Beauchamp–Feuillet notation is a system of dance notation

Dance notation

Dance notation is the symbolic representation of dance movement. It is analogous to movement notation but can be limited to representing human movement and specific forms of dance such as Tap dance...

 used in Baroque dance

Baroque dance

Baroque dance is dance of the Baroque era , closely linked with Baroque music, theatre and opera.- English country dance :...

.

The notation was commissioned by Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 (who had founded the Académie Royale de Danse

Académie Royale de Danse

The Académie Royale de Danse, founded by letters patent on the initiative of King Louis XIV of France in March 1661, was the first dance institution established in the Western world...

 in 1661), and devised in the 1680s by Pierre Beauchamp

Pierre Beauchamp

Pierre Beauchamp was a French choreographer, dancer and composer, and the probable inventor of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation.-Biography:...

. It was published in 1700 by Raoul-Auger Feuillet, who began a programme of publishing notated dances. It was used to record dances for the stage and domestic use throughout the eighteenth century, being modified by Pierre Rameau

Pierre Rameau

Pierre Rameau , was the French dancing master to Elisabetta Farnese, and the author of two books that now provide us with valuable information about Baroque dance....

 in 1725, and surviving into at least the 1780s in various modified forms.

Reading

• Raoul Auger Feuillet (1700) Chorégraphie, ou l'art de d'écrire la danse (Paris)
  • a facsimile of the 1700 Paris edition (1968: Broude Brothers)
  • translated John Weaver
    John Weaver
    John Weaver was an English dancer and choreographer, and is often regarded as the father of English pantomime....
    
    : (1706) Orchesography (London)
• Raoul Auger Feuillet (1706) Recueil de contredanses (Paris)
  • a facsimile of the 1706 Paris edition (1968: Broude Brothers)
• Wendy Hilton “Dance of court and theater: the French noble style 1690–1725”
  • reprinted in: (1997) Dance and Music of Court and Theater: Selected Writings of Wendy Hilton (Pendragon Press) ISBN 0-945193-98-X
• Meredith Ellis Little & Carol G. Marsh (1992) La Danse Noble: An Inventory of Dances and Sources (Broude Brothers) ISBN 0-8450-0092-6
• Pierre Rameau (1725) Le Maître à danser (Paris)
  • a facsimile of the 1725 Paris edition (1967: Broude Brothers)
  • translated John Essex
    John Essex
    John Essex was an English dancer , choreographer and author who promoted the recording of dance steps through notation as well as performing in London theatre...
    
    : (1728) The Dancing Master (London)
• Pierre Rameau (1725) Abbregé de la nouvelle methode (Paris)
• Kellom Tomlinson (1735) The Art of Dancing (London)
• Philippa Waite & Judith Appleby (2003) Beauchamp–Feuillet Notation: A Guide for Beginner and Internediate Baroque Dance Students (Cardiff:Consort de Danse Baroque) ISBN 0-9544423-0-X

External links

• The Early Dance Lecture 2003: But how do you know how they danced so long ago? by David Wilson
• The books of John Weaver - Facsimiles of 18th-century English translations of Feuillet's books.
• Baroque Dance Notation by Paige Whitley-Bauguess, including an introduction to reading Beauchamp-Feuillet notation.