Dance as Text: Ideologies of the Baroque Body (Oxford Studies in Dance Theory)

Synopsis

This Is A Historical And Theoretical Examination Of French Baroque Court Ballet From Approximately 1573 Until 1670. Spanning The Late Renaissance And The Baroque, It Brings Aesthetic And Ideological Criteria To Bear On Court Ballet Libretti, Period Accounts, Contemporaneous Performance Theory, And Related Commentary On Dance And Movement In Literature. It Studies The Formal Choreographic Apparatus That Characterises Late Valois And Early Bourbon Ballet Spectacle And How Its Changing Aesthetic Ultimately Reflected The Political Situation Of The Nobles Who Devised And Performed Court Ballets. Prologue: Constructing The Baroque Body -- 1. Writing Dancing, 1573 -- 2. Ut Vox Corpus, 1581 -- 3. Interlude: Montaigne's Dance, 1580s -- 4. Political Erotics Of Burlesque Ballet, 1624-1627 -- 5. Molière And Textual Closure: Comedy-ballet, 1661-1670 -- Epilogue: Repeatability, Reconstruction, And Beyond -- Appendix 1: Notes On Characters Of Dance -- Appendix 2: Original Text And Translation Of Les Fées (1625) -- Appendix 3: Original Text And Translation Of Lettres Patentes (1662) -- Appendix 4: The Amerindian In French Humanist And Burlesque Court Ballets. Mark Franko. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.