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Justamant (1815-1890).
The Opfermanns' and Justamant's careers cover two-thirds of
the nineteenth century. They may have been secondary figures,
typical of the working choreographer of their day; little was writ
ten about them, which may indicate that none was considered an
The term dance notation is used in a broad poststructuralist sense, meaning liter
ally graphically and/or pictorially systematized approaches to the conceptualization and
documentation of dancing.
195
Salzburg.
*Derra de Moroda did not number the thirteen pages of floor plans the
following
figure-oriented dance illustrations.
^Franz Opfermann Jr. and Fanny Elssler were cousins through their mothers (Rosalia
and Therese, respectively, who were both daughters of Johann Prinster). Ivor Guest de
scribes Prinster as earning "his living making plaster figurines and played the fiddle in his
spare time" (Fanny Elssler [London: Adam & Charles Black, 1970], p. 18).
*Pia and Pino Mlakar, Unsterblicher Theatertanz. 300 Jahre
Ballettgeschichte der Oper
in Miinchen, Bd. I: Von den Anfangen um 1650 bis 1860 (Wilhelmshaven: Noetzel/
Heinrichshofen, 1992), pp. 278?9, share the notion of a continuous and joint effort.
Franz
Opfermann Sr. left Vienna,* where had been work
a dancer and ballet master
ing as (1830-1837), for engagements
in Karlsruhe and Munich (1838), together with his wife, Rosalia
Prinster, and their children, Franz Jr. and Rosa. At the Munich
Hoftheater, where he stayed for ten years, he followed Jean Rozier
as soloist and maitre de The company consisted of 3
perfection.*
male and 5 female soloists as well as 5 male and 14 female members
of the corps de ballet ("Figuranten"). He retired in 1854 after hav
ing worked in Berlin, Munich again, and Niirnberg. His son, Franz
as well, at the Hofoper,
Jr., started his career in Vienna in I860.*
In 1861 he leftVienna for a tour to Pest, Bratislava, and Graz be
fore going to Berlin. In 1866 he returned toVienna (Josefstadter-,
Thalia-, and Volkstheaters) as ballet master. He an en
accepted
gagement in Frankfurt a.M., in 1881; in 1884, he was back in
Vienna (Komische Oper) as ballet master, and later (1885-1887)
was married
he worked inNew York at theMetropolitan Opera. He
to Cacilia
Hofmann, with whom he had one son, Franz Xaver.
The structure as well as the comprehensiveness of the Opfer
mann pattern book might be read as a family's archive of knowl
the high professional degree of a longtime
edge documenting
dance practice; itsorganization appears cumulative, like a painter's
sketch book. It consists of illustrations of female dancers in the
bal
contemporary clothing used for practice (a heavy-waisted
let skirt down to the calves) or in similarly cut, more extrava
p. 98.
^Franz Opfermann Sr. left a concept for the establishment of a dance school: "Antrag
und Entwurf zur Bildung und Leitung der Tanzschule an dem Koniglichen Hoftheater zu
Munchen, 1851." See Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Staatstheater, Akte 14226, Blatt 55.
*There is evidence of a contract of in the name of Franz Opfermann,
August 20,1860,
valid for an engagement of September 1, 1860, to March 31, 1861. See Hoftheater
Sonderreihen, SR 64, Vertrage Solotanzer A-Z.
Salzburg.
grasping the waist (in the first thematic area) or by the use of
props (as in the two other thematic areas). Harmony, balance in
the arrangement of the limbs in space, and the importance of
each element as an ornament within the grouping are essential
features of the Opfermanns' aesthetic. Props are used to provide
variations on and the intensification of the sculptural, architec
tural aspects of the female body. For example, the arrangement
of scarves or the positioning of flower garlands forms and makes
visible to the audience the space surrounding the bodies, thus
the as significant as the bodies themselves. In
making kinesphere
sketches in which many dancers handle props, especially those
or more dancers, walking
props that have to be handled by two
are drawn on the sketches to provide spatial orientation, al
paths
the do not take into account the foreshortening
though drawings
of room and figures that perspective depiction would entail. These
last drawings are an exception in their interesting mixture of illus
trated frontal views of the dancers and the "technical" construc
tion plans of the stage. Generally, in the Opfermann manuscript,
three-dimensional illustrations replace in importance the floor
Derra
the
of
de
Moroda
Archives,
Dance
Abt.
Kunst-,
Tanzwissenschaft,
Musk-,
Paris-Lodron-Universit
Salzburg.
und
NO
O
angular pelvis/torso with lines for the upper torso, arms, and legs
and a circle for the head. Gender is distinguished by using differ
ent colors for the figures: red, female; black, male. The line-drawn
figures
are
placed into a stage space on which the floor pattern of
the movement is traced. The entire description is arranged to co
incide with a numerical record of the musical bars, which is noted
in the margin of the manuscript page.
The way Justamant notates, can be compared to filming pro
cedures. The choreo-grapher follows the actions from the perspec
tive of a moving camera. The stage is represented in all three di
mensions; the sequence of the action can be acceler
optionally
ated, slowed down, or arrested.
performance.
Recreating Justamant
' ** * *
O* Q Q ,:*.
^ p,.
'
fyf- m&frmD- t&^-m*fg?f ,
^^HB~..~._.f .-_^:^Jj^mMam
^H/ ? d J* * *l *-* **
-
mmm*0k:: i;,.'lit',, 'mdkum ^-?,....?,.1; ',;$fc> m.^ !
^^^^^Mp4-.^^J^-.-.
*Joseph Luigini (1820-1889) played the trumpet in the orchestra of the Grand
Theatre, Lyon, before he became the chef d'orchestre in 1863 at the Hotel du Nord,
Lyon.
He provided the music for more than one of the Justamant ballets.
*At the end of the dance, Esmeralda will actively beat the tambourine. Her rela
physical facility.
a
variety of different ways could be comfortably executed only if
done in a particular slow or fast meter.
The next stage of our re-creation began when we were able
to obtain a piano reduction of the section of the orchestral score
for the entrance and Esmeralda variation (our initial work on the
dance was begun before we were able to work with the music).*
we score at hand, we were
When finally had the recorded piano
surprised to find it quicker in speed and brighter in feel than we
had anticipated. Initially, the music did not seem to fitwhat we
had done. A musical introduction of differing length from what
score had to about when the
the Justamant implied led questions
dance was supposed to begin. We had some difficulty relating the
*We therefore worked with counted musical measures based on the sound of familiar
classical bolero music, especially that of Ravel.
tSee how Jiirgensen and Hutchinson Guest translate the Spanish vocabulary
from Bournonville's notation into Labanotion in Jiirgensen and Hutchinson Guest, The
Bournonville Heritage, to Vocabulaire de Danse, 9 (p. 167), 13 (p. 168), 29, 32, 33
Supplement
(p. 171).
"'"
I't" -!"* >^~~*' ~$
but also duplicated the circular floor pattern associated with the
next of movement. the accelerando and ritar
phrase Reflecting
dando of the music changed the aesthetics of the dance.
However, as we worked, we the significance of
recognized
another factor that needs to be considered perfor
concerning
mance in this era. As necessary as itwas to assume continuity in the
biomechanics of body logic, it is equally significant to concede the
interpretation by
a dancer, influenced by his or her specific tech
nical and artistic predisposition. For example, as we to
attempted
make certain tombe and faille steps fit into the musical meter, we
or
discovered that deeper laying back digging motions involving
more activity in the upper body actually facilitated execution of the
movement. In one particular phrase, a step involving a fouette, a
*We have yet to determine the relationship between these divergent body types and
the technical requirements of the genres inwhich they performed.
tombe, and a pas marche led to stepping out with a deep backbend
that matches certain descriptions of a "Spanish" step.*
use of the kinesphere
We agree that the extensive by the up
per body (i.e., the movement range that covers actions close to
the body as well as actions that reach far) might still be inter
as movement
preted markers. However, in Justamant they did not
show up in the pictographs or in the step descriptions (as they
do, for example, in the Bournonville notation, where there are
verbal references to bolero or cachucha movements). Justamant
approaches nationality not primarily by quoting semiotic markers;
he seems to rely on energetic references that can be detected or
or action of the movement
discovered only by the embodiment
sequences. What does that mean? Was he not aware of the signif
icance of those markers or did he not know how to notate them?
to give the motoric subtext with which
Perhaps he chose, rather,
the dynamics (and not the appearance) of the national movement
material could be registered. Ifwe agree on this last reading of Jus
tamant, his hybrid choreo-graphy opens up ways of focusing the
various movement layers contributing to the dynamics in national
dances?and, in fact, in other dance material as well. As movement
archives as well as archives on mobility, Justamant's livrets de mise
en scene
provide unusual and detailed technical insights into the
corporal-performative knowledge of the nineteenth century.
Notes
University, 1992.
8. Lisa C. Arkin, "The Mazurka and the Krakovia: Two Polish National Dances
in Michel St.-Leon's Dance Notebooks, 1829-1830," in: Proceedings of Society
of Dance Scholars Annual Conference, Barnard College, New York,
History
1997, p. 134.