Chorégraphie, ou, L'art de décrire la dance by Raoul Auger Feuillet, 1713

This book documents a dance notation system attributed to Feuillet and his ballet teacher, Pierre Beauchamp. The notation system was commissioned by Louis XIV and was used extensively in French Baroque dance.¹ Originally published in 1700, this manual introduces an alphabet of physical movements that predate labanotation (written dance) by three centuries. It was reprinted three times and translated into English by John Weaver in 1706.² Chorégraphie represents an early, but successful translation of embodied knowledge through a system of signs that, while relatively simple, can accommodate a degree of complexity in movement comparable to the grammar of sign language.

The 1713 edition of Chorégraphie held by UCLA Library Special Collections (LSC) is one of a kind, since it is bound together with two editions of Recueil de dances composées par M. Pecour.³ Chorégraphie itself is divided into two parts, the first is devoted to describing the notation system, the positions of the body in relation to a space (i.e., the room or stage where dancing is performed) and its correspondence to music.

The second half of Chorégraphie encompasses a series of tables with variations of the six basic leg movements known to ballet: plié, releveé, sauté, cabriole, tombé, and glissé. The additional titles bound with Chorégraphie (Recueiles) are again two different editions of the same book of dance choreographies by Louis-Guillaume Pécour of the Académie Royale de Musique. Their inclusion in the rebound book suggests that they would have allowed the lessons of Chorégraphie to be put into practice by a beginning dance student who would have needed additional dances to perform as they became more confident and familiar with the notation system.

For Chorégraphie proper, traces of plate marks on all of its pages (front and back) are evidence that it was printed using an intaglio process. Whether the plates were entirely engraved or etched is unclear. However, it could be a mixture of both, since there are lines that appear relatively rigid and end in a point (engraved) and lines that are free and rounded at the end (etched) that together contribute to a sense of both precision and fluid motion.⁴ The plates were printed on laid paper (paper created with ribbed texture as a part of the manufacturing process) and the book is bound in dark blue morocco with wooden boards. Its spine has raised bands with a gold-stamped title: “Choreographie. Feuillet et Dazais. Paris 1713” on the front cover. There are about two-hundred pages in total and the book is about ten inches in length. Some of the pages from both of the editions of Recueils were trimmed in order to accomodate the overall binding of Chorégraphie and are thus incomplete. Larger pages that contained fold-outs however, were not trimmed and were left as is. Altogether, the book is lovely in appearance and seemingly an ideal size for the instructor or student to reference during a dance lesson as it nestles perfectly in a single hand. The amount of work that went into creating this book (with each plate uniquely engraved or etched and not the product of reusable type) speaks to its special commission by royal decree as its production would require great effort and expense.

Another unique feature of UCLA’s edition of Chorégraphie are the last two pages which have bookseller’s advertisements with the title: “Catalog of dance books that have been printed and sold at sieur Feuillet.” The various books listed here are grouped by type and include titles on ballroom dance, as well as additional annual releases of Recueils, which are presumably equivalent to the two included in this binding. The final entry, in a contemporary manuscript hand, has been added to the engraved list of titles: “Recueille [sic] pour l'année 1717 contenant La Clermont, La Debergue et La Ribera,” with a price.

The way Chorégraphie is structured and formatted is distinct in the way it organizes dance notation. The first part introduces a legend that breaks down each step (represented by its symbol) into components, which later compound and build on each other as the various dances progress throughout the book. It is a teaching tool built on the unique structure of its visual organization. This notation system was born from patterns that could be traced on the floor of the court of Louis XIV.¹ As such, it takes as its perspective an overhead view, something that could be considered unusual for the time. Complete choreographies in this manner, as seen in the examples from the two copies of Recueil are remarkable visual orchestrations. How this could be imagined without photography or moving image technology is truly remarkable. It is like seeing a long exposure of a photograph from the ceiling down to the dance floor.⁵

Chorégraphie encompasses both the Rococo flamboyance through the use of engravings for each page and neo-classical sparseness through its clean, organized, symmetrical layouts. The tract drawings that make up the notations are exquisite in their visual complexity. They are highly evocative and reminiscent of something esoteric like cuneiform or angelic alphabets. Though the notation system appears to be impossible to read at first glance, anyone with a background in dance can surprisingly recognize the six main foot positions of ballet with a little patience.

This spotlight authored by Carolina Meneses.

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Notes

¹ Hutchinson Guest, Anne. “Dance Notation | Britannica.” [https://www.britannica.com/art/dance-notation], accessed March 2, 2020.↩

² Ebook available through the Project Gutenberg: Feuillet, Raoul Auger, and John Weaver. “Orchesography, or the Art of Dancing, by Characters and Demonstrative Figures,” 1706. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9454/9454-h/9454-h.htm], accessed March 2, 2020.↩

³ One edition of Recueil is from 1713; the other undated.↩

⁴ Image Permanence Institute. “Graphics Atlas: Identification of Intaglio.” [http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/?process_id=118], accessed March 2, 2020. ↩

⁵ For a virtual representation of a Feuillet-Beauchamp choreography, see: “Virtual Feuillet Bertolo, Marini, Nasella - YouTube.” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaWGbC1-tmM/], accessed March 13, 2020.↩