Meet Pierre Beauchamps (1719-1631), one of the most influential teachers in the history of dance, but also one of the best dancers of those glorious times. In addition, he really understood music, composing melodies for the renowned playwright Molière.
He came from a family that had been at the pinnacle of French high culture for generations musically, a family that starred in the royal court orchestra itself. The deep connections between music and body movement have always preoccupied the greatest interpreters and critics of dance. It was at the center of the work of the greatest choreographers who followed him, Gilles Perrot, not to mention Nijinsky or Fokine.
But beyond all that, Bouchan is a forgotten hero. A hero because he managed to save the wedding celebrations of Louis XIVAnd, perhaps even more importantly, inventing the classical dance we know.
Today we will tell his story.
The beginning of Pierre Bouchan's career
It is likely that the origin of this tradition began inPalais Royal In 1648, and if we talk about this year, it is the year in which Pierre Bouchamp's name first appears in the book of dance criticism – (Ballet du dérèglement des passions, 1648) – and the reason for this is the "mad passion" – the name of a movement play in which he starred.
This is a spectacular dance that depicts a statue coming to life due to the touch of the magical fire that Prometheus stole from the gods:
I was captivated by the moment when the dancer becomes a celestial being or one of the immortal Titans, awed and amazed by the touch of the thief who carried her off, using a torch from the preserved fire and passing it on to the young man. He was also later punished by the god Zeus for his actions (my free translation).
Pierre the Star was then 11 years old. In 1648 he had already taken part in the aforementioned ballet “Passions des dereglement du Ballet” (Passions des dereglement du Ballet) presented at the Palais Royal. Imagine this “passion”: an amazing 11-year-old adolescent boy dancing in the king’s court and depicting a meticulous and noble sexual awakening as the role of a French marble statue brought to life.
Fire that Prometheus stole from the gods performed this miracle. He was very talented and his performance immediately attracted the attention of the courtiers. It was a historical moment that few know about and few paid attention to. Among the audience was also another boy, about 10 years old at the time – his movements were very graceful and beautiful, in his eyes – he admired him and more than anything he wanted to know how he himself could perform them and this boy was none other than the Diogenes - the young king (Louis XIV).
Dance – Louis XIV's Great Consolation During the Fronde
Louis was crowned king France At the age of five. Even then, he longed to know this special ability to control and move the body – from which the world began to change. But it took a while, two years. The reason for this, apparently, is that at that very time in 1648, when Louis XIV was still a shy aspiring star of the dance, the Parliament of Paris rose up against his chief minister, Mazarin.
It was an attempt to overthrow the crown, no less than a civil war, called the Fronde. It is said that the situation was not easy for Dieudonné and that throughout this war, which actually lasted about 5 years, he suffered many hardships, including poverty and hunger. If we go back to the evening of that performance, the evidence remaining from that moment says that what was particularly impressive was the unusual combination of the son's angelic grace and the high jumps of Pierre Beauchamp.
These made the greatest impression on the little prince – so it was engraved in that memory. And our Pierre, the dancer, was immediately defined as the best dancer in France. Two years later, the unbelievable happened when he was only 13 years old, in 1650 (about 11 years before all royal power passed to him after the death of the most powerful man in France, Cardinal Mazarin), Pierre Beauchamp was invited to serve as a private ballet teacher – the personal teacher of Dieudonné, that is, the dance teacher of Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre.
Diodna was then a 12-year-old boy. A civil war was raging in France, actually against him, and dancing, along with his mother and Pierre, were among the only things that uplifted his spirit. This spirit became linked to the spirit of his teacher, who remained loyal to him throughout his life. The two of them danced for years every morning in a hall designated for this purpose, until Mazarin's victory over the rebels in 1653. There is no doubt that during this period, it was dance that actually sustained him.
The claim that the Italian Cardinal Jules Mazarin was the son of those who encouraged the young king to participate in ballets to demonstrate his power makes sense. After all, it was he who brought civil war upon the king by using the intendants, who were given enormous power, including the suspension of judges, to prevent the local nobility from having the possibility of maintaining its own independent power and becoming dependent on the central government. The ballet fell at his feet like the Golden Fleece, bringing him great benefit in view of the prince's mental calm, whose rage and suffering faded and were forgotten in the dance.
After the end of the civil war, Mazarin began to build a sophisticated government. Louis XIV stood by and watched his work, but he was already a skilled dancer with true discipline and he also had a true friend – his ballet teacher: Pierre. For about twenty years, the boys: Pierre (the ballet teacher) and Diodna (the king of France and Navarre – the almighty “the state is me”) met every day in the ballet studio.
The greatness of Pierre Beauchamp
Pierre Beauchamp had a personal charm, he was undoubtedly a star but what saved him here more than anything was his social intuition. He had serious social skills and the bond with Louis came naturally and it was the real thing. This friendship was never broken and his wonderful closeness to the royal house was maintained throughout his life, no easy task in a court full of intrigue and scheming.
In addition to being a successful choreographer and a great dancer, Bouchamp developed tremendous social skills. But perhaps his most important quality was his ability to dim his own sunlight on stage, when King Louis came up to dance beside him. Someone who could do that could certainly rule all of France, perhaps without anyone taking his head off.
Bouchan was both a friend of the king and a talented diplomat. A man of strong depth perception, a concept I coined to explain the rare and unique development of this life skill in the human soul (if you want to read more about this, my article “Depth vision"). In any case, seeing the depths leads a person to enhance his status by integrating into a higher status. It allows him to assimilate into it and reach a higher status with the help of new skills. Bhushan is certainly an example and model of this ability.
From the moment his name as a close associate of the king and the revered dancer began to resonate, anyone who could afford it invited him to dance at the lavish events he created. He was certainly a giant, and as his talent grew, so did his modesty – his loyalty was to two things: the values of the art world and his friend Diodona.
The doors of all the most powerful families in Paris opened to him. They all wanted him to build and create for them dances or perform dances at their events, as was the custom of that time. With his fame slowly growing – he closed himself in training and the five ballet postures began to settle in his mind and balance his soul that had been saved from a great disaster of intoxication of power (memento mori). Without a doubt, Bouchamp is considered the greatest and best dancer in France.
Ballet tonight
In 1653, when Louis XIV turned fifteen, the time had come to create a ballet that would be both a celebration of the king's victory over the rebels and his transformation into a mature dancer.
Here a genius was needed, who on the one hand would create a hit from his illness and on the other hand would know how to emphasize the king’s dancing ability, which was still in its infancy. The result is the Ballet de la nuit, an impressive dance in 4 acts, which included giant screens, staging and elaborate costumes. Here is a short excerpt from the ballet, as it appeared in the wonderful film “Dancing with the King”:
The premiere took place on February 23, 1653 in the Salle de Petit Bourbon of Louvre PalaceLike it or not, this is a dance of the night, and each stage of its development moves solely towards one goal: the rising of the sun, which the young king embodied. The result was a great success and the ballet went down in history.
This was certainly an impressive dance, danced by the king himself. A brilliant role that undoubtedly influenced the shaping of the personality of the French king, who has since been called the Sun King. Thus began eighteen years of dance and the career of a star solo dancer named Louis XIV, almost always with Pierre Beauchamp standing next to him on the same stage.
The allegorical plot of “The Night” revolves around thieves who try to rob a house in the middle of the night. However, then the sun rises at dawn surrounded by all the good virtues: honor, grace, love, wealth, victory, glory, courage and confidence. The sun, which defeats the thieves, is of course an allegory for Louis XIV, while the thieves are an allegory for all those nobles who rebelled against him.
Lully, the man who created French opera
The man who brought about the great victory and designed the characters, including the “Sun King,” was an Italian young man – Jean-Baptiste Lully (1687-1632). He later became known as the king’s choreographer and was a brilliant and complex man, whom we will discuss towards the end. Lully worked for most of his life at the court of the French King Louis XIV and also gained his recognition and quite a bit of money.
Lully is considered the founder of the comedy ballet and was later appointed to the high position of director of the Academy of Music in Paris. Among his other great talents is the “aria.” Lully was the one who created the “aria” in opera, that artistic medium that came to express the intensity of emotion of a dramatic character on stage.
He is also the one who understood the importance of the solo, that is, the solo dance, and he also created it. This is a very impressive and powerful song for an opera singer and stage star with accompaniment. It is a song that allows him to demonstrate unique skills and I think he did this following his experiences as the king's choreographer and designing the role of the Sun in the ballet of the night.
He was one of the greatest choreographers of his generation, a man whose understanding of dance was profound and enabled its development almost to the present day.
The friendship between Pierre Beauchamp and Lully
The ballet was a great success and was performed six times in a few weeks and then re-performed every year. The long-standing collaboration between Lully and Beauchamp lasted for several years and was responsible for some of the greatest works of 17th-century French ballet. This is a rare and close friendship at all levels of creation. A deep and long-standing mutual trust that was trampled on in one blow towards the end.
The beginning of the bonds of trust between them, in the relationships between a choreographer and his dancer. Pierre Bouchamp was the star of Lully's works and brought Lully respect and success. Lully did not remain indebted to Pierre, he created captivating roles especially for him that brought dancer Pierre Bouchamp great fame and great appreciation.
The unique bond between the two is rare in the art world of our time, but at that time, the great artists believed in mutual devotion and deep loyalty to each other. In this spirit, the two worked to advance their students and friends in creativity and, in this case, the wisdom of dance.
They understood the importance of reciprocity and of shaping the idea of dance through the sharing of intellectual forces. Similar collaboration led in the 19th century to the magnificent ballet Giselle It involved the poet Théophile Gautier and the writer Gilles-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. Also in the twentieth century, a similar collaboration by the Diaghilev-Rurik-Nijinsky team brought us the The Rite of Spring, another groundbreaking ballet creation.
The central idea that unites all the parts of the work into one whole was for the new dance. A dance with a heart – the Court dance but with a heart. The central idea from this moment is likened to the force of gravity in this context, or to the love that unites two strangers into one whole.
From then on, the connection of the dance's movements began to take on meaning and conceptual coherence. It was he who advanced the dance beyond the "entrance dance" that had until then been an entertainment show, closer to what is now accepted as "American dance," cabaret Which brought Brecht a huge influence as an epic theater and of course on circus performances.
The design of the idea of the dance was launched and reached new heights, which continued to develop for many years later. The subject as a whole was then called a libretto. One of the first to understand the power of the libretto was Mozart, who admired his libretto writer Da Ponte, and it is said that Lorenzo Da Ponte's preference for Mozart was at the heart of his conflict with Salieri.
Ballet des Proverbes – Bouchan's great triumph
In 1654, the names of the two (Bauchamp and Lully) reappeared in the Ballet des Proverbs, which took part in a very impressive production of the opera “The Marriage of Tati and Plau” by Francesco Cavalli, who was a composer of very successful operas and is still known today. Here is an example of another ballet called Ercole Amante, which Cavalli composed and in which no less than the King of France appears (allegorically, of course):
The production was intended for the wedding celebrations of Alfonso d'Este, son of the Duke of Modena (1639). Lully, who had proven his ability to design a special dance for a star that allowed him to transcend his natural abilities, once again created the dances. Just as Bouchon received the main role here and he no longer needed to dim his soul, as he had in the ballet Nocturne, where the star is Louis XIV. His soul burst out and shone like a comet and rose and lifted his body, which once again captured the hearts of the audience.
Pierre Bouchamp returned to his natural place and was recognized as the greatest dancer of France. Despite this, his head was not splashed and no one was upset about this recognition, not even his good friend the King of France. The collaboration between Lully and Bouchamp led to the creation of additional ballets. In 1657 he starred in “Ballet des plaisirs troubles” and “La Galerie du Temps”, created a year earlier in 1656.
Bouchamp becomes Molière's house choreographer
In 1656, an amazing event occurred, in today's terms, the star dancer Bouchamp was invited to create choreography in a new production by his regular choreographer and friend Lully. The production was a success and shortly afterwards Bouchamp wrote two new dances. The last dance was nothing less than a collaboration with Molière, the great comedy writer of the Louis XIV era.
What is remarkable here is that Bouchamp, who came from a musical family, composed not only the choreography for Molière’s Ballet du Troubles Plaisir but also the music. As a result, Pierre Bouchamp was recognized as the greatest of choreographers by his teacher. There was no envy here, only admiration.
Molière's company initially operated under the name Théâtre Illustre, and later as the Troupe de Messier. After extensive research, experts were able to determine with certainty that Bouchant danced in nine of Molière's premieres and spent the next 12 years working with him.
Pierre Beauchamp appeared at Molière As a dancer in a wide variety of roles, from dramatic roles to comic characters, and performed leprechauns and mythological characters. Until 1671, Lully was Molière's choreographer, but after 1671 there was a change and Pierre Beauchamp was appointed Molière's house choreographer.
The Molière-Pierre Beauchamp collaboration was fruitful and lasted until Molière's death in 1673.
Beauchamp manages to save Louis XIV's wedding ballet
Louis XIV's love affairs with women are well known. Throughout his life he had a number of mistresses, including The Marquise de Montespan and the Duchess of La Vallée, both of whom also bore him several legitimate children. His first love, Marie Mancini, was the niece of Mazarin, who strongly opposed their marriage. The brief meeting between the king and this princess on 22 June 1659 was their last before she was exiled.
Following the famous Treaty of the Pyrenees, which ended the war between France and Spain, the king agreed to marry the Spanish Infanta, Maria Theresa, in 1660. The engagement date arrived, and a spectacular production was needed to cover up the lack of love and passion between the king and his future wife.
Princess Maria Theresa of Spain was a particularly privileged match due to her noble descent from the Spanish, French and Austrian royal families. A wedding of convenience, we have already said, but on a grand scale. The wedding of the King of France was a magnificent event of the old world and was much more than an attraction.
This wedding also had high political (reconciliation with Spain), social (who among the nobles), and artistic aspects. Everyone who was invited to create was seen as an artist of the generation: Pierre Bouchamp, who with Lully produced the engagement celebrations of the Italian duke's son, was invited to star as a soloist in the ballet intended to play a central role in one of the event's highlights.
It should be remembered that the use of dance was so widespread that anyone who wanted to serve as an officer in the French army was required to know it. Furthermore, as you will see in the following video, some believe that the dance came from another art that the officer had to master, adding:
The dance was one of the most dazzling parts of the event – Pierre danced it well, he once again impressed with the dance that Jean-Baptiste Lully had composed for him. It was undoubtedly a breathtaking hit. The choreographer knew the dancer’s greatness very well and very closely and used all his ability to bring its essence to the audience. The result was the great explosion of the period, in fact the best reviews that the legendary Nijinsky received in Paris are a copy of what has been said and written here about Pierre Bouchamp.
Why was it decided to choose “used music” for the royal wedding?
In honor of the royal couple’s wedding celebrations, the opera Xerse – Ahasuerus was chosen. The opera’s subject is Xerxes I, king of Achaemenid Persia from 485 to 465 BC and who is identified with King Ahasuerus from the Book of Esther. The music was once again composed by Cavalli, mentioned above, thanks to his ability to write operas that excel in dramatic effect alongside grotesque humor, which was typical of Italian grand opera.
However, what is surprising here is that the music Cavalli used was not original, as it was originally written for the wedding of the son of an Italian duke. This begs the question, how could a hit of the period – that is, something that already existed – in Italy, a used product, become a sought-after and sparkling “thing” for the King of France and even for his wedding with Her Majesty the Princess of Spain – the Infanta?
We must stop and examine the events that preceded this, and if we look behind the scenes, we will find a huge scandal, just like the people of the 21st century love. It turns out that a completely different show was originally booked. Not a well-known, used hit, but a new production by the legendary Cavalli.
The composer arrived at the court, full of excitement, he had big ideas and enormous willingness, he was also promised a lot of money, but inspiration is not bought with money. He got entangled in the intrigues of the French court and fell victim to several plots that were of no use. Cavalli failed, the failure was atrocious. A great shame. He simply failed to create for the king the prestigious production that was required of him. A huge hit, a Schlager opera that will be talked about for years to come….
He didn't have strong depth perception. His opera Xerse was a well-known hit in Italy, but its time had passed and the next thing hadn't come. Lully and Pierre Beauchamp knew that schlager well, because they took part in that production. Its big star was also in it and he's here – Pierre Beauchamp.
Loli and Bouchan save the day
It turns out that it was he, the king's friend and ballet teacher, who saved the day. He clung to Jean-Baptiste Lully, who saw, like him, how great the embarrassment and the catastrophe that was about to come with their Italian in Paris. They realized that if they did not intervene, this lousy production could only lead to a disaster that no one could predict.
This is how the two were reunited: Lully and Pierre, joined hands, also joined minds, and took an active part while participating in the grandiose production and proposed the impossible: a recreation of our Italian's most successful opera, Xerse, a recreation, well, not quite a copy – an inspiration, but not that thing.
They made some changes and added:
- New dances
- New screens
- Fancy costumes
And in the end, fortunately for them, after all, those present didn't really know the original and couldn't notice the changes they made. The product was brilliant and the big celebration began.
The wedding took place in Saint Jean de Luz, a tiny fishing town not far from theParis and not bVersailles (which was still just a small hunting lodge). Its location on the border of France and Spain was politically considered a perfect place for a religious and royal wedding. The wedding ceremony took place in the Baptist Church of Saint Jean, which stood in the center of the town. You can get an impression of the town and the church in the following short video:
The birth of the macaron
Those who come to Saint-Jean-de-Luz today will still find the church in its original location. This marriage brought an end to a long and bitter war between France and Spain, but also to the creation of Basque-French cuisine delicacies, some of which were created for the wedding itself and are still preserved due to their impressive quality as recipes of the highest quality to this day, for example, the Basque macaron is one of them.
Of course, who hasn't tasted the French macaron, for example by Pierre Hermé or Ladurée, a delicious meringue cookie sandwich with almond flour filled with jam or ganache. But the history of this macaron originates here. The two-tiered macarons made so famous by Ladurée actually began as a Basque macaron created for this wedding.
Chef Adam from Maison Adam created it. If you want to touch something of Pierre Beauchamp's greatness, come toMaison Adam It has been in operation since at least 1660 and was founded by a pastry chef named Adam. That chef made the macaron for the young client, aka Louis XIV. Louis may not have been in love with his future wife, but he understood quality.
The ballet Ahasuerus is performed in Paris
About five months after the religious ceremony – on June 9, 1660 on the Spanish border, the great party (new style) took place in Paris. It was held in the center of Paris, it was the event of the Ballet de Xerxes by Lully, Cavalli and Pierre Bouchan. The ballet included six completely new first pictures. Songs that were added to the original performance of Cavalli’s opera Xerxes.
The stage was set in the center of Paris, close to the Seine in the Louvre Museum of our time. On November 22, 1660, the curtain rose on the new style. The dancers were all male and all professionals, including Lully himself and Pierre Beauchamp who participated. There was no need for shadows, and no reduction in glamour because neither Louis XIV nor his new queen participated in this production.
You can get a little impression of this ballet in the middle of this short video (the dancers are dressed as if they were in the 18th century, but let's ignore this historical inaccuracy):
Bouchan invents the ballet we know.
In 1669, Louis XIV founded the Academy The operaCourt choreographer Jean-Baptiste Lully was chosen to head it and Pierre was promoted to court choreographer in his place.
In 1670 or late 1669, a minor event occurred that had a huge impact on the development of dance in France. Louis XIV, the dancer-king, at the age of 14, decided to retire from the stage. His retirement freed him from many bonds and obligations to the monarchy.
The centralized king and the appearing dancer had until then demanded all the leading roles for himself. In addition to the irrelevant distribution of solo roles and not according to the suitability of the dancer for the role, it greatly hindered the development of the solo role, which reached its first peak only in the 20th century with “The Firebird” (1910) and The Rose Spirit (1911) in Fokine’s production with the star Nijinsky.
In addition, the entire rehearsal process was meticulous and filled with diplomatic honorifics, which were also irrelevant. Women did not participate in the productions and the female roles were danced by men. Pierre Beauchamp, for example, also regularly served as the king's partner on the dance floor (but only when a princess was required).
Suddenly the door opened that made it possible to recreate records like the role that Pierre had in Italy. But the most important change that changed the face of dance art was women: women were given a central role on the dance stage. And that changed everything. The character of the dancer was closer to his true nature, it was the style of the dance that determined who was suitable to dance the role, not his social status. But perhaps the most important of all were the emotions.
Suddenly, the inner emotions of the dancing characters burst onto the stage and were integrated. It was the emotions, not the leaps and courtship gestures on the entrances and exits, that began to be the pathological theme.
Four years after the royal retirement, in 1674, Pierre Beauchamp received the appointment: member of the Guild of Dancers (Guild – “the Guild of Dance Teachers”). He suddenly had a teaching certificate. His membership in the Guild of Dancers had a centralized meaning, being part of the king’s administrative or centralization, but it also constituted a reference and definition of the highest professionalism in France and the king’s official recognition of his greatness.
A few years later he was also appointed head of the Danse de Royale Academie that his royal student, King Louis XIV, founded in Paris.
(Note: The terms Academy of Opera, Academy of Dance, and Academy as a teachers' organization all contain the word: "Academy" so as not to confuse them).
The codification of the art of dance
Codification is a term from the world of law. It means the process of gathering and collecting existing rules, customs, and laws, editing them and adapting them to the current time and situation, or creating a system of laws in a particular field.
We are still in the realm of classical ballet. Pierre Beauchamp, in his role as head of the academy and as someone who believed in a central idea, controlling and unifying everything, created the codification of the dance. Psychologically, the unification of the steps around a classical idea may have stemmed more from his life as a person very close to the centralized king, who was his student, and served as his living example.
King Louis XIV decided to take over as the force of gravity and to dominate all the areas of the country that were before him. This force first entered the art of dance, although at this stage very carefully and with a little care. He united and reorganized all the steps that had existed until then in the world of dance and introduced them into a movement dictionary: pleiades, ralve, cat steps, and chops in the onion also grande jete and pirouette.
He swept away those who did not fit the general spirit and threw them out. A school of thought was created of what was right and proper and what belonged to others and was unacceptable. The French classical ballet was born and Pierre Beauchamp created it! And yet the Italian Renaissance gradually penetrated here as well.
The impression of the art of the ancients erupted again. The design of the steps by Pierre Bouchamp was undoubtedly inspired by the statues of ancient Greece. They were the ones who defined the classics from then on, they were the ones who set the standard, and they were the ones who determined the final form of the classical posture in ballet (how the head would be placed over the collarbones, etc.).
Around these principles, the steps were grouped into codes and forms, which included the definition of the five basic stances of classical ballet, and even the principle of the turn out, which was established here as a basic stance. Another innovation associated with Pierre Beauchamp's name – the hand movements (Fordbrae) that were limited in use until his time. Pierre Beauchamp was the one who moved the dancers' arms.
Traffic sign
In 1680, Pierre Bouchan developed a movement notation called Feuillet Notation. It is a system of dance step symbols named after a man named Feuillet. This movement notation (Feuillet Notation) was commissioned by Louis XIV and the name Feuillet is not named after the inventor, but after the publisher of the notation.
Epilogue
After the death of Queen Marie-Thérèse in 1683 and the king's secret marriage to Madame de Mainton, Lully was effectively banished from court. The king's enthusiasm for Lully's opera waned, and court gossip raged; but the king apparently suddenly became furious at Lully's homosexual life. These were exposed, unfortunately for the composer, when he was 53, when he became involved in a scandalous affair with a very young man who had been trained in royal service and lived in his house.
Unlike Pierre, who was not power-hungry and therefore did not create any rivals for himself, Lully was hated by quite a few people at court. Now all his enemies rose up against him and he was banished from court. Two years later he died abandoned. From the day he was exiled from the kingdom, only the dancer, the king's close friend Pierre Beauchamp, was allowed to come to court.