"I'm always doing things I can't do-that's how I get to do them." -Pablo Picasso
Introduction
The seventeenth century was a major turning point for classical ballet because ballet was established as an independent form of of dance that was separate from court dancing. The world's first official school of dance and dance company were established, and ballet gained its status as the art form of the upper socio-economic classes.
Formalization of Ballet
In the mid 1660s, Louis XIV was King of France. He was well-known for his luxurious lifestyle, but what he favored most was dancing. For this reason, in 1661 Louis invested time, money, and other resources into establishing the first official dance school in the world, called the Académie Royale de Danse. This school, originally made up of courtiers, opera singers, and actors, developed the basics of modern ballet technique that we still use today. Led by Pierre Beauchamp (introduced in "Ballet History Part I"), the school codified the different body positions and most of ballet's steps. For this reason, ballet vocabulary is almost exclusively in French.
Shortly after establishing the school, in 1669 Louis established the world's first ballet company, the "Académie d'Opéra. First, this company applied the techniques from the Académie Royale de Danse to the ballets performed in traditional operas, but eventually it began to perform shows where ballet was the centerpiece of the act, when the king reestablished the company as the Académie Royale de Musique. The company and its leaders adopted recently-developed genres of ballets and fine-tuned them, for example the comédie-ballet, which was a genre adopted from Italian theatre, and the tragédie en musique.
Shortly after establishing the school, in 1669 Louis established the world's first ballet company, the "Académie d'Opéra. First, this company applied the techniques from the Académie Royale de Danse to the ballets performed in traditional operas, but eventually it began to perform shows where ballet was the centerpiece of the act, when the king reestablished the company as the Académie Royale de Musique. The company and its leaders adopted recently-developed genres of ballets and fine-tuned them, for example the comédie-ballet, which was a genre adopted from Italian theatre, and the tragédie en musique.
Notable People
Louis XIV: King of France, who formalized ballet. His popular nickname, the "Sun King," came from one of his roles in the ballet "Ballet de la Nuit," in which Louis played five characters based on Greco-Roman mythology.
Pierre Beauchamp: Was a dance instructor to the king in his youth; he was appointed head of the Académie Royale de Danse and remained in that post until 1687; Beauchamp codified the five positions of the feet, and he developed a form of dance notation that was so extensive and detailed that we can recreate his dances today.
Jean-Baptise Lully: Began his career in the French court by choreographing ballets for the king, since he was a dancer, musician, and composer; he was eventually made head of the Académie Royale de Musique and used his skills of combining dance and music together to develop the tragédie en musique genre. Lully was also responsible for developing the comédie-ballet genre with the help of the famou playwright Molière.
Pierre Beauchamp: Was a dance instructor to the king in his youth; he was appointed head of the Académie Royale de Danse and remained in that post until 1687; Beauchamp codified the five positions of the feet, and he developed a form of dance notation that was so extensive and detailed that we can recreate his dances today.
Jean-Baptise Lully: Began his career in the French court by choreographing ballets for the king, since he was a dancer, musician, and composer; he was eventually made head of the Académie Royale de Musique and used his skills of combining dance and music together to develop the tragédie en musique genre. Lully was also responsible for developing the comédie-ballet genre with the help of the famou playwright Molière.
Important Ballets
Ballet de la Nuit (1653): choreographed by Jean-Baptise Lully. The ballet was divided into the four parts of the day, including the daytime, the evening, the fantasies of sleep from night, and finally, dawn. Louis XIV danced in it, and got his famous nickname, "The Sun King," from one of his roles in the ballet. The ballet lasted twelve hours, and Louis danced five roles in it. Some of the movements, music, and costumes have been partially reproduced in the movie "Le roi danse." You can see a clip here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYHPNgSUIoE