Instant Expert: What is a Driad?

Classical ballets are populated with all kinds of mystical creatures: sylphs, wilis, nymphs, shades, driads. If it’s a female supernatural being with wings, you’ll likely find it in a ballet.

In Don Quixote, the supernatural being is a driad (a less-traditional spelling of “dryad,” borrowed from the Russian word, дриада). In Greek mythology, a driad is a wood nymph who lives in a tree—usually an oak.

The most famous driad is Eurydice, whose husband, Orpheus, tries—and fails—to save her from death. George Balanchine’s ballet Orpheus tells this story. Driads appear in other ballets as well, such as Sylvia, choreographed by Frederick Ashton, Mark Morris, among others, and The Dryad, created by Lew Christensen for San Francisco Ballet in 1954.

Watch the driads in Don Quixote grace the stage during the dream scene of Act 2.