Famous Ballerina

It is hard to imagine that French ballet would really take off without constant patronage, funding and financial support of King of France Louis XIV called The Sun King. People may view his life and policies negatively but we do not intend to go into that in a simple blog post. There is just one thing we know for sure – Louis loved ballet and ballet dancing.

The Sun King frequently danced in court ballets during the early half of his reign. He danced four parts in 3 of Molière’s comédies-ballets. When Louis danced at court ballets, his performances were accompanied by majestic music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and lyrics that expressed royal power and benevolence of the king. Louis danced as long as he could until he gained weight and could not perform anymore.

Philippe Beaussant the most famous expert on French baroque music created a biography of Jean-Baptiste Lully which served as the basis of the film Le Roi Danse (The King Is Dancing). In the year 2000, Belgian director Gérard Corbiau made a beautiful film which is a must see for any ballet lover and anybody who would like to learn more about history of ballet. This extravagant and this lavish costume drama depicts the rise of the Sun King through the eyes of the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. King’s power and growing influence are presented through the elaborate ballet dance routines.

It took several years for this film to get the English titles, so now it is available to English-speaking audience as well as French. Here is an extract that we found for you. It is in French but it shows some of the best dances in the movie and the birth of the official French ballet.

It is impossible to imagine modern or classical ballet dance without entrechat. So what is entrechat in ballet moves, anyways? Basically, it is a step of beating in which a ballet dancer jumps into the air and rapidly crosses the legs before and behind each other. The dancer usually jumps from the fifth position and lands back in the fifth position. We count entrechats moves from two to ten according to the number of crossings required and counting each crossing as two movements, one by each leg. For example, in an entrechat quatre each leg makes two distinct movements.

There are two classes of entrechats in ballet dancing: even-numbered and odd-numbered. The even-numbered entrechats, or those which land on two feet: deux, quatre, six, huit and dix (2,4,6,8,10). The odd-numbered entrechats, or those which land on one foot: trois, cinq, sept and neuf (3,5,7,9).

For example: in an entrechat-quatre starting from fifth position, right foot front, the dancer will jump crossing legs and beating first the right heel on the back of the left heel, then at the front of the left heel, landing in the same starting position.

Young ballerina who performed first in history of ballet entrechat quatre was magnificent dancer Marie Camargo. She performed it during her debut at the Paris Opera with the ballet Les Caracteres de la Danse in 1726. It brought Marie Camargo fame and fortune. And, no doubt she deserved it: after all at those times the standard women’s ballet shoes looked differently. These were not ballet slippers or pointe shoes as we know them. Ballerinas danced in the conventional shoes that had heels!

In a sample YouTube video the ballet dancer performs quite tough 32 entrechats six in the second act of Giselle.

The majority of general public does not really know that ballet was not the invention of the French or Russian dancers but appeared much earlier. In fact, all ballet specialists conclude, that first ballet originated in Italy in the times of Renaissance.  Naturally, ballet slippers, tutus or complex ballet positions and moves had not been invented yet.

First ballet or “ballo” as it was called in Italy, was the dancing performance designated for special occasions. It was not the entertainment of poor people, of course, it was the privilege of aristocrats. Only the highest nobility could organize ballo for  lavish court pageantry, big weddings, or festivals.

All Renaissance ballet dancers – ballerinas -  dressed according to the fashions of the times.  But the choreography gradually was getting more complex – from simple dances to all kind of adaptations of court dance steps. This probably allowed the evolution of the ballo into more sophisticated type of dance in the end.

Female dancers of those times were not supposed to show their legs or even ankles to the public. All  ballet dancers used masks without showing their faces to the public. Their artistic expression was supposed to agitate and excite the audience to such degree that it would join the participants in the end of their performance.

Ballo got big exposure when future French king  Henry the Second married Catherine Medici who was surrounded by the patrons of the Renaissance art and culture since her birth. New bride replaced old Medieval dances with vivacious and extravagant dances of her native Italy.  Ballo instantly became fashionable, and first famous ballet dancers became recognizable figures at the French court

International Dance Day has been celebrated on April 29  for over a quarter of the century. But not many people know that the origin of this holiday. It is the birthday of the famous ballet dancer and Ballet Master Jean-Georges Noverre. He revolutionized classical dance by creating ballet d’action, which became the predecessor of the narrative ballets of the 19th century. His ideas had lasting impact on ballet ideology, and his theories have been implemented in dance classes today and remain a part today’s ideology of dance.

Born in 1727, Noverre debuted on stage in Fontainebleau when he was only sixteen years old.  He composed his first ballet when he was twenty.  Noverre became so famous that practically all influential European monarchs tried to get him performing at their courts.  Famous Garrick invited him to London where Jean-Georges spent almost two years. He was so wildly popular there that Garrick called him the “Shakespeare of the dance”.

In 1775, in the peak of his fame at the request of the French queen Marie Antoinette Noverre was appointed First Ballet Master of Paris Opera. Jean-Georges kept this post till the days of the French Revolution that ended his career. And not only that.  Revolution reduced this famous genius to misery and poverty. The man of Enlightenment who had so many close friends like Mozart, Voltaire and Frederick the Great, died like a pauper in Paris in 1810.

Yet, his name entered the history and was saved to posterity not because he was a great dancer and Ballet Master.  And it was not because of the numerous ballets that he staged and composed – they have not been reproduced for at least two centuries. It was due to his publishing of the famous treatise Les Lettres sur La Danse et sur Les Ballets.

This treatise has been printed in almost every European language. Due to this work, Noverre’s name is one of the most quoted in the literature of dance. He criticized professional ballet dancers of his time, cumbersome costumes, and old-fashioned musical styles and choreography. He was against the use of the mask in the ballet because it hides facial expression of the ballet dancers.  He encouraged young ballet dancers to profit from their own talents rather than imitate their teachers or the style of a popular dance.

Noverre was the first to state in his treatise that ballet should stir up the audience’s emotions by the use of expressive movement.  He called this type of dance, ballet d’action. His brilliant conclusion was that ballet should unfold through dramatic movement and the movement should express the relationship between the characters.

Jean-Georges Noverre

One of the famous ballet dancers and innovators Jean Dauberval was born in the times of the French Kingdom in the southern city of Montpellier in 1742.  The name given to him at birth was Jean Bercher, which he later changed to Dauberval and a couple of times to D’Auberval.  In his teenage years Jean’s  talents were noticed by the great Jean-Georges Noverre, the creator of the ballet d’action.

Noverre took gifted Dauberval under his wing and trained him at the school of the famous Paris Opéra.   Noverre’s tutelage helped Jean start an astonishing career. At the age of 21 he became a premier danseur of the Académie Royale de Musique. And 8 years later in 1771 he was appointed the Ballet Master.

Soon Jean Dauberval grew up to be an undisputed head of the company who acted as chief choreographer and the artistic director. And from 1781 till 1783 he officially became the First Ballet Master of the Académie or, as they say in French -  Maître de Ballet.

For unknown for us reason this all ended in 1783. Suddenly Jean Dauberval decided to move to Bordeaux and accepted the position of the First Ballet Master at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, that had been inaugurated as theater a couple of years before his arrival.  It was a beautiful building constructed by the famous architect of the Enlightenment Victor Louis who was genius also created galleries of  Palais-Royal in Paris.

Victor Louis envisioned the theater in Bordeaux as a temple of the Arts and Light, with a neo-classical facade endowed with a portico of 12 Corinthian style colossal columns. 12 statues were supported by the columns and they represented the nine muses and three goddesses.

At  Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux Jean Dauberval staged his most famous ballet Le Ballet de la paille. We know it today under the name of La Fille mal gardèe.  Throughout centuries this ballet is one the most enduring and popular works with ballet companies throughout the world.

Dauberval’s ballet had such a wild public success that he traveled to London staged it there.  This is where Dauberval changed the title of the ballet to La Fille mal gardée, which remains the title of the work today.

For the first performance in London in 1791 Dauberval’s wife Mme. Théodore reprised her role as Lise. And Dauberval’s student, Charles Didelot, known to us as the Father of Russian Ballet, danced Colas.

Jean Dauberval lived to see the times of the glittering French Empire of Napoleon and died surrounded by his family and students in 1806.

Jean Dauberval in Sylvie, 1766 (work of unknown artist)

An experienced French ballet dancer Charles Didelot had a steady position of  an instructor in dance at the Swedish Opera in the 18th century. His son, future famous dancer and choreographer Charles-Louis Didelot was born right here in Stockholm in 1786, and during his adolescence years studied dance with his father.

Young Charles was definitely very gifted and talented dancer, that is why when he was 19 years old he debuted in 1786 in Royal Swedish Ballet theater called Bollhuset.
He did not spend much time there though, because he needed to hone and polish his dancing skills. So he moved to Paris where he studied with Jean Dauberval, the Ballet Master and creator of famous ballet La Fille mal gardée.

Charles was lucky enough to have as his next teacher Jean-Georges Noverres, who revolutionized dancing with the invention of the ballet d’action. Under the lead of the great master Charles Didelot debuted in London in 1788.

His fame spread all over Europe and that is why the director of the Imperial Theatres in Saint Petersburg invited Charles to work there as the first dancer in 1801. Charles started strong there and was on top of the world for almost five years when the bad luck entered his life.

His beautiful wife Rose was a brilliant ballerina but, unfortunately, she died young in St. Petersburg during the height of her career. And soon after Didelot’s career as a dancer ended too because of the accident.

In spite of all this misfortune Charles did not give up. He switched to teaching French style of ballet dancing and became an influential figure over the development of European and Russian ballet.  In fact, he is considered to be the “Father of the Russian Ballet“. He did this successfully till the end of his life when he died in 1837 in the city of Kiev.

Charles Didelot