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This article was downloaded by: [McMaster University] On: 21 December 2014, At: 18:16 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Dance Chronicle Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ldnc20 August Bournonville: Études Chorégraphiques (1848, 1855, 1861) Knud Arne Jürgensen Published online: 21 Oct 2011. To cite this article: Knud Arne Jürgensen (2006) August Bournonville: Études Chorégraphiques (1848, 1855, 1861), Dance Chronicle, 29:3, 485-488, DOI: 10.1080/01472520600966257 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01472520600966257 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

August Bournonville: Études Chorégraphiques (1848, 1855, 1861)

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Page 1: August Bournonville: Études Chorégraphiques               (1848, 1855, 1861)

This article was downloaded by: [McMaster University]On: 21 December 2014, At: 18:16Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

Dance ChroniclePublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ldnc20

August Bournonville: ÉtudesChorégraphiques (1848, 1855,1861)Knud Arne JürgensenPublished online: 21 Oct 2011.

To cite this article: Knud Arne Jürgensen (2006) August Bournonville: ÉtudesChorégraphiques (1848, 1855, 1861), Dance Chronicle, 29:3, 485-488, DOI:10.1080/01472520600966257

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01472520600966257

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and viewsexpressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.

Page 2: August Bournonville: Études Chorégraphiques               (1848, 1855, 1861)

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone isexpressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 3: August Bournonville: Études Chorégraphiques               (1848, 1855, 1861)

Dance Chronicle, 29:485–488, 2006Copyright C© 2006 Knud Arne JurgensenISSN: 0147-2526 print / 1532-4257 onlineDOI: 10.1080/01472520600966257

AUGUST BOURNONVILLE: ETUDES CHOR EGRAPHIQUES(1848, 1855, 1861)

KNUD ARNE JURGENSEN

The 2005 celebrations of the bicentenary of the birth of Au-gust Bournonville have seen an extraordinary number of publi-cations in the form of biographies, collections of essays, exhibi-tion catalogues, CDs and DVDs. Perhaps the last in this long se-ries of Bournonville publications beyond doubt represents AugustBournonville’s towering achievement as ballet-theorist: his three-volume treatise Etudes Choregraphiques, written between 1848 and1861 and published now for the first time in its entirety in theoriginal French as well as translations into English and Italian.1

Dancers and mimes who use their bodies and faces to expressunspeakable emotion are not in general expected to be great theo-rists and verbalizers of their craft. Some find it unnecessary to talkabout their art, while others find the task impossible. Bournonvilledid not share this view. His writings grew out of a century-oldcritical tradition in theatrical life that questioned the seriousnesswith which the performing institutions treated the art of theatricaldance and its artists. His writings on ballet were initiated when hehad retired from the stage in 1848 and after that he seems to havefound sufficient time not only to fully dedicate his intellect andenergy to choreography, but also to reflect in written form on hisown art form and its aesthetic and philosophical aspects.

The first of his three volumes with the overall title EtudesChoregraphiques was, in fact, conceived in January 1848 and rep-resents one of the most illuminating results of his lifelong theoret-ical and aesthetic reflections. It is the perhaps most philosophicalof the three volumes, in which Bournonville reveals some of hismost deeply felt thoughts about the art of dance. Perhaps he con-sidered these reflections so “private” in nature that he never feltcompelled to make them publicly available in printed form, as hedid with the two following versions of Etudes Choregraphiques, which

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were published in Copenhagen in French in 1855 and 1861, re-spectively. The motivations that drove Bournonville to conceivethese three highly individual “versions” of Etudes Choregraphiquesat different periods of his professional life can perhaps best beunderstood by analyzing the volumes separately. While the 1848autograph manuscript offers a historical-philosophical analysis tothe art of dance, the 1855 volume deals mainly with technical re-flections on dance notation. In contrast to this the 1861 volumepresents Bournonville’s didactic and pedagogical reflections.

In the first of the four chapters in the 1848 manuscript,Bournonville analyzes and defines the difference between whathe regards as a genuine school of dance (by him named la belleecole) as opposed to plain technical ballet exercises. It is most in-teresting here to read his many precise observations about whathe regards as good and bad ballet training.

In the second chapter he points out many technical aspectsof dance that were crucial to him, such as the importance of ob-taining and mastering a correct body carriage prior to the workon achieving a fully turned-out position of the feet. These observa-tions are followed by a fascinating analysis of those many elementsthat together constitute the so-called epaulement, and which todayremains one of the most significant hallmarks of the Bournonvil-lean School of dance.

The third chapter offers an intriguing analysis of the differ-ences between lightness and elevation and the importance of beingable to distinguish between vigor and brilliance. It is interestinghere to read how Bournonville applies vigor and brilliance to veryspecific and different kinds of steps, all of which are categorizedand analyzed by him in fine detail. Finally, in the fourth and lastchapter of the 1848 work we are offered Bournonville’s analysisand definition of vivacity as opposed to ballon, the latter term sig-nifying springiness or elasticity of the feet. This chapter concludeswith a brilliant analysis of pirouettes and other turning steps.

Reading this manuscript one is indeed left wondering whythis first volume of Etudes Choregraphiques had to wait more than ahundred and fifty years before finally being made publicly avail-able, brimming, as it is, with visions, opinions, and wit that rangefrom profound artistic considerations to most valuable and basicpractical advice. The same degree of vision, opinion, and wisdom

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can be traced in the 1855 and 1861 volumes, both of which werepublished in Bournonville’s own lifetime although in only a verylimited number of copies.

Thus the 1855 work represents Bournonville’s first thoroughattempt to establish an up-to-date choreographic notation system.With the rich flowering of the Romantic ballet in the 1840s and1850s, the need for a manageable system to notate and preserve theballets had become more and more obvious. This realization ledBournonville to reflect on conceiving an exact yet still manageablenotation system. The result of these reflections became his secondvolume of Etudes Choregraphiques in 1855, in which he proposes anotation system where word-abbreviations are juxtaposed with aseries of stenographic signs, the latter indicating the positions ofthe body and the directions of movement.

Finally, the 1861 Etudes Choregraphiques can be said to repre-sent the sum total of Bournonville’s teaching experiences from1829 to 1861, the year his engagement at the Royal Danish The-atre was coming to a contractual end and he was about to embarkon a three-year stint as managing artistic director of Stockholm’sRoyal Theatre. As was the case with the 1848 and 1855 versionsof Etudes Choregraphiques, Bournonville seems to have been influ-enced by the new and radical changes in his working life, whichhere led him to write with renewed energy yet another volume inhis series of theoretical and aesthetic writings. It deals primarilywith didactic and pedagogical aspects and formulates how to es-tablish the best possible teaching methods and school curriculum.The 1861 version of Etudes Choregraphiques, therefore, remainedthe basic foundation for ballet training at the Royal Danish Balletuntil the arrival of Hans Beck in the mid-1890s. The 1861 volumeis also remarkable because of the personal remarks and pieces ofartistic advice with which Bournonville accompanies his numer-ous series of exercises. Together they reflect just as much as theactual exercises the true spirit and artistic guidance with which theDanish balletmaster educated his dance students.

Therefore I believe that together these three parts ofBournonville’s Etudes Choregraphiques fully justify a collected andannotated edition in three major languages, for the benefit of to-day’s dance students and teachers and also for those all over theworld who treasure the traditions of classical ballet.

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Note

1. August Bournonville: Etudes Choregraphiques (1848, 1855, 1861); ed. KnudArne Jurgensen and Francesca Falcone (Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana,2005).

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