FEUILLET (RAOUL AUGER)

Chorégraphie ou l'Art de décrire la dance, 3 parts in 1 vol., FIRST EDITIONS, 1700

Footnotes

FIRST EDITIONS OF FEUILLET'S EXTREMELY RARE AND INNOVATIVE ILLUSTRATED DANCE MANUALS, the source for all eighteenth century dance theory, the inspiration behind the works of Weaver and Rameau, and a major factor in the continued rise to pre-eminence of French ballet.

In Chorégraphie, Raoul-Auger Feuillet (1659-1710), choreographer and dance master, was the first person to describe in detail and illustrate the 'Beauchamp-Feuillet' system of notation, which had been commissioned by Louis XIV (founder of the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661), and devised in the 1680s by Pierre Beauchamp. This was innovative in several ways: the attractive and distinctive engravings ("danses gravées") show the dance tunes across the top of the page for the benefit of the musicians, whilst the dancers' movements and steps are given visual representation in the notation below, with flowing diagrams to show the bends, leaps, turns, falls and glides of the dancer, the focus being on the footwork.

The dances described in the second part include the rigaudon, gigue, sarabande, canary à deux, entrée grave pour homme, bourée d'Achille, folie d'Espagne pour femme and forlana, culminating in the extraordinarily complex 'Balet de neuf Danseurs'.

The third part comprises further dances by Louis Pécour (1653-1729), transcribed by Feuillet, and the fact that the three parts were always intended to be seen as a single work is made clear in Feuillet's Preface: "J'aurais cru donner trop peu a public si je ne lui avais seulement que l'explication des principes et des éléments de la danse, sans y joindre des exemples particuliers de différentes danses, pour en enseigner l'usage et la pratique; c'est ce qui m'a engagé à composer plusieurs danses que j'ai mises à la fin de ce traité, dont il y a plusieurs entrées de ballet, propres pour hommes et pour femmes, tant pour une personne seules, pour deux, pour quatre, que pour huit, sur de différents airs et différents mouvements, il y en a pour maîtres et d'autres pour des écoliers déjà avancés dans cet exercice. Outre les danses que j'ai faites et que je donne, j'ai mis à la fin de ce livre un recueil des plus belles danses de bal qui ont été composées par M. Pecour, qu'il a bien voulu revoir lui-même avant d'être gravées".

Feuillet's work was a great success and a second edition followed a year later, with translations rapidly appearing and its influence extending to England, Germany and Italy. The first edition of Chorégraphie is extremely scarce. RISM locates only five copies, and WorldCat one, whilst just two copies seem to have been offered at auction in the last forty years, both of which included the even scarcer first edition of Recueil de... M. Pécour. The British Library holds only this, the other Recueil and a second edition of the Chorégraphie (which had 2 supplementary leaves inserted).

The interest in Feuillet and his choreography continues to this day. The Consort de Danse Baroque under the direction of Philippa Waite is offfering Beauchamp-Feuillet Notation Reading Classes on Zoom until 16 August, and their 29th International Annual Baroque Summer School in Cardiff is going ahead with reduced numbers and presumably some socially-distanced dancing. Philippa Waite is co-author with Judith Appleby of Beauchamp-Feuillet Notation: A Guide for Beginner and Intermediate Baroque Dance Students, 2003.