I. Professional Balleta. Louis XIV – amateur vs professional danceb. Proscenium stagei. Theatre that we’re used to seeing now (elevated stage, audience opposite stage, curtains, wings, etc)c. Started RAD (Royal Academy of Dance)i. Young children being entered and trained (usually also servants, but commoners/orphans too)d. Pierre Beauchampi. Top dance master hired to notate/systematically establish what is now known as ballet (started with five basic feet positions, arm positions, etc)1. Built ballet from the bottom up2. Had to do with the stage as well3. Feet positions used so dancers would always face the front and still be able to moveii. Rules changed because there weren’t nobles dancing on stage (princes, courtiers, etc)iii. 1681 female dancers appeared on stage, more sedate dancing (costumes—heavy, lots of layers)II. Ballet (cont.)a. Louis the 14th ballet totally under his domain (RAD) b. Concerned with technique, rather than expressive art formi. Used to paint bodies/faces white or wear masksii. Dancers couldn’t be others because they were themselves1. Did not use expressions themselvesc. 18th century: something beyond mere display of technique d. convey some meaning: ballet d’actione. slowly escaping rules of decorum (expressions made by dancers themselves)f. no longer limited to emotions that were “appropriate” in publicg. Italy, Austria, Russia, England, & Scandinavia established royal opera houses and theatres: ballet companies attached to them (still all royally protected)III. Jean Georges Noverre (1727-1810)a. Proposed reformsb. Ballet’s artistic possibilitiesc. Vehicle for artistic expression and communicationd. Technically brilliant, should move the audience emotionallye. “dancing is possessed of all the advantages of a beautiful language, yetit is not sufficient to know the alphabet alone”f. unified designg. “take off those enormous wigs and those gigantic headdresses which destroy the true proportions of the head and body; discard those stiffand cumbersome hoops which disfigure the elegance of your attitudesand mar the beauties of contour which the bust should exhibit in its different positions”h. pantomimei. “to be successful in theatrical representations, the heart must be touched, the soul moved, and the imagination inflamed”IV. French Revolutiona. Challenged the place of ballet in public life (started as an aristocratic art form)b. New revolutionary themesi. Tried to attract the commonersc. After the “reign of terror” RAD turns into the Paris Opera i. Violent political upheavald. French revolution actually had a positive affect on dance – Paris Operaopened its doors to a liberated nationV. Revolutionary Dancea. France after 1789b. Outdoor festivals (celebrate the new republic) i. Teach proper behavior and attitudesc. New French Republic: The Committee of Public Safety – protect moral values – spyingd. Public theatrics fueled revolutionary sentimente. Celebrate the victory of the people in their struggles against tyrannyi. Equality and brotherhoodii. Professional dancers no longer linked to royaltyiii. Popular entertainment, for the massesiv. Wigs, masks, etc. disappearedVI.