Dance and Costumes. Elna Matamoros

physical exhibition of the artist and the heroic arguments they choreographed, led to the development of the true technical acrobatics for both individuals and couples. On the other hand, the new Hellenic-inspired tunics also enhanced the exquisite femininity of the dancers, who could now show their well-formed limbs without shame, while their movements exuded simplicity and ease.

      In the lithograph by Hüet, the young Deshayes in transvestite as Deidamia wears a tunic/dress that only covers his body above the knees; loose from below the chest, made of a fabric that barely flutters from where it is gathered in the upper part, in spite of being cut like a cape, with biased fabric. Dressed in light green, we see a light, simple and well formed dancer, as shown by his gently toned calves and his thin but fibrous arms. A strong contrast to the image we see of Mr. D’Egville, in a dark blue tunic and a cape whose interior –blood red– brings nearly ferocity to his portrait; thick curly hair and beard add exoticism and some savage touches. In the meantime, Deshayes, with his blond hair gathered at the nape of his neck, looks passive despite the acrobatics he is performing.

      The dancers Deshayes and D’Egville do coincide in their footwear:⁹³ Grecian sandals, tied around the ankle with crossed ribbons that allow the total vision of their bare feet inside; feet that seem to be willing to perform –without any obstacles imposed by oppressive footwear– any and all the steps that the choreographer imagined, no matter how demanding they were. In addition, this new kind of footwear offered a new sense of balance because the dancers could flex their toes more easily while raising to the relevé.⁹⁴

      Especially revealing is the leg that Deshayes lifts backwards in an incipient arabesque, or more probably, an attitude allongé. In the search for new positions for dancers who for the first time could elevate their legs, the choreographers explored in images that –by aesthetic proximity– could inspire them the most: the sculptures of ancient Greece (hence the name sometimes used to define this era is Neoclassicism). The word “attitude” refers to the position in which the dancer lifts a flexed leg behind his back. It soon began to be used for jumps and turns, and by the mid-19^th century the attitude devant (when the leg is lifted in front of the body) was born as a new position. The attitude was first established by the Italian Carlo Blasis in his Traité élémentaire, théorique et pratique de l’art de la danse,⁹⁵ but it is evident that it was already used prior to this. Inspired by Giambologna’s famous Mercury sculpture,⁹⁶ Blasis coded this leg position to which he added new names, depending on how the torso was placed.

      2.9 - Mercurio volante. Bronze sculpture by Giambologna, 1580.

      2.10 - Arabesque à la lyre. Drawing by Casartelli for Blasis, Traité élémentaire… 1820.

      Shortly thereafter, as ballet training improved, the arabesque began to rise. How high the leg lifted behind the back would reach –without corsets that would prevent women from flexing the spine– is difficult to know, but studying the illustrations of Blasis’ work, we find a quite significant drawing. In this image,⁹⁷ a couple –again in Grecian costumes– perform the arabesque that Blasis defined as à la lyre precisely because of the instrument the male dancer holds in his hands; he could also have called it à la flèche or something similar, since the female dancer has a bow in her hands and a quiver with arrows on her back. In any case, we see how the costume –in this case, a stage prop– inspired not only the creation of a new step of dance technique, but also influenced its future denomination. On the other hand, the dancer’s tunic simulates a neckline that would leave a breast uncovered, something very unlikely in reality. Although it has already been said that for some time the necklines of women’s street dresses showed the bust, they were only used sporadically and in acts of social importance; never, or very rarely, in live performances on stage.

      When observing this image, any modern dancer is surprised to see the correction and perfection these figures show in their arabesques: their supporting legs are fully extended, with solid knees and the relevés well placed, consequence of a technique purified to the extreme; their backs are erect, maintaining the leg to the appropriate height and showing a pointed foot that presents a correct turn of ankle similar to the one that any ballet master of today would demand of his/her students. Perhaps the artist who captured this image was well acquainted with ballet technique⁹⁸ or the images were created under the supervision of Blasis –who served as a model showing each position himself– to depict the most perfect arabesque imaginable. It could also be that the absence of clothes that disguised any placement defect forced the dancers of the time to perform the arabesques with exquisite precision, while a few decades later –under the spell of the gas light– the artists preferred a dreamlike image of the dancer flying to a solid and correct position, technically speaking. In any case, the arabesque, now wrapped in the muslin layers of the tutu, became a perfect symbol of the flight of ethereal creatures that will fill the stages during the Romanticism.

      1 vid. MCGOWAN, “Ballet de Cour / 1560-1670,” and CHRISTOUT, “id. / 1643-1685,” in International Encyclopedia of Dance…, 1998.

      2 vid. AU, Ballet and Modern Dance… 1988, pp. 13-16.

      3 BLAND-PERCIVAL, Men Dancing… 1984, p. 11.

      4 Literally “The Sun King”; vid. fig. 2.1 - The image on the left shows one of the costumes used by Louis XIV, depicted as Le Roi Soleil. We can see that the adornments from his footwear, the heaviness of the jacket or his over decorated headdress made of feathers, would hardly allow him to perform complicated jumps or sophisticated steps.

      5 AU, Ballet and Modern Dance…, p. 18.

      6 MCGOWAN, “Ballet Comique de la Royne, Le,” in International Encyclopedia of Dance…

      7 ESTEBAN, Ballet… 1993, p. 38.

      8 Balthasar de Beaujoyeleux (1500?-1587), whose real name was Baldassare de Belgiojoso, was a violinist, composer, dance teacher and choreographer who worked under Catherine de Medici and participated in the artistic education of her children. Vid. “Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx,” in Encyclopædia Britannica… 2016.

      9 Accuracy on proportions and inventiveness were most remarkable among his many talents; cfr. MCGOWAN, “Beaujoyeulx, Balthazar de,” in International Encyclopedia of Dance…

      10 MATAMOROS, Augusto Bournonville… 2008, p. 168.

      11 ESTEBAN, Ballet…, p. 40.

      12 Ibid, p. 45.

      13 GUEST, Le Ballet de l’Opéra… 1976, transl., p. 7.

      14 To the early treatises by Domenico da Piacenza (ca. 1440-50), Antonio Cornazano (1455) and Guglielmo Ebreo (1463) –vid. refs. infra, chap. 8, nt. 106–, we should add, in the 16^th century, the remarkable Fabritio Caroso, Il Ballarino…Venice, Francesco Ziletti, from 1581 (vid. Bibliography).

      15 Cesare Negri (1535-1605), Italian master and choreographer. Some scholars attribute to him the codification of the 5 basic feet positions, although Pierre Rameau names Pierre Beauchamp as the real inventor; cfr. [RAMEAU], Le Maître a danser… 1725, pp. 9-22.

      16 NEGRI, Nuove inventioni… 1604, Regola XXXVII, pp. 78-79.

      17 fig. 2.2 - This engraving in Nuove inventioni di balli by Negri is the first reference to what in the future will be the barre work. The dancer, using a table and a chair to keep his balance “appoggiandosi con le mani à qualche