showcased her ballet skills alongside hip-hop dancer Skeeter Rabbit in a 1989 segment. (First: Episode 2600)

• Big Bird Presents the Nutcracker is a 1991 All About Music album, based on The Nutcracker.

• Ballet-dancing yaks show their fronts and backs in an animated segment. (First: Episode 3016)

• From Episode 3136 (1993) to the end of season 29, Celina ran Celina's Dance Studio in the upper level of 10 Sesame Street. In Episode 3136, the Count counts ballet jumps in the studio, while everyone waits for the new playground to open.

• I Want to Be a Ballet Dancer is a 1993 picture book featuring Prairie Dawn.

• The 1996 computer game Elmo's Art Workshop includes a sticker of Bert in a tutu.

• Jock Soto and Lourdes López of the New York City Ballet appear in several 1997 segments.
  • In the first, the duo dance to demonstrate cooperation, with Elmo and Zoe. (First: Episode 3621)
  • The second has them demonstrate up and down for Big Bird. (First: Episode 3622)
  • In the third, they dance while the Count counts their spins. (First: Episode 3638)

• The 1998-2002 Sesame Street opening sequence included footage of Big Bird using a crosswalk, followed by girls in tutus. In Episode 3851, Zoe interrupts the opening, to point this footage out, mentioning that the episode focuses on dance.

• Angel Corella filmed two segments for the show in 1998: In one, he dances with animated letters of the alphabet, while Zoe, Telly and Elmo recite them in turn (First: Episode 3785). In another, he spins around while the Count counts each movement (First: Episode 3744).

• In Episode 3851, the Street scene focuses in on a dance party on Sesame Street. Zoe demonstrates her ballet moves for Elmo, and a sequence of the New York City Ballet is shown. When Elmo sees Miles and Gabi playing basketball, their movement leads to another sequence. A latter ballet sequence is sparked by seeing the Three Bears, a stretching dance done by Tarah and Stinky, and Big Bird's turning dance. The ballet segments were performed by Maria Kowroski, Aosha Ash, Eva Natanya, Albert Evans, Nikolaj Hübbe, and Jock Soto, under the direction of Mary Perillo, with choreography by Sean Lavery.

• Zoe's Beautiful Ballet was a 2001 coloring book.

• From season 33 to season 48, Zoe has rarely been seen without her tutu on.

• Other street scenes involving ballet include Episodes 4002 (2002), 4040 (2003), and 4159 (2007).

• Zoe's Dance Moves was released in 2003.

• In Episode 4050 (2003), Zoe receives a tutu from her Aunt Giselle, who lives in Swan Lake.

• Joe Mathieu parodied Edgar Degas' 1877 painting "The Star" in a 2004 issue of Sesame Street Magazine, with a spoof featuring Zoe.

• Episode 4091 (2005) featured Carina the Ballerina, a friend from Zoe's dance class. When Snuffy tries to dance along with the two of them and Elmo, she tells Snuffy he can't and shouldn't do ballet, as he's too big.

• Episode 4140 (2007), with the main plot involving a ballet spell by Zoe using Abby Cadabby's wand, had the word "Ballet" for What's the Word on the Street?. It was accompanied by a The Word of the Day segment, with Ellen DeGeneres trying to dance ballet.

• The same episode was the first appearance of an insert with Zoe narrating over animation of Edgar Degas' ballet painting Dancers at the Barre.

• Elmo's Christmas Countdown, a 2007 Christmas special, features a "Nutcracker Medley" segment with Elmo as The Nutcracker, Tiffany Curl as Clara, and Jamie Foxx as an action figure of himself. The music samples Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's music for the original ballet.

• What's the Word on the Street? has featured the word "Pirouette." (First: Episode 4162) The accompanying The Word of the Day segment featured Cuban ballet dancers Lorena and Lorna Feijóo in season 39, with Grover. (First: Episode 4162)

• The Sesame Street Podcast featured an episode on the theme "Pirouette" (August 26, 2008).

• In Episode 4162 (2008), the Fairy Shoeperson (Neil Patrick Harris) gave Telly some ballet slippers, which make him pirouette out of control.

• The book Everybody Dance! (2008) has Zoe dancing various genres, including ballet.

• New York City Ballet dancers Kristen Segin, Alina Dronova, Callie Bachman, and Sara Adams appeared in a People in Your Neighborhood segment in Season 43 (2012-2013).

• A 2018 social media post spoofed the ballet film Black Swan as "Big Swan" (starring Big Bird).

Miscellaneous

• The Cube: The Man in The Cube is allowed by the manager to leave. The man sarcastically predicts that the moment he steps outside the door, "two gorillas grab me, dressed in ballet costumes, drag me back, throw me on the floor, and dance around me singing "Home Sweet Home!" Which is precisely what happens.

Notes

• Before joining the Muppets, designer/builder Kermit Love's best known work was as a costumer for ballets, including the Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free (1946) and he continued through his Muppet tenure.