Author Feuillet, Raoul-Auger
Title Chorégraphie, ou L'Art de décrire la Dance par caracteres, figures, et signes démonstratifs
Publishing Location Paris
Year 1700
Publisher l'Auteur et Michel Brunet
Edition I
Number of Pages in-4, 106
Publishing Country FRA
Publishing Language FRE
Notes

COMPLETE TITLE: Chorégraphie, ou L'Art de décrire la Dance par caracteres, figures, et signes démonstratifs. Avec lesquels on apprend facilement de soy-même toutes sortes de Dances. Ouvrage tres-utile aux Maîtres à Dancer & à toutes les personnes qui s'appliquent à la Dance.

The treatise deals with the notation system for theatrical dance invented by Pierre Beauchamp around 1680. The treatise describes only the steps (position and movement of the feet) and of six base leg movements (plié, releveé, sauté, cabriole, tombé and glissé), while the movements of arms, head, and body are not dealt with.
The text contains figures and diagrams for many steps and documentation on a number of court and theater dances choreographed by Louis Pecour (Recueil de dances, composées par M. Pecour, Paris, 1700) and by Feuillet himself (Recueil de dances, composées par M. Feuillet, Paris, chez l'Auteur, 1700).

LATER EDITIONS:
Second edition, "augmentée": Paris, Chez l'Auteur et chez Michel Brunet, 1701. Includes a brief Supplement des tables.
Online text: GOOGLE BOOKS - INTERNET ARCHIVE

Chorégraphie ou L'Art de décrire la Dance par caracteres, figures, et signes démonstratifs. Avec lesquels on apprend facilement de soy même toutes sortes de Dances. Par Mrs Feuillet et Dezais Maîtres de Dances, Paris, Chez le Sr. Dezais, 1713.
Online text: Library of Congress - Early-Dance.de

RECENT EDITIONS:
Reprints of the first edition:
- New York, Broude Brothers, 1968. Includes: Recueil de dances composées par M. Feuillet; Recueil de dances composées par M. Pecour.
- Hildesheim; New York, G. Olms, 1979. Includes: Recueil de dances composées par M. Feuillet; Recueil de dances composées par M. Pecour.

Reprint of the edition of 1701: Bologna, Forni, 1970 and 1983.

CIRCULATION AND TRANSLATIONS:
During the eighteenth century, Feuillet's work was not only fully or partly translated into various languages, but its notation system was adopted for describing baroque dance by many dancing masters.
The work was translated into English by John Weaver in 1706 with the title Orchesography, or The Art of Dancing, by Characters and Demonstrative Figures (see).
Another English translation, by P. Siris, was published with the title The Art of Dancing: demonstrated by Characters and Figures (see).
In 1717 the first German translation was published by Gottfried Taubert, with the title Rechtschaffener Tanz-Meister (see).
Giovanni Battista Dufort used Feuillet's notation tables to describe the steps in the first part of his Trattato del ballo nobile (1728) (see).
The treatise Arte de danzar a la francesa (1758) (see) by the Spaniard Pablo Minguet  e Irol included some sections of Feuilleut's work, as well as sections from Le Maître à danser by Pierre Rameau (see), some dances choreographed by Pecour and a section, dated 1764, that described the steps of the Spanish dance.
In 1767, the Portoguese dancing master Natal Jacome Bonem published a Tratado dos principaes fundamentos da dança (see) based on the work of Feuillet, Pecour and Rameau.


 

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