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Allie Olsen Cathy Black Dance History Final Paper December 11, 2012 King Louis XIV Absolutist Role In France Using Dance During the 1700s, King Louis XIV sought absolute control over his kingdom. He was a large advocate for the arts, particularly dance and music, and by means of these art forms supported his authority in France at a time of discord. He appointed choreographers, poets and musicians to collaborate in creating Ballet masterpieces for him. One of his more powerful pieces of work was Le Ballet de la Nuit where he stars as the Sun King. This ballet displays his absolute control over France through movement and music. King Louis XIV defined and controlled the arts during his reign of absolutism in France, using dance and music as a key role in supporting his authority. At the beginning of Louiss actual reign over France, there was uneasiness towards the monarchy. At the time of King Louiss rule there were insurgents set on overthrowing the monarchy (Sayre 733). Even though the disturbances of the insurgents were ineffective, it caused humiliation for the monarchy and Louis kingship. This made peoples view of the court less than exceptional. France wanted to be viewed highly from society, otherwise they felt they would have less control. The monarchy sought to reclaim their control of France and faith from the people. Louis was a young, talented dancer and, in the Ballet De Cour, the monarchy found their power in

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reclaiming their authority and confidence from the people. Therefore, at the beginning of his rule Louis used ballet dance and music to reclaim the monarchy and to illustrate that they were in control. We can see this through his choreography, music poetry and costuming. King Louis used ballet choreography as a way to keep his court under his control. Louis XIV loved the pomp and ceremony of his court, and the art forms that allowed him to most thoroughly engage this taste: dance and music (Sayre 738). Louis thoroughly enjoyed how dance artistically involved his court and retained them under his direction. Louis used his ballet choreography as a way of social reform (Foster 93). The courtiers were required to participate in Louiss ballets, therefore forcing social control upon the courtiers (Foster pg.90). Louis wanted to be the sole leader of France and have complete power; that is he took the absolutist approach to monarchy leadership in the way that he used ballet as a means of regulating the nobility. It is described that, Proper attitudes were inscribed on each body which was expected to behave in perfect unison with all the others. Through dance and its music the sun king could watch the social world moving with one accord to the tunes he called (Foster 91). King Louis was very specific with his approach on how the court would perform his ballets. The perfect unison and exact movements demanded from the king was a perfect way for him to condition his courtiers to follow his rule. One of his more powerful pieces of work was Le Ballet de la Nuit. This ballet displays his absolute control over France through regal ballet movement, stately authoritative music and poetry. The choreography in Le Ballet de la Nuits is highly absolutist. The Ballet was a choreographed Ballet where King Louis XIV played the Le Roi Soleil, the rising sun. The ballet

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starts by the glorious rising of the sun following by the falling of the night. The sun god at his grandiose moment is surrounded by dancers representing, honor, grace, love courage, victory, favor, renown and peace, (Corbiau, Le Roi Danse). Louis, as he is rising as the sun, stands with arms outstretched and grandiose as if all are encompassed in his light and power. He then reaches out his leg in a ballet sequence, fast and precise. This demonstrates his precision and his control over his body illustrates his control and exactness in his role of king. The choreography follows in him pointing at various members of his court and them responding by bowing and shrinking. The music Louis had composed goes hand in hand with the ballets choreography to deliver a absolutist feel from their king, The Sun God. This ballets music was composed by Jean- Babtiste Lully, who was a favorite composer of the king. The music used during these ballets is explained thus; If French music exhibited extraordinary grace, this grace was to signify the joy of submitting to authority(Foster 91). Therefore, everything in the music that seems extraordinary and full of grace, is only really illustrating how one would feel when submitting to the authority of the King. The music along with this choreography of the Ballet De La Nuit follows the pointing and bowing with climaxes and falls. This climax on the pointing to the court members and the falling as they bow, exemplifies his complete power. All of the ballet performers are continually facing the king in their dancing as he is raised up on a pedestal with the climatic music. This gives all power and attention to the king. True majesty is displayed in the strong orchestra symphony. The music of the orchestra along with the choreography coincides to deliver a strong feeling of prestige and power in King Louiss kingship (Clarke 37). During the music there are narrated words in the form of a poem that further reinforces Louiss absolute control. This poem was written by poet Isaac de Benserade. This poem is

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continually making reference to the king in comparison to the sun. He is given all the words a king would desire to have. He is represented in having, honor, grace, love courage, victory, favor, renown and peace (Corbiau, Le Roi Danse). These words along with the music and ballet choreography set the scene for majesty and power. All of these simple words combined with the simple yet profound movement display the king as the prime focal point. The poem coincides with the choreography and music and on every supreme word the King produces balletic movement to illustrate the word. The music also follows this structure as to add to the choreography and voiced poem. The costuming used for these court ballets seem to be designed to create unison and allow the King to stand out. His costuming for the Ballet de la Nuit was very extravagant and illustrated that he was the greater one to follow. While his courtiers costumes were extravagant, the Sun Kings costuming was absolute. In a commissioned painting of Louis as the Sun in the Ballet De La Nuit, he has an entire headdress on and his costume is large and detailed representing him as the Sun God. He loved the over the top atmosphere his ballets created (Roscow, pars.1-2) His costuming and choreography made his ballets unforgettable and demanded attention from the French people. They let them know that these ballets were important and he was in control. King Louis cared a lot about his kingdoms image and believed Championing the greatest in art would establish him the greatest of kings (Sayre 735). King Louis loved the pomp and ceremony of his court (Sayre 738). Louis wanted France to outshine all other monarchies, especially in the arts. He wanted the French court to be supreme and the most influential kingdom. Therefore, he established the Academy Royale De Danse and Academy Royale De Musique to professionally take his absolute reign even farther. It is stated that:

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Louis began commissioning many ballets that required increasingly difficult movements of the dancers. As, a result, his Royal Academy of Dance soon established the rules for the five positions of ballet that became the basis of classical dance. They valued above all clarity of line in the dancers movement, balance and the performance of the troop as a whole symmetry. (Sayre 739). Because of these court dances and institutions that had been developed, France became one of the most influential kingdoms in Europe. Louis ballets were imitated across Europe and his influences on ballet are still evident today. Even when Frances kingdom started to fall they held their prestige through the arts, mainly dance and music. The wealth and strength of France began a slow decline, but the brilliance of the court shone undiminished, and French fashion and taste continued to predominate in Europe(Hilton 9). Louis felt dance and music was the greatest vehicle to extend his taste to all. In conclusion, King Louis XIV truly developed and influenced ballet as we know it today. His reign also had an influence on Europe in general in the way he used dance and music. His motives of using music and dance were not only because he loved the art forms, but were a way for him to control his kingdom. Astonishingly, the way he used dance as a means of social control actually worked and enabled him to stand supreme in his kingship of France and influence the rest of Europe as well. This shows how influential the arts, especially dance was during this era; not only in France but all of Europe. In todays society the media, advances in science and money are the most influential on society. Dance certainly today wouldnt influence society as greatly as it did in King Louiss time. It is evident that society has changed so much in what we value and esteem from King Louis time to the current and it is quite astounding.

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Works CitedClarke, Mary and Clement Crisp. The History of Dance. London: Orbis Publishing Limited, 1981. Print. Foster, Susan Leigh. Choreographing History. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995. Print. Hilton, Wendy. Dance of Court &Theater The French Noble Style 1960-1725. Princeton: Princeton Book Company Publishers, 1981. Print. Louis Roscow. Early Music (1987) XV. Oxford Journals: (2012). 325-335. Web. Oct 8. 2012 Sayre, Henry M. The Humanities Vol. 2. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. 2012. Print. YouTube. Gerarde Corbiau: Le Roi Danse, 2009. Web. November 7, 2012 < http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SYHPNgSUIoE>