Between
Real and Surreal
Me and Myself... between Real and Surreal...
Standing on my own edge, it's my Life's ordeal...
Standing on my own edge, it's my Life's ordeal...
Hoping my last sacrifice would allow me to reveal
How my dreams are your last and distant seal.
How my dreams are your last and distant seal.
Watching Life how many curves it throws,
And forbidden beauty how majestically it glows...
And forbidden beauty how majestically it glows...
My Life scenario is choreographed again...
But it's only for the shows!
But it's only for the shows!
from Chorégraphie, ou l'art de décrire la danse --Raoul Auger Feuillet
In 1700 Raoul Auger Feuillet published "Chorégraphie, ou l'art de décrire la danse" which revolutionized the dance world. The system indicated the 5 positions of the feet in classical ballet and the 6 basic leg movements (plié, releveé, sauté, cabriole, tombé, and glissé). He used tract drawings to trace the pattern of the dance via changes in body direction and numerous ornamentations of the legs and arms, while bar lines in the dance score corresponded to those in the music score, and signs written on the sides indicated the steps. Voltaire ranked the invention as one of the “achievements of his day” and Denis Diderot devoted 10 pages to the subject in his monumental 28-volume "Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers" (Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts) published between 1751-1772. In 1725, in "Abbregé de la Nouvelle Methode" Pierre Rameau credited Pierre Beauchamp with the actual codification of the 5 positions of the feet and the development of the use of the arms. Beauchamp was born at Versailles into a family of maîtres de danse (dance masters) and gave dance lessons to Louis XIV for over 22 years. Louis XIV founded the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661 and made Beauchamp its director a decade later. In addition he was the principal choreographer to Molière's acting company (the Troupe du Roy) from 1664-1673, as well as ballet master at the Académie Royale de Musique and Compositeur des Ballets du Roi. Thus the system of choreography that dominated the 18th century became known as Beauchamp-Feuillet notation.
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