P. Siris was an English
dancer
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 ...
, dancing master and
choreographer
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...
. His first name and dates of birth and death are uncertain. He may have been born in France. He was active in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
from about 1705 to at least 1735. In 1706 he published a translation of
Feuillet’s ''Choregraphie'' (Paris, 1700) into English as ''The Art of Dancing'' at about the same time as the better known translation by
John Weaver.
In his ''The Art of Dancing'',
which explains the
Beauchamp-Feuillet notation
Beauchamp-Feuillet notation is a system of dance notation used in Baroque dance.
The notation was commissioned by Louis XIV (who had founded the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661), and devised in the 1680s by Pierre Beauchamp
Pierre Beaucha ...
and gives two notated dance examples, Siris says that he studied with
Pierre Beauchamp
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 f ...
, the true creator of the notation, "about 18 years before".
There are 5 extant examples of dances he choreographed, notated, and published:
* La Camilla, 1708, a rigadoon
* The Brawl of Audenarde, 1709, a dance suite: courante, minuet, gigue
* The New English Passepied, 1712
* The Siciliana, 1714
* The Diana, 1725, dedicated to
Lady Diana Spencer, whom he also taught when she was 14, December 1724 to May 1725.
The names of two other dances are known:
* The Dutchess, 1711
* The Princess Anna, 1715, a gavotte
He is mentioned as a dance performer in London in 1705 and 1706.
He was one of the subscribers to the 1735 publication of ''The Art of Dancing'' by Kellom Tomlinson.
References
External links
* P. Siris: An Early Eighteenth-Century Dancing-Master. Author: Jennifer Thorp. Source: Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research, Autumn, 1992, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 71–92. Published by: Edinburgh University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1290655
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18th-century British dancers
English choreographers