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Expanding Horizons: Techniques of Choreo-Graphy in Nineteenth-Century Dance

Author(s): Claudia Jeschke and Robert Atwood


Source: Dance Chronicle, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2006), pp. 195-214
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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Dance Chronicle,
29:195-214, 2006
| ^ pn| IWU iflpplnpC
Copyright? 2006 ClaudiaJeschkeand RobertAtwood | *f UCtiy
8 ^ Taylor & Francis Group
ISSN: 0147-2526 print / 1532-4257 online
DOI: 10.1080/01472520600745107

EXPANDING HORIZONS: TECHNIQUES OF


CHOREOGRAPHY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY DANCE

CLAUDIA JESCHKEAND ROBERT ATWOOD

The source of information about choreography of any


primary
age is the notation record left behind by choreographers of that

period. The nineteenth century is remarkable for the diversity


of approaches used in the representation of dance production
(choreography) through dance notation (choreo-graphy).*
His
torians have discussed the different approaches by Despreaux,
Theleur, Saint-Leon, Zorn, Stepanov, and, most extensively, by
Bournonville.1 Texts and manuscripts left behind by these dance
masters offer concepts of the performing practices of their day,
and have been used in attempts to recreate their dances. The pur
pose of this article is not a comparison of those theatrical con

cepts and/or the "preservation politics" evidenced in the appli


cation of those dance texts to bodies and movements.2 Rather,
it is about adding more names to the
diversity and complexity
of choreo-graphy in nineteenth-century dance: father and son
Franz Opfermann (father 1809-1874; son 1835-1908) and Henri

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

exceptional artist during his lifetime. However, the three men ap


pear to have had a significant working life, an inference made on
the basis of the volume of notated material, in their own hand, of
the ballet works that they conceived and/or set.

Interpreting the choreo-graphy of the 1800s offers a unique

challenge because, during this period, there was no standard

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

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196 Dance Chronicle

accepted notation The lack of a widely accepted


of dance material.
standard does not mean
that the choreo-graphic techniques used
for the notation of movement and dance by the Opfermanns, Jus
tamant, and generally in the nineteenth century were new. Rather,
they draw upon and make reference to the body of choreo-graphic
techniques used since the earliest recording of dance in the Euro

pean courts and theatres.


The of changes in position and location over time is
depiction
the essence of the notation of movement in dances and dance the
atre since at least the sixteenth century. The use of abbreviations
for words, which in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen
developed
turies, indicates the growing importance of the use of specific terms
to designate specific steps. At the end of the seventeenth century,
new modes of notation were being sought that emphasized the spa
tial paths formed by the execution of steps and located the dancer
in space. This period of the widely accepted Feuillet/Beauchamps
the floor patterns produced or
notation highlights by individuals
groups of dancers. When the narrative ballet d'action developed
in the eighteenth century, neither names for steps nor floor pat
terns provided sufficient means to record a work of dance theatre.
Therefore, we see a new concentration on the libretto of a bal
a
let, on the representation of what happened by written text and
on the relationship of story to the music. In this time, "systematic"
forms of writing dancing were largely disregarded and information
about the dance independent of notation gained in importance.
These data included materials, such as illustrations
iconographic
con
and paintings; they depicted aspects of the visual surface and
tours of the bodies.
Thus, the choreo-graphics of the nineteenth-century ballet
masters were highly eclectic and highly idiosyncratic. Their nota
tional formats had to cope with a dance scene that had increased in
both the technical complexity of itsmovements (for social as well
as theatrical dance) and the depiction of stories and characteriza
tions (for theatrical dance). Each choreographer approached this
in his own way. A survey of notated scores from this pe
challenge
riod offers a wide range of solutions, as each ballet master sought a
concise yet comprehensive way to balance the two-dimensionality
of floor patterns with the three-dimensionality of sculpted figures,
and to balance the preservation of technical execution with the

spontaneity of perfomative expression.

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Horizons: Techniques of Choreo-Graphy 197
Expanding

As we survey the unique notational systems of the nineteenth


century ballet masters, we can assume that what each individ
only
ual choreographer chose to notate and not to notate is a reflection
of that choreographer's priorities. Those choices may have been
most im
determined by what aspects of his creations he deemed
portant, by what aspects he most needed visual cues to remember,
or
by the purpose of the notation (was he trying to remember de
tails for his own use or for an assistant or colleague to be able to
the movements, the dance, or the ballet in
reproduce complete
his absence?).
In his Terpsi-choro-graphie manuscript of 1813, J.-E. Despreaux
used pictorial signs for the legs, indicated body weight by depicting
the pelvis (stick figures), and presented word abbreviations in or
der to differentiate directions and execution of balletic movement.
There is no information on the actions of the upper body. By con
trast, the Dance Book T B. 1826 a combination of floor
provides
plans and verbal descriptions using dance terminology, mostly
presented in vertical columns relating to each other. In his 1831
Theleur a lexicon of
manuscript, established "principal" and "mi
nor" movements, which he names and designates as the elements
of the enchainements using abstract symbols. Both Saint-Leon and
Zorn used stick figures to expand of the legs
beyond movements

by depicting epaulements using varying shapes of arms, shoulders,


and head. Stepanov's notation uses musical notes to depict the di
rection and duration of the movements of individual body parts;
the emphasis is on analyzing the mechanics of the dancer's body.
Bournonville left fragmentary notes, memory aids, to facilitate the

performance of his dances. He primarily noted the sequence of


the ballet steps in relation to the musical phrasing and body front;
he did not give the positions and movements of the arms, excluded
floor patterns, and did not emphasize the spatial progression of
the movements.

Father and Son Franz Opfermann and Henri Justamant

Like Bournonville, the choreographers on which we focus in this


article, father and son Franz and Henri Justamant, did
Opfermann
not use notation in order to analyze body mechanics or to preserve
movement vocabulary. Also like Bournonville, they approached

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de
by
Moroda
Tanz-Griippen,
Archives,
Derra
Dance
the
of
Abt.
Musik-
Kunst-,
Tanzwissenschaft,
courtesy
und
Paris-Lodron-Univ
Groups
dancers
of
with
junior,
the
Opfermann,
Franz
book"
garlands,
from
and
senior,
"pattern
scarves

Salzburg.

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Expanding Horizons: Techniques of Choreo-Graphy 199

the dance as a theatrical event. However, even


performance though
they approached dance production similarly, their methods of no
tation were extremely different.
The Opfermann can be found
"pattern book," Tanz-Gruppen,
in the Derra de Moroda Dance Archives in Salzburg, where it has
been located since 1965 when Friderica Derra de Moroda acquired
the 132 pages of partly colored dance illustrations, bound at ran
dom into a book, with sparse supplemental commentary or ex
The page numbers of the undated manuscript were
planation.
of no
added by Derra de Moroda by hand.* The first page the
tation manuscript holds an anonymous biographical sketch (in
German) of the younger Franz Opfermann: "Choreographies by
the ballet master Franz Opfermann, born 1825, died October 6,
1908,10 years at the tsar's opera house in St. Petersburg. His father
was a solo dancer and maitre de ballet inMunich at the court of
was the chamber mu
King Max of Bavaria, the father of whose wife
sician Prinster at the court of Duke Esterhazy around 1725, related
to Fanny Elssler through the Prinster Derra de Moroda
family."^
commented in English on this information
on the same page: "The
above statement is incorrect/he was never BM [Ballettmeister] to
the Czar/most this was put in to rise/the at the
probably price up
auction./ace to Rikki Raab he was born in 1835."3
Indeed, there is doubt that one can attribute the book
exclusively to Opfermann junior. Some drawings carry the sig
nature "Opfermann Fr."4 Comparison of this handwriting in
the pattern book with contracts and letters found in the hold

ings of Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Munchen concerning Franz


Opfermann Sr.5 suggest that both of these are the same
writings by
hand (i.e., by Franz the elder). The pattern book could therefore
be a gift of dance mementos from the father to the son, a collection
of the father's work by the son, or evidence of co-contribution.*

*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.

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200 Dance Chronicle

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

gant costumes, and sometimes in masculine shorts (i.e., en trav


esti). Some of the drawings are not completely colored. Figures
are shown from the viewpoint of the spectator and are often
shown handling such as differently colored scarves and
props,
cloths, flags, and flower garlands in arrangements of various sizes
and forms. The bulk of the illustrations are not arranged in
a clear structure, there appear to be three thematic
although

Another hint to his biographical connection


and aesthetic to Vienna might be an
of the Rainoldi's Der ersteMay imPrater (1826). It shows
engraving "pantomime magique"
the handling of shawls being nearly identical to the depictions in the Opfermann pattern
book. See Marian Hannah Winter, Le theatre du merveilleux (Paris: Olivier Perrin, 1962),

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.

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??
by
de
Tanz-Gruppen,
Moroda
Archives,
Derra
Dance
the
of
Abt.
Musik
Kunst-,
Tanzwissenschaft,
courtesy
Paris-Lodron-Univ
und
Ornamental
the
with
structures
junior,
in
Opfermann,
Franz
book"
stage
various
props
and
senior,
on
"pattern

Salzburg.

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202 Dance Chronicle

areas. After the biographical introduction, the first illustration

pages show configurations of two, three, four, six, seven, and


eight females without props. On the next pages, the book dis
structures constructed of various num
plays sculptural-ornamental
bers of dancers with props like scarves and flower garlands. The
sketches in these first two thematic areas are not fully colored, and
are of are found on a single
varying sizes; often several sketches
page of the manuscript. In the third thematic area, group forma
tions are presented in the perspective of the stage, each of them
a whole manuscript page in size, in which the dancers are almost

always equipped with props (garlands and flags, flower bouquets,


or scarves).
Viewed as a whole, all of the Opfermanns' drawings deal with
the ornamental decoration of the stage through the costumed bod
ies of (mainly) female dancers. The illustrator pays considerable at
tention to their appearance; for example, costumes and hairstyles
are shown in great detail. There are no apparent character-, music-,
or
story-based interactions among the dancers. Interaction is a
as it is established by the posture of their bod
motif only insofar
ies, their positioning in the room, and in the contact between
individual dancers, such as by touching each other's hands and

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

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Horizons: of Choreo-Graphy 203
Expanding Techniques

patterns of earlier manuscripts like the Feuillet/Beauchamps


notation.

Interestingly, there are no notes or identifications to connect


any specific illustration with any particular production. Because of
similarities in the number of dancers and costume details, one can
surmise that certain groups of illustrations may be related to the
same dance, but there is nothing to indicate in what order those

configurations might have appeared in such a dance.


Henri Justamant, born in Bordeaux in 1815* to a nonartis
tic family, was a "maitre de ballet..., une tres
qui compte
longue et tres laborieuse carriere choregraphique,... en
partagee
tre l'Opera,
l'etranger et les differentes scenes parisiennes."6 He
got his training at the Grand Theatre in Bordeaux and spent his
early years in the major cities of the French provinces?Marseille
(1833?, 1837, 1842?, 1843-1845, 1846?), Bordeaux (1847), Lyon
(1849-1861), and Brussels (1860-1864) with some travel to the for
eign ballet centers of London (1869, 1876, 1877 at the Alhambra
and Victoria Theater) (1874).and Berlin
1866 he worked After
in Paris, where he produced ballets at the theater of the Porte
Saint-Martin, at the Paris at the Theatre de la Gaite, the
Opera,
Chateau-d'Eau, the Chatelet, the Theatre-Lyrique, and the Folies
As a student of the famous French Louis
Bergere. choreographers
Henry (1784-1836) and probably Alexis Blache (1792-1852), he
became ballet master of the Opera in 1868. Justamant is believed
to be one of the last French with the skill to pro
choreographers
duce great ballets de action and to notate them for
reproduction,
including the group scenes.^
In contrast to the Opfermanns' records, Justamant's nota
tion method is multilayered. It offers verbal of the
descriptions
movements of the legs, using the conventional ballet terminology

We were able to verify Justamant's year of birth


by locating his birth certificate.
Archives Municipales de Bordeaux, 1E81 No. 262. More detail on Justamant's
biography
can be found in Gabi Vettermann, "Les Choses als Tanzlibretto," in Gunhild
espagnoles
Oberzaucher-Schuller (ed.), Souvenirs de Taglioni (forthcoming 2006).
tOur knowledge of the travels of Justamant's notations is fragmentary.
They had
been sold in three packages an auction at Drouot's in Paris on May 15, 1893. These
during
packages remained more or less complete to our days. The Konvolute Nos. 2 and 4 with forty
eight books are located in Cologne, Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung der Universitat,
SchloB Wahn; Nos. 5 and 7 with ninteen books can be found in the New York Public
Library
for the Performing Arts Dance Division (Collection Lincoln Kirstein), and No. 6 with ca.
ninteen books is held in Paris at the Musee de 1'Opera.

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Opfermann,
dancers
Two
Franz
in
of
three
groups
junior,
Opfermann,
Franz
book"
and
senior
"pattern
by
Tanz-Oruppen,
courtesy

Derra
the
of
de
Moroda
Archives,
Dance
Abt.
Kunst-,
Tanzwissenschaft,
Musk-,
Paris-Lodron-Universit
Salzburg.
und

NO
O

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Horizons: Techniques of Choreo-Graphy 205
Expanding

of his time. In addition, as choreo-grapher, he uses line drawings


to represent the whole body during poses and/or movements in
order to make clear ports de bras and body postures. The shapes
of the line figures are identical for male and female dancers: a tri

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.

Justamant's transcriptions theatre are less system


of dance
atic in the depiction of body,
space, and time than selective in
the perception of "significant" actions on stage. But they seem
to be more complete, at least
complex, than many other choreo

graphies of the nineteenth century. They suggest embodiment and

performance.

Recreating Justamant

Claudia Jeschke had begun searching the Theaterwissen


schaftliche Sammlung der Universitat Koln, SchloB Wahn for ex
amples of danced "otherness" in nineteenth-century ballet. She dis
covered the forty-eight notated scores of ballets credited toHenri

Justamant held in Cologne, ou la Bohemienne,


including Quasimodo
dated 1859, a version of Esmeralda staged at the Grand Theatre in
The score became central for further research because it
Lyon.*
dealt with otherness as couleur locale, the lead female character be
as a
ing described Gypsy and dancing national/character dances,

*For more information on Justamant's Esmeralda (also in comparison to other ver


sions), see Claudia Jeschke, Gabi Vettermann, and Isa Wortelkamp, "Arabesken. Modelle
'fremder' Korperlichkeit in Tanztheorie und inszenierung," in Claudia Jeschke and Hel
mut Zedelmaier (eds.), Fremde Korper, andere Bewegungen (Minister: Lit, 2005), pp. 169
210.

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206 Dance Chronicle

' ** * *
O* Q Q ,:*.
^ p,.

'
fyf- m&frmD- t&^-m*fg?f ,
^^HB~..~._.f .-_^:^Jj^mMam

^H/ ? d J* * *l *-* **

' ' '


mSF "rf- '?j^^M^ndL|? .
^^^^^^^^^HK.^" ' .finiiimiiniii imiftiin.uiiLiuhtS
&i '"^h

-
mmm*0k:: i;,.'lit',, 'mdkum ^-?,....?,.1; ',;$fc> m.^ !
^^^^^Mp4-.^^J^-.-.

first entrance, "run


The first page of Henri Jus tamant's notation for Esmeralda's
and followed her she strikes her tambourine," in ou la
ning by goat, Quasimodo
Bohemienne, Ballet d'action en trois actes et six tableaux, Grand Theatre
Lyon
1859, First Tableau, of Theaterwissenschafdiche SchloB
by courtesy Sammlung,
Wahn, Universitat zu Koln. The litde circles indicate the bystanders and the num
bers in the indicate the number of measures
Gringoire?il of music.
right margin
remontant un peu, et avec foule ils ont preferer des gri
regardant pitie//la
maces//a ma il leve les epaules,//on entend du bruit,//alors
piece, que-ce(?)
il vas de cote; retourne et se
encore, lepeuple?se dirige de l'autre cote;
Esmeralda?entre en courant et suivie de sa chevre//elle brandit son tam

bourin; le peuple?Fappercevant s,ecrie(?) la Esmeralda//et il Pentoure; Don


Claude?entre il est couvert d'un manteau//et ce melle a la foule; and Esmer
alda?remonte au milieu de la foule.

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Expanding Horizons: of Choreo-Graphy 207
Techniques

and it used a orchestral score


corresponding by Joseph Luigini.*
Jeschke chose the entrance and first danced variation of Esmeralda
(Justamant notes: "Pas de la Esmeralda, Mile Dor") as the initial

target for recreation. She invited Robert Atwood, a


choreographer
and teacher of classical ballet who has done research on the his
torical development of dance technique, to join the venture.7
As the dance of a Gypsy character, there was a strong likelihood
that "reconstruction" would reveal steps derived from national
dance material as
"a repertory of movement markers that gave
a or a vibrant of a nation."8 Further
transcript picture particular
reinforcing the supposition that national dance material would be
found, the notation in the margin indicated that the music for this
variation was a bolero. Finally, as a solo, the focus of the dance
would be on the personification of the character rather than on
floor patterns or other visual/sculptural effects.
As the variation begins, Esmeralda the stage running,enters
followed by her goat and beating her tambourine. *This informa
tion is given as verbal and in a diagram above the
description,*
text we see a stick Esmeralda with the
figure depicting drawing
of the goat behind, and a line on the floor plan
indicating where
she runs. Although the eye is immediately drawn to the
graphic
representation, we worked first with the written text,
attempting
to reproduce the listed ballet steps in the order inwhich
they were
given, then following the general directions of travel as described
in the floor plan. It became evident thatmost written combinations
offered the possibility of a number of different movement solu
tions, each conceptually and terminologically
logical, especially

*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

tionship with the music is active and passive?a


relationship that, as Alastair Macaulay has
pointed out, profound research was able to detect in many ballets.
nineteenth-century
See "A la recherche des pas perdus," in Stephanie Jordan (ed.), Preservation Politics: Dance
Revived, Reconstructed, Remade (London: Dance Books, 2001), p. 193.
*"Esmeralda//entre en courant et suivie de sa chevre elle brandit son tambourin."
None of Justamant's descriptions offers sufficient his French has an oral qual
punctuation;
ity,which means that it is not always
grammatically correct, neither to nineteenth-century's
nor to
today's standards (when quoted, we adhere to Justamant's choices). The oral quality
of the written textmight come from the familiar "studio communication" between chore
ographer and dancers; in itsdeviation from the correct use of language, itgives information
about the rhythmical tomovement.
approach

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208 Dance Chronicle

when we considered that terminological usage may have been dif


ferent in different
countries and also changed over the course of
the century.* For example, one passage of jumping steps in the
middle of the "Pas de la Esmeralda" included the phrase "coupe
Dessous, foueter sauter dessous." Research indicated that this ter
could be as a the in which
minology interpreted including jump
body whips around to change from one direction to another in
the air, as in a contemporary jete fouette,
or as a form of bal
lonne in which "foueter" indicates the velocity of the foot coming
into a coupe fondu position.t We deemed it important never to
an even one that we decided not to include in
disregard option,
the current variation.
reconstructed Instead, such options were
noted and for further consideration
retained should later analysis
a reconsideration of what had been done. (And, indeed,
require
as our work we did have occasion to reconsider much
progressed,
of what we had previously done.)
At this point, we made assumption, a crucial
namely that there
is a continuity in the biomechanics and tradition of ballet training
that holds within it a "body logic." Simply put, when attempting
to execute a phrase of ballet movements in a traditional Romantic
or classical style, certain directions of movement and changes of
will seem more natural and organic than others.* We also
weight
to connect our reconstructed step phrases with the listed
began
number of measures of music inscribed on the page margins. This
metric connection often helped us to determine which among
several options to use by setting the speed at which certain steps
needed to be executed: a movement that could be performed in

*Such evolution has been documented


terminological by Sandra Noll Hammond,
"Clues History From the Early Nineteenth
to Ballet: Technical Century Ballet Lesson,"
Dance Research, Vol. 3, No. 1,Autumn 1984, pp. 53-66.
t for example, differentiated grand fouette and petit fouette. See Knud
Bournonville,
Arne Jiirgensen and Ann Hutchinson Guest, The Bournonville Heritage: A Choreographic Record
1829-1875 (London: Dance Books, 1990), p, 171.
*For the consideration of this body logic, Robert Atwood was especially well suited,
a in any particular
having been trained in generic fashion without excessive concentration
school or style but with significant experience in a variety of training systems. He also studied
the biomechanics of the body in the execution of ballet movements, including the use of
an effective
floor barre and other supplemental cross-training techniques, and has been
teacher for more than twenty years. We also enlisted the help of dancers on whom to set
the movements, dancers who also were not indoctrinated into any particular style or system
of ballet training, but who were nevertheless technically well trained with a high degree of

physical facility.

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ExpandingHorizons: TechniquesofChoreo-Graphy209

The second page of Henri notation for Esmeralda's entrance,


Justamant's
"and after gone to the middle of the crowd, she begins to dance the
having
bolero," in Quasimodo ou la Bohemienne, of Theaterwissenschaftliche
by courtesy
SchloB Wahn, Universitat zu Koln: et pour faire agrandir le cercle elle
Sammlung,
fait,//partantdu pied droit 3 petits briser tendu jete//en avant, idem une fois
encore; pas de boure dessus dessous, en tournant dessus jete en//avant;
glissade
idem une fois encore; (dos au elle fait meme pas qu'en descendant; (dos
public,)
au meme la traversee.
public) pas que

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210 Dance Chronicle

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

length of various musical sections to the duration of certain dance


were issues of
phrases. There phrasing, and of the compatibility of
accent and other qualitative elements. Also, the end of the dance
notation indicated a coda-style finale, which did not appear where
in the musical score. In order to resolve these initial
expected
we to the dance.
complications, began trying to relate the music
Some changes and corrections immediately presented themselves.
We discovered two places where we had misinterpreted the num
ber of repeats designated for a particular phrase; this correction
those sections of the dance into line with the music. Dif
brought
ferences in accent feel required a reconsideration
and musical of
the work we had done; for example, as was usual for steps
Spanish
of the time, certain movements needed to take off on count 3 of
the previous measure rather than on count l.t The relative time
allotted to movements within a phrase sometimes as we
changed
related steps to the accents of the music. The reconsideration also
allowed us to discover some mistakes we had made in our first
effort. For we discovered that the floor plan inscribed
example,
above the written description of Esmeralda's first dancing steps, a
sequence of six continuous brise-like movements, which had ap
to indicate that the brise should be danced in a circular
peared
it being danced a diagonal
pattern, actually showed along path

*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).

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ExpandingHorizons: TechniquesofChoreo-Graphy211

"'"
I't" -!"* >^~~*' ~$

Page six from Henri


Justamant's notation for Esmeralda's dance in the first
tableau of Quasimodo ou la Bohemienne, of Theaterwissenschaftliche
by courtesy
SchloB Wahn, Universitat zu Koln. Partant du pied gauche rond de
Sammlung,
foueter en//dehor en tournant par la gauche en cambrant bien//les
jambe
reins le bras en l'air, et arriver bien en arriere, laisse tomber
gauche le//corps
la jambe//a terre devant
et pas marcher croise du pied//droit pour faciliter se
fois encore Meme "du une
reprendre.//2 pas exat; pied gauche" coupe dessous,
en remontant, et assemble
glissade dessus derriere; Meme pas et figure de l'autre
un foueter sauter a la
pied, exat, mais finissant par place//de Fassemble

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212 Dance Chronicle

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

possibility for considerable diversity in aesthetics. Soloists in the


nineteenth century, many determined as much by family legacy
as a wide range of
by body type,* likely displayed physical capabili
ties. Furthermore, were nurtured by the
they idiosyncratic training
of individual ballet masters. We must therefore acknowledge the

probability that there was greater variation in performance during


this period than exists today. These factors limit how clear a pic
ture we can ever obtain of how individual dances might have been

performed in Justamant's time.


It became clear that there is more about the aesthetics of
national dances the fact that they use movement
than markers.
a clear separation of
Justamant's concept of stick figures indicates
the lower and upper halves of the body. On the pictorial level, he
does not give a lot of information on the movements of the legs;
rather, their actions are described in the specific oral rhythms of
traditional ballet vocabulary. The depiction of the upper body is
inventive, indicating less codified than expressive activities involv

ing qualitative-, story-, and character-based elements. It is in the


use of the arms, angles of the head, and inclinings and twistings
are
of the torso that the story and characterization expressed. We
can assume that this and thus fragmen
separation, segmentation,
tation of the body?connected to a the
specific timing?produce
quality of nationality in a dance, and at the same time allows for

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.

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Horizons: Techniques of Choreo-Graphy 213
Expanding

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.

This was made a


research six-year grant from the
possible by
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German ResearchDFGFoun
dation). Itwill be as Interaction und ZurModel
published Rhythmus.
UerungvonFremdheitim Tanztheater des 19. Jahrhundert in 2007 (Gabi
Vettermann and Nicole Haitzinger, co-authors). We are part of an
interdisciplinary group of researchers based at Munich University
on the "The Construction of Otherness in the Nineteenth
working
Century."

Notes

1. For see Flavia "La di J.-E.


Despreaux, Pappacena, 'Terpsi-choro-graphie'
Despreaux (1813): la trasformazione della notazione coreutica fra il XVIII

*This approach seems to connect to Alastair Macaulay's for looking at


postulation
"the old ballets": "there ismore than one version of the choreography. We need now to
a tradition of historical textual
develop analysis." See "Ala recherche des pas perdus," p. 191.

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214 Dance Chronicle

e ilXIX secolo," in Choregraphie. Studi e ricerche sulla danza, Anno 4, numero 7,


Primavera 1996, pp. 23-50.
An Anonymous Dance Book T B. 1826, was edited by Elizabeth
Manuscript,
Aldrich, Sandra Noll Hammond, and Armand Russell (Stuyvesant, N.Y:

Press, 2000), Dance & Music Series No. 11.


Pendragon
see Sandra on
For Theleur, Noll Hammond, "Letters Dancing by E. A.
Theleur." Studies in Dance History, Vol. 2, No. 1, Fall/Winter 1990, pp. 1-6;
Carol Teten, "Gavotte de Vestris, from Theleur's Letters on 1832",
Dancing,
in The Gavotte: Four Notation Scores from Four Centuries, Papers of the Interna
tional on Movement Notation, Tel Aviv, 1984, No. 4.
Congress
For Saint-Leon, see Ann Hutchinson Guest, La Vivandiere Pas de
Gordon and Breach,
Six/Choreography byArthur Saint-Leon (Lausanne: c.1994).
For Stepanov, see Alexander Two on Dance Notation.
Gorsky, Essays Stepanov
(New York: on
Translated from the Russian by Roland John Wiley Congress
Research inDance [cl978]).
For Zorn, see Ann Hutchinson Guest, Fanny Elssler's Cachucha. (New York:
Theatre Arts Books, 1981).
For Bournonville, see Knud Arne Jiirgensen and Ann Hutchinson Guest,
The Bournonville A Choreographic Record 1829 -1875 (London: Dance
Heritage:
Books, 1990); Knud Arne Jiirgensen and Ann Hutchinson Guest, Robert leDia
Notated Bournonville
ble: The Ballet of theNuns. Ballet byFilippo Taglioni. byAugust
(London: Gordon and Breach, 1997).
2. (ed.), Preservation Politics: Dance Revived, Reconstructed, Remade
Stephanie Jordan
(London: Dance Books, 2001).
3. Riki Raab, Index des Wiener von 1613 bis zur Gegenwart
Biographischer Opemballetts
(Wien:Hollinek, 1994), pp. 343-4).
4. See pp. 56, 58, 63-5, 70.
5. Intendanz Hoftheater Personalakten, Nr. 672.
6. "H. Justamant," in Dossier d Artiste, Bibliotheque National de France, Musee de
FOpera.
7. Robert Atwood, "The Development of the Raked Proscenium Stage, and Its
Influence on the Evolution of Classical Ballet," master's thesis, Florida State

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.

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