When was ballet started?

Answer 1

Domenico da Piacenza (1390–1470) is credited with the first use of the term ballo (in De Arte Saltandi et Choreas Ducendi) instead of danza (dance) for his baletti or balli. Some scholars view this as the origin of Ballets, while others do not. The first Ballet per se is considered to be Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx's Ballet Comique de la Reyne (1581) and was a ballet comique (ballet drama). 1581 also saw the publication of Fabritio Caroso's Il Ballarino, a technical manual on court dancing (both performance and social) that helped to establish Italy as a major centre of ballet development. (Since Caroso's footwork does not have turnout and do not use the arms much, and these dances can be either social or performance dances, many non-ballet scholars don't view Caroso's dance manual to be a ballet manual.)

click here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet#History_of_ballet

Answer 2

this site gives you tons of information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet