The HI5tor of Dance

If you could travel back

in time, you wouki find
dancers wherever you
went. Their dance styles
might seem [miliaror
totally strange. Over time, dance has maintained
many traditions and experimented with forms
that never caught on.
On these pages are images of dancing people
from many cenwes. The dancer on the ancient
Greek urn (above) is being honored with a
wreath. At right, a painting by Pieter Bmeghel
the Younger, who lived from 15641638, cap
tures the lively style of peasants celebrating at
a wedding.

V The commedia dellane origi

nated in Italy in the 16th century.
The performers moved from town

to town, and their most famous

characters were Harlequin,
Columbine and Brighella.

I The skill of tumbling was a

regular performance given by the
medieval travelling entertainers.
One performs a handstand, the
other a balancing act Very little has
altered over the centuries, for the
same acts are given in the modern
circus. Clowns never change.

Acrobats and jugglers

With the fall of the Roman Empire a
period called 4The Dark Ages engulfed
Europe. The dance, like all the arts,just
managed to survive. A vast body of
travellingentertainers moved from town
to town, giving performances both to
the aristocracy and in the village square.
There were acrobats, tumblers, tight
rope walkers, dancers and conjurers.
The Christian Church was at first
hostile. Pope Zachadas suppressed alL
religious dances in 744, as the Church
considered they had become pagan and
immoral. Uu many traditional dances
continued, like the English bonfire
dances on StJohns Eve and the French
Dances tie Brandons or torch-dances.
In the courts after-dinner dancing
became popular, and these were called

__E
kAS54itE

J)arca

BALLET BEGINNINGS

I) t

in thc 15th century and the word

P
ii ballet comes from the Italian
word ballo, meaning dance.
Ballet was taken to France from Ita
ly by Catherine de Medici,
and developed at the French courts
of the
16th century. It was a part of cou
rt
Louis XIV as the
entertainment grand spectacles
Rising Si,,, hr Le Ballet
with
de Ia nuir, perfonired
scenery and costumes, which inc
at Versailles hi 1653
luded
speeches, processions, music, and
dancing. The first performance
of ballet
on stage in theaters was in 1669,
when it was presented as a part
of an opera.
Mag
/

jt.

LU TRIOMPHE

ALLET BEGAN IN ITALY

nificent
headdress
suggests the
Suns rays.

LA MO U 11,
tA LEE

lit

MIS EN AIUSWVE

fill
The Triumph of Love

This is the program for

Beauchamps ballet, The

Triumph of Love,

performed on stage at
the Paris Opra in 1681.

that of todays dancers.

An early ballet
Ballet comique de Ia reine
was performed on
October 15, 1581. It was
created by Balthasar de
&aujoyeux for a wedding
celebration, and was a
mixture of
recitation,
singing, and
dancing. Watched
by 10,000 people, the ballet
showed scenes from Greek
and Roman mythology, and
lasted six hours.

Hands and
fingers are
poised in
positions still
used in ballet.

Louis XIV
The magnificent Sun
King, Louis XIV, loved
dancing and took part
in his first ballet when
he was 13. He and his
dancing master, Pierre
Beaucbamp, set up the
Academic Royalc de
Danse, where the five
basic positions (see
page 12) were written
down (or the first time.
French is still the language
of bailer today.

Legs are
turned out
to show
off calves
and ankles.

Courtly manners
Dancing was as much a pan of cour
tly life as riding and good manners,
arid
dancers in early ballets were therefore
not professionals. Women were allow
ed to
dance at court, in solos, and in
groups, but were not allowed to per
form on
stage until Le Triomphe de lam
our was produced in 1681.

They were performed in the center of the great palace halls.

The audience sat on tiers on three sides.

The dancers were not professional performers.
They were courtiers themselves and the clothes they wore were
the fashionable court dresses of the time.
Sometimes they wore headdresses that represented the characters
they were playing.
These two dancers of the seventeenth century are wearing the
elaborate and rather heavy dresses of the time.
Note the shoes with heels.

A The costumes for the court ballets were

noted for their elaborate head-dresses and
rich decoration. Some of them weighed as
much as 68kg. No wonder the dancers
performed simple steps!

u
4

A Three costumes typical of those worn

at
the time of Louis XIV. The Costuma for
Music. The Costume fag-a Fury (Centre) and
The Costume for Persons II, secin. I, of
Rhythm which wine ha:;y:k rh in lose.

V The Court dances in the middle ages and

the Renaissance were based on simple
patterns. The pa vane, basse-dance. gall/aid
and volta used running and jumping steps.

EUROPEAN COURT DANCE

In the 16th cenlury, European princes
compeled wiLl, each oIlier to have Ole
most sumptuous court, emptying their
treasuries to stage extravagant spectacles.

DANCE AT THE

COURT OF LOUIS XIV

During his reign.
Louis XIV drew the
aristocracy to Versailles, his
court outside Paris. The king was
a well-known lover of dance;
lobe invited to dance in his
presence was an honor
that could launch a camer,
and Louis himself often
performed. There was,
however, an ulterior
motive to Louis court
dances. By forcing the
aristocrats to spend
lavishly to keep up wiLh

his extravagance while

also keeping them away
(mm their bases of power
in the pmvinces, Louis kept
them under his control
financially and politically.

V The Gallery of Mirrors in the heart of the

great palace of Versailles. The long gallery
was decorated by Charles Le Brun with
stunning magnificence. The Court ballets
were often performed here. They were
devised by the composer, Jean-Baptiste
billy, who was himself trained as a dancer.
These ballets became known as opera
ballets.

. -

--

P Louis XIV began his dancing career at

the age of thirteen. Then he appeared in the
Masque of Cassandra. He continued to be a
leading performer in no less than 26 grand
ballets. He danced for a period of 19 years
until 1 670 but then he retired as he was
getting quite fat. He liked the main roles.
especially that of the Sun King. He thought
it suited his image.

Dancing as a profession

Louis XIV founded the Acadimie Royale

& La Danse in t66i. After his retirement
from dancing, the professionals began
to take over. Women started to appear
in ballets, but they were limited by the
long, heavy dresses they had to wear. In
the early part of the 18th century one of
these dancers, Marie Camargo, caused
a sensation. She shortened her skirt!
Now the audience could see a womans
feet.
The most famous dancer of all was a
man, Gaetano Vestris. He was called
the god of the dance. He was so vain,
so proud of himselg that his fellow
artists found him insufferable. His son,
Auguste, became equally famous, be
cause no one had ever seen a male
dancer jump so high or turn so fast
before.

Auguste Vcstris
Ballet used thc livcly steps and panems
of folk dances, as well as elaborate court
postures. Auguste Vestris, above, was one
of the star dancers of the late 18th century.
He delighted audiences with very high jumps,
turns, and beating steos.

U
and tess
people became more interested in the dancing
these heavy
in the purely spectacular side of the show,
dresses were simplified.
while wearing them.
No one could do any very interesting steps
Heelless slippers were gradually introduced.
of
Sldrts were shortened too so that the feet and ankles
the women were more easily seen.

A daring display
A famous ballerina of tile 18th century, Marie Carnargo, above, began as a dancer in
the corps de balk: of the Paris Opra. One day, when a male dancer failed to turn up
for a show, Marie rook his place and brilliantly invented the steps. She raised the hem
of her elaborate costume to reveal her ankles and enable her to perform mere difficult