Throwback Thursday and Raoul Feuillet
Born in 1675, Raoul Feuillet was a
French dancer and choreographer who developed an early notation system for
recording dance. It was the first time anyone used symbols to record dance
movements (that we know of).
While serving as maître de danse in the
court of Louis XIV, he published his system in Chorégraphie ou L'Art de décrire la danse par caractères, figures et
signes demonstratives (usually shortened
to Chorégraphie), and in 1704 he was sued for plagiarism by Beauchamps who
claimed he had invented the method himself twenty-two years earlier. The suit
was unsuccessful and might never have happened at all if Feuillet hadn’t made
the mistake of failing to acknowledge that his work was heavily influenced by Beauchamps although he
expanded and improved Beauchamp’s system.
The system is described like this: It indicates the placement of the feet and
six basic leg movements: plié, releveé, sauté, cabriole, tombé, and glissé.
Changes of body direction and numerous ornamentations of the legs and arms are
also part of the system which is based on tract drawings that trace the pattern
of the dance. Additionally, bar lines in the dance score correspond to bar
lines in the music score.” https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/choregraphie-1701/
Feuillet continued to refine his method
and published several later editions. The work was popular and translated into
other languages. Today the system is called the Beauchamps-Feuillet notation.
Feuillet died on June 14, 1710.
From the Big
Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Secret #238:
“Raoul Feuillet developed an early system of dance
notation.”
Link of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
“Imagination
has given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking-machine and the
automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they became realities.
So I believe that dreams - day dreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and
your brain-machinery whizzing - are likely to lead to the betterment of the
world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt
to create, to invent, and therefore to foster civilization.”
― L. Frank Baum, The Lost Princess of Oz
― L. Frank Baum, The Lost Princess of Oz
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