Early Dances and Ballets

Chapter 1 explores the historical development of dance in Europe, from the Renaissance to the early eighteenth century, focusing particularly on the themes of dance structures, authorship, and autonomy. It considers early modern and secondary sources on social dance, the ballet de cour, and baroque dance, developing the argument that none of these practices produces dance works in the modern sense. Nonetheless, early dance sources to concepts of dance-as-object and dance as “performable” operating well before the idea of a work of dance art develops. This first chapter, then, explores what might be termed the early prehistory of the dance work, through analysis of different ways in which dances are conceived, composed, notated, performed, and linked to developing artistic traditions.