A dream ballet, in musical theater, is an all-dance, no-singing production number that reflects the themes of the production. The plot, themes, and characters are typically the same—although the people playing the characters may be different, as the roles of the dream ballet are usually filled by well-trained dancers rather than actual actors. Dream ballet sequences exist mainly for clarification, foreshadowing, and symbolism, and occur outside the continuity of the production. They also advance the plot of the story through dance. Dream ballets also provide the opportunity to impress the audience with advanced dancing techniques and elaborate staging that would otherwise be impossible or dramatically inappropriate. The dream ballet is thought to have originated in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1943 musical Oklahoma!, which includes an 18-minute first-act dream ballet finale choreographed by Agnes de Mille, but dream ballets were devices of music-theatrical productions well before 1943. The technique has since become a routine (although by no means universal) theatrical practice. Elements of a dream ballet A dream ballet is a moment in a musical, where the dialogue stops and the plot may (though does not always) continue through movement. In Oklahoma!, the first time we see Laurey and Curly have a romantic moment is in the dream ballet. Likewise, what happens in the dream ballet, affects Laurey after she reawakens. This plot device makes the dream ballet unique in the world of musical theater. Dream ballets are not to be confused with dance breaks, though they share some properties. A dream ballet is a dedicated instrumental dance number, whereas dance breaks usually occur in the middle of songs. For example, the dance break in the middle of "Too Darn Hot" from Kiss Me, Kate! would not be considered a dream ballet because it is in the middle of a song with words. Also, it is there with the express purpose of dancing, not to move the plot forward (though some do). Dream ballets, do however, provide opportunities for choreographers to write flashy and extravagant dance numbers that would otherwise be difficult because of how hard it is for actors to sing and dance simultaneously. It is difficult to say how or why dream ballets, as agents of plot development or as devices of theatrical artifice, became so widespread in the twentieth century, but its appeal had a lot to do with opportunities it provided writers to forgo the laws of reality