Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A note on references
- Introduction
- Part I The ballet d'action in historical context
- 1 The voice and the body in the Enlightenment
- 2 A revival of ancient pantomime?
- 3 No place for Harlequin
- 4 Decroux and Noverre
- Part II The ballet d'action in close-up
- Conclusions
- Appendix
- Select bibliography
- Index
- References
1 - The voice and the body in the Enlightenment
from Part I - The ballet d'action in historical context
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A note on references
- Introduction
- Part I The ballet d'action in historical context
- 1 The voice and the body in the Enlightenment
- 2 A revival of ancient pantomime?
- 3 No place for Harlequin
- 4 Decroux and Noverre
- Part II The ballet d'action in close-up
- Conclusions
- Appendix
- Select bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
The ballet d'action was one of those artistic phenomena which was as popular as it was controversial. It is easy to attribute its popularity to a heightened contemporary interest in the expressive body, but less easy to explain the controversy it provoked. There are analogous trends towards the expressive body in related arts, such as Garrick's physical acting, or in different arts, such as the libertine novel, or in different domains, such as Diderot's philosophical materialism. Such is the momentum of interest in the body and its expressive potential in the eighteenth century that the popularity of a new somatic art, the ballet d'action, seems trivial. It would seem to be part of an obvious tendency.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Mime, Music and Drama on the Eighteenth-Century StageThe Ballet d'Action, pp. 9 - 37Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011