Movements that are balletic are graceful in the way ballet is graceful: light, controlled, stretched, as if the body is drawing a line in the air. You hear it a lot in sports talk — a runner, a gymnast, a footballer, a basketball player who turns or lands in a beautiful way. You can also hear it for an animal, or, more loosely, for the way someone moves a camera or a brush. The picture is still “as elegant as ballet.” It is a slightly fancy adjective, more at home in writing and commentary than in the playground. It does not mean “about the subject of ballet.” A balletic leap is a leap that feels like ballet. A ballet class is the class. Clumsy, heavy, or stiff movement is the opposite of this word.