Baroque Dance

(17th and 18th centuries)

 

Baroque dance is the conventional name given to the style of dancing that had its origins during the seventeenth century and dominated the eighteenth century until the French Revolution. Louis XIV was a major influence in its development and promotion. Even at the age of fourteen, Louis was an accomplished dancer: playing the sun god Apollo in the ‘Ballet de la Nuit’ (1653), he acquired the epithet Le Roi Soleil that he was to cultivate throughout his life.

In 1661, Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse. This academy was responsible for devising a system of notation (first published by Raoul Auger Feuillet in his book Chorégraphie in 1700) to enable dancing masters more readily to assimilate the new style of dancing and to learn new dances. It became customary to publish each season’s new dances in this notation, in readiness for performance at court balls and other grand occasions.

While the French style of dancing had prominence throughout most of Europe (including Britain, Germany and Russia), contemporary Italy saw the parallel development of a distinct Italian style. Dancing masters in Italy were described as either ‘French’ or ‘Italian’ in accordance with the style they specialised in.

Couple dancing a minuet (in a treatise of 1738)

Some events from the period

  1. Outbreak of the Civil War
  1. Charles I beheaded.
  1. The Restoration of the Monarchy. Charles II encouraged the development of French style in music, theatre and dance. It was not long before French dancers, male and female, graced the English stage and French dancing masters achieved authoritative positions at the English court.
  1. The Plague affected most of the country.
  1. The Great Fire of London.
  1. ‘The Glorious Revolution’ – William of Orange arrived in England.
  1. Abortive Jacobite rising by the ‘Old Pretender’.
  1. Unsuccessful Jacobite rebellion under the ‘Young Pretender’.
  1. American Declaration of Independence (recognised by England in 1783).
  1. Outbreak of the French Revolution.

The French style

The French style was developed and regulated at the Académie Royale de Danse, where professional dancers, both male and female, were trained. Distinctive features of the new style were the turnout of legs and feet, and the preliminary plié, or sinking of the body over a bent leg before making a step; the subsequent rise then served to emphasise the beginning of the step. There was a basic vocabulary of approximately twenty steps, though these were performed with many subtle variations.

The same step vocabulary served for both social and theatrical dance, but it was in the theatre that the more complicated steps were seen. Only professional male dancers could be expected to execute aerial beaten steps such as entrechats six and cabrioles. It was a female professional, La Camargue or Camargo, who (to mixed reaction) shortened her skirt to show off her footwork. Such dancing was the immediate precursor of Classical ballet, which inherited the range of step-names while continuing to develop the actual steps, sometimes beyond recognition. Social dancing was in general less demanding, but the most complex dances were nevertheless of a similar standard to theatrical pieces.

The standard notation was a shorthand that traced the floor pattern while defining what steps to use in its execution. To learn how to do the actual steps, we have to consult the dancing manuals of the period (see below). The placing of the arms was not generally notated, but certain rules applied which were described in the manuals, and the dancers could choose the most appropriate ones to follow for each dance. This wealth of information enables researchers to reconstruct dances with a fair amount of accuracy.

 

The dances

There are over 300 extant dances published in notation. There are many different types of dance, their names familiar from the dance suites of baroque composers. They can be categorised in accordance with their basic rhythm:–

duple rhythm bourée, gavotte, rigaudon, etc.

triple rhythm chaconne, courante, minuet, sarabande

compound duple rhythm canarie, forlana, gigue, etc.

 

Primary sources

F. de Lauze Apologie de la Danse (1623; facsimile, Genève, 1977; translation, J. Wildebloode, London, 1952).

                    R. A. Feuillet Chorégraphie (Paris, 1700; facsimile, New York, 1968).

J. Weaver Orchesography (English version of Feuillet, London, 1706; facsimile, Farnborough, 1971).

J. Weaver A Small treatise of time and cadence in dancing (London, 1706; facsimile, Farnborough, 1971).

                    P. Rameau Le Maître à danser (Paris, 1725; facsimile, New York, 1967).

                    J. Essex The Dancing Master (English version of Rameau, London, 1728).

                    K. Tomlinson The art of dancing (London, 1735).

Secondary sources

J. Appleby & P. Waite Beauchamp-Feuillet Notation: a basic guide (Cardiff, 1998).

W. Hilton Dance of Court and Theater: The French Noble Style 1690-1725 (Princeton & London, 1981; 2nd ed., Dance and Music of Court & Theater, Stuyvesant, NY, 1997).

For instruction-books and practice tapes see Additional Resources. The video Baroque Dance (Music, Mind & Movement, 1998) features ten representative dances.
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