Dauberval'sLe Siège de Cythère,1791: A commentary and translation

Abstract

Jean Georges Noverre's innovative theories of ballet en action, dramatic ballet forms that employed pantomime gesture alternated with ballet dance steps, are well known to dance historians from his Lettres sur la danse et les ballets. Nevertheless, it remains difficult to envision from his written descriptions what actual productions would have looked like on the stage. Considering the scarcity of sources that provide information about actual stage practices during that time, the discovery of a copy of Jean Bercher Dauberval's libretto for the dramatic ballet Le Siege de Cythere, to which its leading danseuse added detailed descriptions of the dances as well as information about rehearsal preparations, is of great significance. Dauberval was one of Noverre's favorite pupils, one of the few for whose choreographic genius Noverre unreservedly expressed admiration, and the discovery of this unique source makes it possible to gain insights into the working methods of this master choreographer. Dauberval's ballet La Fille mal gardee is one of two eighteenth-century ballets en action found-in one form or another-in current repertoire, and information concerning staging practices for an original production of any one of his ballets could conceivably be put to practical use.1 Reconstructors of late seventeenthand early eighteenth-century ballroom and theatrical dances are fortunate to be able to choose from