Now, following on the introduction of women dancers to the stage, we come to another interesting point in the history of the dance and ballet; for, once again, it was due to a woman that we had the invention—or rather the revival—for it had not been seen since the days of Bathyllus and Pylades in Augustan Rome—of ballet-pantomime, a ballet acted entirely pantomimically, or in dumb-show.
It was the happy idea of the learned and extravagant Duchesse du Maine, whose Nuits de Sceaux have been chronicled by that fascinating bluestocking, Mlle. Delaunay, who was later to become famous as Madame de Staël.
Among the endless round of fêtes and entertainments at Sceaux, at the little theatre in which she took such prominent part, the ever-restless Duchess never presented her guests with a greater novelty. Day and night—and especially night—they had all been requisitioned to invent ingenious amusements. Sleep had been banished from the exigent little Court. Dialogues, “proverbs,” “literary lotteries,” songs and comedies had been turned out without cessation as from a literary factory. Always it had been “words, words, words,” and play on words. Now, for the first time for centuries—as it was, in fact, and must certainly have seemed to the Duchess’s house-parties!—there was to be silence on the stage at Sceaux.
The Duchesse du Maine
Having chosen the last scene of the fourth act of Corneille’s “Horace,” the Duchess commanded the composer Mouret to set it to music as if it were to be sung. The words were then ignored, the music was played by an orchestra, and the two well-known dancers, M. Ballon and Mlle. Prévôt, of the Royal Academy, mutely mimed the actions and emotions of the leading characters, so dramatically and with such intensity of feeling that, it is said, both they and their audience were moved at times to tears!
Françoise Prévôt, or Prévost, was born about 1680, made her début at the age of eighteen, and when Subligny retired in 1705, took her place as première danseuse. For some twenty odd years she was the joy of all frequenters of the Opera, for her grace and lightness of style. She retired in 1730, and died eleven years after. Among the more famous of her pupils were Marie Sallé and Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo, of both of whom there will be more to say in due course. Meanwhile, among the dances mainly in vogue during Prévôt’s earlier period were the Courantes, Allemandes, Gigues, Contredanses; and in her later years, Chaconnes, Passacailles, and Passepieds. For the dancing of the last Prévôt was especially famed.
In the preface to his “Maître à Danser,” published four years after the dancer’s retirement, Rameau describes her in the following terms: “Dans une seule de ses danses sont renfermées toutes les règles qu’après de longues méditations nous pouvons donner sur notre art, et elle les met en pratique, avec tant de grâce, tant de justesse, tant de légèreté, tant de précision qu’elle peut être regardée comme un prodige dans ce genre.”
Again, Noverre, in his Lettres sur la Danse, published later, makes graceful reference to Prévôt in recalling his impressions of famous dancers whom he had seen in earlier years, and gives us, too, an interesting criticism of the methods of the composers of ballet in the mid-eighteenth century. “La plupart des compositeurs,” he says, “suivent les vieilles rubriques de l’opéra. Ils font des passe-pieds parceque Mdlle. Prévôt les courait avec elegance; des musettes parceque Mdlle. Sallé et M. Dumoulin les dansaient avec autant de grace que de volupté; des tambourins parceque c’était le genre où Mdlle. de Camargo excellait; des chaconnes et des passacailles parceque le célèbre Dupré s’était comme fixé à ces mouvements; qu’ils s’ajoustaient à son goût, à son genre et à la noblesse de sa taille. Mais tous ces excellents Sujets n’y sont plus; ils ont été remplacés et au-delà, dans des parties et ne le seront peut être jamais dans les autres....”