THEORY AND PRACTICE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DANCE IBD

Sinopsi

This book is about the intersection of two evolving dance-historical realms-theory and practice-during the first two decades of the eighteenth century. France was the source of works on notation, choreography, and repertoire that dominated European dance practice until the 1780s. While these French inventions were welcomed and used in Germany, German dance writers responded by producing an important body of work on dance theory. This book examines consequences in Germany of this asymmetrical confrontation of dance perspectives. Between 1703 and 1717 in Germany, a coherent theory of dance was postulated that called itself dance theory, comprehended why it was a theory, and clearly, rationally distinguished itself from practice. This flowering of dance-theoretical writing was contemporaneous with the appearance of Beauchamps-Feuillet notation in theáChorégraphieáof Raoul Auger Feuillet (Paris, 1700, 1701). Beauchamps-Feuillet notation was the ideal written representation of the dance style known asála belle danseáand practiced in both the ballroom and the theater. Its publication enabled the spread ofábelle danseáto the French provinces and internationally. This spread encouraged the publication of new practical works (manuals, choreographies,árecueils) on how to make steps and how to dance current dances, as well as of new dance treatises, in different languages. TheáRechtschaffener Tantzmeister,áby Gottfried Taubert (Leipzig, 1717),áincludes a translated edition of FeuilletâÇÖsáChorégraphie.áTheory and Practice in Eighteenth-Century Danceáaddressesáhow Taubert and his contemporary German authors of dance treatises (Samuel Rudolph Behr, Johann Pasch, Louis Bonin) became familiar with Beauchamps-Feuillet notation and acknowledged theáChorégraphieáin their own work, and how TaubertâÇÖs translation of theáChorégraphieáspread its influence northward and eastward in Europe.áThis book also examines the personal and literary interrelationships between the German writers on dance between 1703 and 1717 and their invention of aátheoriaáof dance as a counterbalance to danceápraxis,ácomparing their dance-theoretical ideas with those of John Weaver in England, and assimilating them all in a cohesive and inclusive description of dance theory in Europe by 1721. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.