The Simplicity of Ballet

A brief note on orchesography, the art of writing choreography alongside the music it is accompanied by. 

Although in recent years ballet has adapted to allow for more creative expression from both choreographers and dancers, it began as an incredibly regimented art form. More akin to mathematics than studio or performance arts, there was always a single correct position to make on a specific count in a ballet performance. Although this may seem stifling to more modern artists, the strict and well-defined nature of ballet lent itself perfectly to the development of a language around its movements. 

One can see codification of the language of ballet in the 1706 English translation of Raoul Auger Feuillet’s Chorégraphie, ou L'art de décrire la dance par caracteres, figures et signes desmonstratifs, avec lesquels on apprend facilement de soy même toutes sortes de dances (1700). He begins by detailing the different directions of the room, moves to describing stagnant positions, and then concluding with entire dances accompanied by their sheet music. In spite of the temporal distance between myself and Feuillet, these steps, along with their diagrams, remain fiercely familiar to me, representing the lasting nature of the language of a ballet. Excerpts from John Weaver’s English translation of Feuillet are included below.