The narrative content of a ballet can be written especially for it or can be adapted from a book, poem, play, or opera. Modern ballet choreographers often borrow cinematic devices such as the flashback, or use other contemporary innovations found in literature, drama, and films. In contrast to story ballets are plotless ballets, which create a mood, interpret a musical composition, or simply celebrate dancing for the sake of dancing. Scenery for ballet is limited by the need to provide sufficient space for dancing. The center of the stage is almost always kept clear.
Many ballets use only a backdrop and sidepieces or wings.
Some modern ballets supplement the scenery with slide projections, films, and special lighting. Others simply rely on the dramatic range of lighting effects permitted by modern stage lighting. Early ballet costumes were simply the fashionable dress clothes of the time. It was shortened in the course of the century and became the standard dress of the ballerina. Ballet costume became more varied under the influence of the 20th-century Russian choreographer Michel Fokine.