Dance as text : ideologies of the baroque body

272 Pages·2015·6.536 MB·English

by  Franko, Mark

DANCE AS TEXT
Oxford Studies in Dance Theory
MARK FRANKO, Series Editor
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Dance as Text: Ideologies of the Baroque Body, Revised Edition
Mark Franko
DANCE AS TEXT
Ideologies of the Baroque Body
Revised edition
Mark Franko
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Franko, Mark.
Dance as text : ideologies of the baroque body / Mark Franko.—Revised edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-979401-0 (alk. paper)
1. Ballet—France—History. 2. Dance—Political aspects—France.
I. Title.
GV1649.F73 2015
792.8—dc23 2014046017
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Juliet and Alessio,
and to Louis Marin in memoriam

The irreducible political power that everybody has, his bodily behavior in the space
that he occupies.
—Paul Goodman, Speaking and Language: Defense of Poetry
The people . . . enjoy a spectacle which, basically, is always aimed at pleasing them,
and all our subjects, in general, are delighted to see that we share their tastes for
what they do best.
—Louis XIV, Mémoires for the Instruction of the Dauphin
The study of dance and theater is the study of how a particular group of people
overcome stage fright.
—Randy Martin, Performance as Political Act
This is precisely what the tyrant does. He causes this lack of self-presence in the body
politic which is simultaneously a loss of language.
—Vincent Farenga, “Periphrasis on the Origin of Rhetoric”

Contents
Preface to the First Edition xi
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxiii
Illustrations xxv
Abbreviations xxvii
Prologue: Constructing the Baroque Body 1
1. Writing Dancing, 1573 15
2. Ut Vox Corpus, 1581 31
3. Interlude: Montaigne’s Dance, 1580s 51
4. Political Erotics of Burlesque Ballet, 1624–1627 62
5. Molière and Textual Closure: Comedy-Ballet, 1661–1670 107
Epilogue: Repeatability, Reconstruction, and Beyond 131
Appendix One: Notes on Characters of Dance 153
Appendix Two: Original Text and Translation of Les Fées (1625) 158
Appendix Three: Original Text and Translation of Lettres Patentes (1662) 165
Appendix Four: The Amerindian in French Humanist and Burlesque Court Ballets 183