Pierre Beauchamp or Beauchamps (; 30 October 1631 – February 1705) was a French choreographer,

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

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composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, and the probable inventor of Beauchamp–Feuillet notation. His grand-father was called Christophe (a musician) and his father, a violinist of the king's chamber, was simply called Louis. Following a custom of the time, Pierre Beauchamp was named Pierre after his godfather Pierre Vacherot, tailor of the queen's pages and a relative of the Beauchamps family.

Biography

Beauchamp was born at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

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Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

at age 12, in 1648, in the ''Ballet du dérèglement des passions''. He was made director of the Académie Royale de Danse in 1671 (although he was not a founding member of the Académie as is often claimed). Beauchamp was principal choreographer to

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

's acting company (the Troupe du Roy) during 1664-1673, as well as ballet master at the Académie Royale de Musique and ''Compositeur des Ballets du Roi''. He also gave dance lessons to Louis XIV for over twenty-two years. In these positions, he was highly influential in the development of French baroque dance. He continued to choreograph and dance at the Court of Versailles after the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1687; however, choreography and composition of music and ballets for the Jesuit Colleges became his primary occupation from 1697. He died at

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1705. Writing some years after the actual events, Pierre Rameau credits Beauchamp with the codification of the five positions of the feet in

classical ballet Classical ballet is any of the traditional, formal styles of ballet that exclusively employ classical ballet technique. It is known for its aesthetics and rigorous technique (such as en pointe, pointe work, turnout (ballet), turnout of the legs, ...

, as well as a role in the development of the use of armsRameau, Pierre; ''Le maître a danser'' (Paris, 1725), Seconde partie, Chap. I (note though that, unlike the positions of the feet, the use of arms in baroque dance differs significantly from their use in ballet). The codification method was printed in 1700 by Raoul-Auger Feuillet, who published notated dance scores, and became known as Beauchamp–Feuillet notation. It was slightly modified by Pierre Rameau in 1725, but continued to be used to record dances for the stage and for domestic use throughout the eighteenth century. Two choreographies survive in manuscript copies with attributions to Beauchamp: the ballroom duet ''Rigaudons de Mr Bauchand'', and the theatrical solo for a man ''Sarabande de Mr. de Beauchamp''. The

sarabande The sarabande (from ) is a dance in triple metre, or the music written for such a dance. History The Sarabande evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced by a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance called ''zara ...

is unusual amongst the surviving male solos because, although it requires a virtuoso technique with its pirouettes and many ornamented steps, it contains no aerial beaten steps.

Selected works

With Molière and Lully

* ''Les Fâcheux'', choreography, musical composition, orchestral director (1661) * ''Le Mariage forcé'' (1664) * '' Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'', ballets (1669) * ''Les Amants magnifiques'' (1670) * '' Psyché'', ballets (1671) * '' Le Malade imaginaire'', ballets (1673)

Original Choreography for Pierre Perrin

* '' Pomone'' (opera, 1671)

Choreography with Lully

* ''L'Impatience'' (1661) * ''La Naissance de Vénus'' (1665) * '' Alceste'' (1674) * '' Atys'' (1676) * ''Isis'' (1677) * ''Le Triomphe de l'amour'', avec Pécour (1681) * ''Ballet de la jeunesse'' (1686)

References

External links

Facsimile of a 1748 edition of Rameau's book
from The Library of Congress' An American Ballroom Companion.
César UK
Excerpt from Grove Dictionary entry on Pierre Beauchamp. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beauchamp, Pierre French male ballet dancers French ballet masters French choreographers French male classical composers French Baroque composers Dance notators People from Versailles 1631 births 1705 deaths 17th-century ballet dancers Beauchamp Paris Opera Ballet artistic directors