Molière
Les Comédies-Ballets

In 1661, Molière introduced the comédies-ballets in conjunction with Les Fâcheux. These ballets were a transitional form of dance performance between the court ballets of Louis XIV and the art of professional theatre which was developing in the advent of the use of the proscenium stage. The comédies-ballets developed accidentally when Molière was enlisted to mount both a play and a ballet in the honor of Louis XIV and found that he did not have a big enough cast to meet these demands. Molière therefore decided to combine the ballet and the play so that his goal could be met while the performers catch their breath and change costume. The risky move paid off and Molière was asked to produce twelve more comédies-ballets before his death. During the comédies-ballets, Molière collaborated with Pierre Beauchamp. who codified the five balletic positions of the feet and arms and was partly responsible for the creation of the Beauchamp-Feuillet dance notation. Molière also collaborated with Jean-Baptiste Lully. Lully was a dancer, choreographer, and composer, whose dominant reign at the Paris Opéra lasted 15 years. Under his command, ballet and opera rightly became professional arts unto themselves. The comédies-ballets closely integrated dance with music and the action of the play and the style of continuity distinctly separated these performances from the court ballets of the time; additionally, the comédies-ballets demanded that both the dancers and the actors play an important role in advancing the story. Similar to the court ballets, both professionally trained dancers and courtiers socialized together at the comédies-ballets - Louis XIV even played the part of an Egyptian in Molière's Le Mariage forcé (1664) and also appeared as Neptune and Apollo in his retirement performance of Les Amants magnifiques (1670).
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