Jean-Georges Noverre (; 29 April 1727 19 October 1810) was a French dancer and ballet master, and is generally considered the creator of ballet d'action, a precursor of the narrative ballets of the 19th century. His birthday is now observed as International Dance Day.
His first professional appearances occurred as a youth in Paris at the Opéra-Comique, at Fontainebleau, in Berlin before Frederick II and his brother Prince Henry of Prussia, in Dresden and Strasburg. In 1747 he moved to Strasbourg, where he remained until 1750 before moving to Lyon. In 1751, he composed his first great work, Les Fêtes Chinoises for Marseilles. The work was revived in Paris in 1754 to great acclaim. In 1755, he was invited by Garrick to London, where he remained for two years.
Between 1758 and 1760 he produced several ballets at Lyon, and published his '. It is from this period that the revolution in the art of the ballet for which Noverre was responsible can be dated. Prior to Noverre, ballets were large spectacles that focused mainly on elaborate costumes and scenery and not on the physical and emotional expression of the dancers. He was next engaged by Duke Karl Eugen of Württemberg, and later Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, until 1774. In 1776, he was appointed maître des ballets of the Paris Opera at the request of Queen Marie Antoinette. He returned to Vienna in Spring of 1776 to stage ballets there, but in June 1776 he returned again to Paris. He regained this post until the French Revolution reduced him to poverty. He died on 19 October 1810 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Noverre's fitting effect on the Paris ballet world would be preserved by the production of his tragic ballet Jason et Médée in 1763. In 1787, Pierre Gardel inherited the throne and Paris Opera, and carried out Noverre's ideas on costume and thoughts on ballet pantomime. (Chazin-Bennhaum) He composed Les Caprices de Galathée, for example, and garbed his dancers in tiger skins and shoes made of tree bark. His naturalist attitude towards costume placed him in the front rank of the French Enlightenment.
Les Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets
thumb|[[:fr:Lettres_sur_la_danse|Les Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets, Lyon 1760]]
Context
Noverre's treatise on dancing and theater expressed his aesthetic theories on the production of ballets and his method of teaching ballet. Noverre wrote this text in London in 1756 and published it in 1760 in Lyon, France. He began his research for his essays in Drury Lane, London, where he choreographed for his own troupe of dancers at the Theatre Royal under the direction of David Garrick. It was in David Garrick's library that Noverre read modern French literature and ancient Latin treatises on pantomime. Noverre was inspired by the pantomimes that he thought stirred up the audience's emotions by the use of expressive movement. He proclaimed in his text that ballet should unfold through dramatic movement, and the movement should express the relationship between the characters. Noverre named this type of ballet, ballet d’action or pantomime ballet (International Dictionary of Ballet 1032). From 1757 to 1760, he produced thirteen new works with composer François Granier at the Lyon Opera. His lighter, colorful pantomime ballets like Les Caprices de Galathée, La Toilette de Vénus, and Les Jalousies du sérail, received great success.
Inspiration
Noverre was most immediately influenced by Jean-Philippe Rameau, David Garrick, and Marie Sallé. Rameau was a very influential French composer and music theorist, and Noverre was inspired by his dance music that combined programmatic and strongly individual elements. David Garrick was an actor and theatre director at the Theatre Royal. Noverre was inspired by his talent for "histrionics" and vivid mime work where Noverre wanted to shake from the traditional forms of Ballet. (The Encyclopedia of Dance and Ballet 695).
With the content that follows it is imperative to closer examine the profound influence of Marie Sallé on Jean-George Noverre. Sallé and Noverre had an intertwining history that began at the Paris Opera Ballet. Sallé had studied in Paris with Françoise Prévost, who was a known predecessor of dramatizing ballet with her virtuosic acting and expressive performance. * Salle had studied in Paris with Francoise Prevost who was an established predecessor of the dramatic style of ballet demonstrated through her virtuosic acting and expressive performances. When she returned to Paris in 1735, she choreographed and danced in scenes for Jean-Philippe Rameau's Opera-ballets. Although she retired from the public stage in 1741, she continued to influence the dance community through her coaching and choreographic innovations at Opéra-Comique in 1743, which happens to be when Noverre made his debut. because he felt the Paris Opera Ballet created ballets that were an isolated event within Opera lacking meaningful connection with the main theme of the Opera. He criticized the Paris Opera Ballet