Baroque Dance Links
Organised by topic – most links occur in more than one category.
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- 15th November: F. Le Roussau, A Collection of New Ball- and Stage Dances, 1720
A facsimile of Roussau's manuscript collection of dances (LMC Ms-90, FL/Ms13.1) as well as the printed version of his Chacoon for Arlequin (LMC [c1728]-Cha, FL/1728.3s) with an introduction and background information by Jennifer Thorp. [For a facsimile edition this is surprisingly cheap, unfortunately it shows – both the paper and the cover are thin and flimsy. However the quality of the facsimile is good – I have had a digital copy of Ms-90 for a while now, and it was hard to work out exactly what was going on where the notation had been ammended, but in this edition it's much clearer. But, why the inappropriate use of Comic Sans on the cover?]- 7th November: Sound Moves
- A conference on music and dance held in 2005 near London. The proceedings are available to download and include a couple of baroque-related items: Moira Goff, Trumpets and Flutes: Music and Dance in John Weaver's "The Loves of Mars and Venus", and Kimiko Okamoto, From Autonomy to Conformity: The Metrical Relationship between Music and Dance in Early Eighteenth-Century France. A third paper, Joellen A. Meglin et al., Music of the Body: Modern Minuets and Passepieds far from Passé, is mostly concerned with 20th century dance, but does touch on the baroque.
- New content 26th October: BaroqueDance.com
- Paige Whitley-Bauguess has added some background information on baroque dance to her website, including a nice introduction to reading notation.
- 24th October: Barroc Ballet
- Baroque dance company based in Spain and directed by Teresa Alves. (Espagñol/Català/English)
- 12th August: Esquivel
- Historical dance and music company based in Madrid, with artistic director María José Ruiz. (This is probably obvious to Spanish speakers, but to get into the site content you need to click on the words "pulsa aquí" in the animation, and not have Flash JavaScript pop-ups blocked. Alternatively, this link will take you directly into the site.) (Espagñol)
- 10th August: The Development of Scenic Spectacle
- Site devoted to renaissance and baroque theatrical spectacle, by Dr. Frank Mohler. Includes information about machinery and special effects such as scene changes, flying machines, wave machines, trapdoors, and lighting.
- 9th August: Pictures
- I have added a new section, Pictures, of links to original images relating to dance. Some links were already listed in other categories, but I've also added some new links.
- 2nd August: Dance, Spectacle, and the Body Politick, 1250–1750 [Find on Amazon.com]
A collection of fifteen essays edited by Jennifer Nevile. Baroque-related items include: Jennifer Nevile, Dance in Europe 1250–1750; John S. Powell, Pierre Beauchamps and the Public Theater; Jennifer Thorpe, Dance in the London Theaters c.1700–1750; Ken Pierce, Choreographic Structure in Baroque Dance; Julia Prest, The Politics of Ballet at the Court of Louis XIV, and Linda Tomko, Mr. Isaac's The Pastorall and Issues of "Party". [Thanks to Heather for tipping me off about this one. My copy has just arrived, and is on my to-read list.]- 2nd August: New York Public Library: Digital Gallery
- A huge collection of historical images, including ones related to dance. Do beware that many of their nominally 18th century images are 19th century images based on earlier originals, so there's a danger of seeing the 18th century through 19th century eyes. Having said that, here's what I've found, arranged roughly chronologically (they don't always give dates):
- Guerra d'amore (1615), some sort of outdoor entertainment apparently with dancers
- Il Natal de Fiori Irrigati dal Fonte Pegaseo col Ballo dell Avre (1628)
- Set designs for Les Noces de Pelée et de Thétis (1654 and 169-?)
- A picture of Marie Thérèse de Subligny
- Female and male Turkish dancers (1714) – apparently really Turkish, so not baroque dance, but interesting!
- Pictures of Marie Sallé
- Pictures of La Camargo
- Mlle. Auretti (probably Anne)
- Madame Bodin (175-?)
- Costumes des Ballets du Roy
- Scene from La Guinguette (c1752)
- Marie Antoinette as a child, dancing with two of her brothers (1765)
- Costume designs by J. B. Martin
- Danseur Pantomime
- Images of Mr. Gardel
- Jason et Médée, Ballet tragique (1781)
- Madame Simonet in Ninnette à la Cour (1781)
- Pictures of Marie-Madeleine Guimard
- 29th July: Google Books
- A growing index of books. Contains short samples from modern books, and full copies of books that are out of copyright, if they have got to them. In the out-of-copyright category I have, so far, found the following:
- The first part of Taubert's Rechtschaffener Tanzmeister
- Tomlinson, The Art of Dancing Explained by Reading and Figures
- Feuillet's large 1704 collection of dances by Pécour
- Isaac/Weaver's A Collection of Ball Dances Perform'd at Court
- Pemberton, An Essay for the Further Improvement of Dancing
- Feldtenstein's Erweiterung der Kunst nach der Chorographie zu tanzen
- The Parfaict's Dictionnaire des théâtres de Paris – there are different volumes from different sources, but I pieced together a complete set all from Oxford University, so I'll link to those to save you digging: Tome Premier (A–B), Tome Second (C–F), Tome Troisième (G–N), Tome Quatrième (O–R), Tome Cinquième (S–T), Tome Sixième (V–Z), Tome Septième (additions/corrections).
- 28th July: Sarabande/Contrepointe, Entrée d'Apollon, Chaconne de Phaeton 2005, and Chaconne de Phaeton 2007
- Art installations by Christian Bernard Singer, based on extant dance notations. [I noticed several errors in the background information given on the dances – incorrect choreographer for the Entrée, assuming that the choreographer was the original performer, and a variety of spellings for "Phaeton".]
- 13th July: The Incomparable Hester Santlow – A Dancer-Actress on the Georgian Stage [Find on Amazon.com]
Book by Moira Goff detailing the life and career of the English dancer/actress Hester Santlow (a.k.a. Mrs. Booth). [I loved this book. It's very "fact-based", with everything carefully researched and justified, and restricting itself to a minimum of speculation, which is just what I want from an authoritative work. However, it's not a difficult read – for example, the back-stage theatre politics (having something of the character of a soap-opera) are clearly outlined, so you don't need to be versed in the background to follow what is happening. And despite the fact that Mrs. Santlow left no personal writings, a sense of her personality does come across, and I found her really quite charming.]- 13th July: The Hornpipe – Conference Papers
- Transcribed papers from a 1993 conference held in London. The main interest here is the overview of the 18th-Century 3/2 hornpipe by Madeleine Inglehearn.
- 9th July: Women's Work – Making Dance in Europe before 1800 [Find on Amazon.com]
A collection of essays on professional female dancers and women's influence on dance up to the 18th-century. Six of the nine essays cover French and English baroque dance from the early Stewart masque through to Rameau's first opéra-ballet, these are: Anne Daye, At the Queen's Command: Henrietta Maria and the Development of the English Masque; Nathalie Lecomte, The Female Ballet Troupe of the Paris Opera from 1700 to 1725; Régine Astier, Françoise Prévost: The Unauthorised Biography; Sarah McCleave, Marie Sallé, a Wise Professional Woman of Influence; Moira Goff, In Pursuit of the Dancer-Actress, and Joellen A. Meglin, Galanterie and Gloire: Women's Will and the Eighteenth-Century Worldview in Les Indes Galantes.- 5th July: The British Library: Renaissance and Early Modern Festival Books
- A collection of festival books from 1458 to 1697, with background information and photographic reproductions. ("Festival books" are books published in association with an event, they describe the celebrations, which often include theatrical entertainments. I think of them as being equivalent to a modern glossy souvenir programme, although they were largely conceived as propaganda.)