Pierre Beauchamp or Beauchamps (; 30 October 1631 – February 1705) was a French
choreographer,
dancer and
composer, 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 ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...
(
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
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ver ...]
at age 12, in 1648, in the ''Ballet du dérèglement des passions''. He was made director of the
Académie Royale de Danse
The Académie Royale de Danse, founded by Letters Patent on the initiative of King Louis XIV of France in March 1661, was the first dance institution established in the Western world. As one of King Louis’ first official edicts after the death o ...
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 greatest writers in the French language and worl ...
's acting company (the Troupe du Roy) during 1664-1673, as well as ballet master at the
Académie Royale de Musique
The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be k ...
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
Baroque dance is dance of the Baroque era (roughly 1600–1750), closely linked with Baroque music, theatre, and opera.
English country dance
The majority of surviving choreographies from the period are English country dances, such as those i ...
. 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, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
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 pointe work, turnout of the legs, and high extensions), it ...
, as well as a role in the development of the use of arms
[Rameau, 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 is unusual amongst the surviving male solos because, although it requires a virtuoso technique with its
pirouette
In dance and gymnastics, a turn is a rotation of the body about the vertical axis. It is usually a complete rotation of the body, although quarter (90°) and half (180°) turns are possible for some types of turns. Multiple, consecutive turns are ...
s 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
Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή).
Psyche may also refer to:
Psychology
* Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious
* ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...
'', ballets (1671)
* ''
Le Malade imaginaire
''The Imaginary Invalid'', ''The Hypochondriac'', or ''The Would-Be Invalid'' (French title ''Le Malade imaginaire'', ) is a three- act ''comédie-ballet'' by the French playwright Molière with dance sequences and musical interludes (H.495, H.49 ...
'', 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 bookfrom The Library of Congress'
An American Ballroom Companion.
César UKExcerpt 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