Throwback Thursday and Pierre Beauchamp
Pierre Beauchamp was a dancer who danced many times with
King Louis XIV and with Jean-Baptiste Lully, another rising star in the 1600s
dance world. Beauchamp began as young Louis
XIV’s dancing master, and King Louis took lessons with him for more than twenty
years.
Later, Lully made Beauchamp
the director of the Academie Royale de Danse, and Beauchamp is credited with
inventing the well-known five positions of the feet. Whether he actually created the five positions is unknown. A man named Thornot Arbeau published a book
in 1588 that described turn-out, and his principles may have been adapted and codified by Beauchamp. Whatever the truth is, Beauchamp is usually
given the credit.
Beauchamp was born into a family of violinists in 1636, and became
both a musician and a dancer. He
choreographed many operas for Lully, and also devised a system of dance
notation that was used and published by his student Raoul Feuillet. Beauchamp helped increase the
professionalization of ballet and his teaching methods raised the standards of
the art form.
If all these accomplishments weren’t enough, some sources
say Beauchamp was the first to perform the tour en l’air.
From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:
Dance History Factoid #55:
“Pierre Beauchamp is credited with creating the
five positions of the feet.”
Link of the Day:
Quote
of the Day:
“Creating is the essence of life.”
-
Julius Caesar
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