BALLET, AN ART OF THE FRENCH COURT

 

IT BEGAN AS PROCESSIONS ROYALS LED

(FROM ABOUT 1560)

Louis XIII and Anne of Austria conducted them...

     The Ball by Abraham Bosse, 1634 / zoom 

...or observed the ritualized dances that followed...

Maurice Leloir in Richelieu by Théodore Cahu, 1901, a history of France for children

... allegories about the king that young nobles performed. 

Maurice Leloir in Le Roy-Soleil by Theodore Cahu, 1931

Louis XIV, an excellent dancer, established the first school for ballet and ordered that a performance be inserted after the second act of every opera produced at court.

 The Man with the Iron Mask by R. Wallace with Leonard Dicaprio as Louis (1998) and The King Dances by G. Corbiau (2000) 

Ritualized dance was part of court life until the end of the Old Regime:

The Princess of Navarre by Nicolin Cochin, 1745 / zoom

# # #

  

The Opéra continued the royal tradition, with a ballet after every opera's second act:

All Degas's dancers were "Opéra girls:" The city had no other ballet.

 Shown at the exhibit Degas at the Opéra at the musée d'Orsay

Their interludes are the link 
 between court dance and floor shows, 
which also began in Paris.

 *     *     *

Next,
Millionaires and ballerinas