Dance History
History of the Ten Competitive Dances
Page Content
Chapter Six
The Modern Theatre Dance: its Origin. Introduced into France from Italy. Under Henry III., IV., Louis XIII., XIV. Influence of Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin. Foundation of the Academic de Danse et de Musique. The Court Ballet. Moliere. Corneille. Lalli, &c. The Theatre Ballet. The Influence of Noverre. Its introduction into and its Present Condition in England, &c. Illustrations of Mlles. de Camargo, Duvernay, Taglioni. Fanny Ellsler. Ferraris, Carlotta Grisi. Adeline Genee. Anna Pavlova. Fedorova, &c. Various Eastern Examples.
Page Two
The first opera-ballet, the "Pomona" of Perrin and Cambert, was produced in 1671. To this succeeded many works of Lulli, to whom is attributed the increased speed in dance music and dancing, that of the Court ballets having been slow and stately.
Fig. 64: Mlle. Taglioni. From a lithograph of the period.
The great production of the period appears to have been the "Triumph of Love" in 1681, with twenty scenes and seven hundred performers; amongst these were many of the nobility, and some excellent ballerine, such as Pesaut, Carre, Leclerc, and Lafontaine.
A detailed history of the ballet is, however, impossible here, and we must proceed to touch only on salient points. It passed from the Court to the theatre about 1680 and had two characteristics, one with feminine dancers, the other without.
It is not a little curious that wearing the mask, a revival of the antique, was practised in some of these ballets. The history of the opera-ballet of those days gives to us many celebrated names of musicians, such as Destouches, who gave new "verve" to ballet music, and Rameau. Jean Georges Noverre abolished the singing and established the five-act ballet on its own footing in 1776. In this it appears he had partly the advice of Garrick, whom he met in London.
Fig. 65: Pas de Trois by Mlles. Ferraris, Taglioni, and Carlotta Grisi.
The names of the celebrated dancers are numerous, such as Pecourt, Blaudy (who taught Mlle. Camargo), Laval, Vestris, Germain, Prevost, Lafontaine, and Camargo (fig. 61), of the 18th century; Taglioni, Grisi, Duvernay, Cerito, Ellsler, etc., of the 19th century, to those of our own day. A fair notice of all of these would be a work in itself.
The introduction of the ballet into England was as late as 1734, when the French dancers, Mlle. Salle, the rival of Mlle. Camargo, and Mlle. de Subligny made a great success at Covent Garden in "Ariadne and Galatea," and Mlle. Salle danced in her own choregraphic invention of "Pygmalion," since which time it has been popular in England, when those of the first class can be obtained.
Fig. 66: Mlle. Adeline Genee,
1906.
There are, however, some interesting and romantic circumstances connected with the ballet in London in the last century, which it will not be out of place to record here. Amongst the dancers of the last century of considerable celebrity were two already mentioned, Mlles. Duvernay (fig. 62) and Taglioni (fig. 64), whose names are recorded in the classic verse of "Ingoldsby":
"Malibran's dead, Duvernay's fled;
Taglioni has not yet arrived in her stead."
Mlle. Duvernay was a Parisian, and commenced her study under Barrez, but subsequently was under Vestris and Taglioni, the father of the celebrity mentioned in the verse.
Having made a great Parisian reputation, she came to London in 1833, and from that date until 1837 held the town, when she married Mr. Stephens Lyne Stephens, M.P., a gentleman of considerable wealth, but was left a childless widow in 1861, and retired to her estate at Lyneford Hall, Norfolk, living in retirement and spending her time in good works. She is said to have spent ?100,000 in charities and churches, and that at Cambridge, dedicated to the English martyrs, was founded, completed, and endowed by her.
Fig. 67: Mlle. Anna Pavlova, 1910. From a photo by Foulsham and Banfield.
| << 1 | 3 >> |