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King of France, Louis XIV as Apollo and the rising sun in, "Le Ballet de la Nuit" Louis XIV as Apollo, 1653 Pen, wash and gouache, 167 x 260 mm, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Louis XIV, the symbol of absolute monarchy of the classical age, developed Court ballet as an indispensable noble pastime. His first dance performance was in 1653, “Ballet de la Nuit” lasting from sundown to sunset. The rising Sun was portrayed by Louis XIV, demonstrating the light that would save the country from France's "darkness" and bring hope to the people. The Plumes denoted wealth and stature and the sun theme is expressed on Louis’s headpiece, chest, wrists, knees, and ankles. -
'An Essay Towards an History of Dancing', written by John Weaver and published by Jacob Tonson, 1712.
This text illustrates Weaver's idea that dance told a story better than words, that could express some essential human truth with a moral force. This idea, inspired by the Enlightenment, transformed ballet from ornamental to a narrative art form. Weaver was devoted to reforming French ballet, making it the foundation of English civic culture. For Weaver, dancing could be a social glue, a means of ironing out societal differences and alleviating the tensions that threatened to erode public life. -
The French National Anthem, "La Marseillaise" composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a captain of the engineers and amateur musician.
After the Austrian and Prussian invasion of France, La Marseillaise was composed in an attempt to calm the revolution and rally troops to defend their homeland. It was a symbol of the Revolution, named after its popularity among volunteer army units from Marseille. Louis Napoleon’s government banned symbols of the revolution, including “La Marseillaise” but eventually it was accepted as the French national anthem. National anthems became more popular during the period of nationalism in Europe. -
The ballerina Marie Taglioni (1804-1884) in the ballet 'La Sylphide', Vienna, 1833.
This image depicts Marie Taglioni, one of the greatest ballerinas of the 19th century, as the Sylph in La Sylphide. Her performance as the Sylph became a symbol of man's desire to escape from the uninspired world and of ideal womanhood; feminine, ethereal, spiritual, and unattainable. The original ballet was choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in Paris, 1832 but August Bournonville's 1836 Danish version is the only one known to have survived and is one of the world's oldest surviving ballets. -
The Ballets Russes performing Vaslav Nijinsky and Igor Stravinsky’s 'Sacre du Printemps' in Paris in 1913.
Sacre du Printemps instantly became an icon of modernism with its un-balletic turned-in feet, angular and collapsed arms and bodies, pagan and peasant themes shown in this image. Avant-garde sensibility was widespread in Europe by 1913 inspiring Russian dancers to reject the traditional French ballet style. Nijinsky and Stravinsky were inspired by philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche's writings which highlighted the call for a violent rebirth of modern society which they strove to portray.