Since its foundation in the first half of the 16th century, the Austrian Habsburg court has focused its cultural attention on Italy. This was due to many factors, among which in the XVI century one can name the undoubted cultural superiority of Italy among other European countries, in the first half of the XVII century — the marriages of the Habsburg emperors with the Mantuan princesses, in the second half of the same century — the competing policy of the Holy Roman Empire towards France; the latter factor also extended to the beginning of the XVIII century. As with other European courts, the dance culture of the Habsburgs began with court ballets, which gradually transformed into stage dance, and the dance turned into a professional one. At the same time, the center of dance culture moved from Italy to France, where already in the first half of the XVII century a set of choreographic techniques arose that raised dance art to a new level. Ballet was a significant interest of the French monarch Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715). This led to the establishment of the world’s first dance academy at the royal court, which played a crucial role in the development and spread of the French style of dance. Therefore, despite the anti-French policy of the Habsburgs, the style developed at Louis XIV’s Royal Academy of Dance and called la belle danse was practiced on the stage of the Vienna Court Theater. The article examines the background, appearance, place, role and significance of la belle danse in productions of the Habsburg court stage using specific examples of theatrical events.
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