Dance
Video Group 2 (V2) Rebel Les Caractères de la danse
Rebel enjoyed a long and successful career as violinist, harpsichordist, and composer. His 'choreographed symphony' Les Caractères de la danse was premiered in Paris in 1715 as a collaboration with Françoise Prévost, the leading ballerina of the day (1680–1741). Two of Prévost’s most celebrated pupils—Marie Sallé (ca. 1707–1756) and Marie-Anne Cupis de Camargo (1710–1770) retained Les Caractères in their repertory; Sallé even took it to London, where she danced it under Handel’s musical direction in 1734 (Fuchs, 2007).
The Courante is a musical structure in triple meter. My reading of this score, informed by performance practice, suggests a performance with an energetic lift on the downbeat ('ta-daaa') which carries the rest of the bar 'up in the air'. On the upbeat, before the actual sound-producing bowing action, the body sinks closer to the floor to prepare a proper lift on the downbeat.
The historical sources describe the character of the dance as graceful and majestic. Quantz asserts that 'the Courante is performed with majesty' (Quantz, 1752, p. 291) and Rameau finds that ‘it is a very solemn Dance, and gives a more grand and noble Air than other dances’ (Rameau, 1725, XXVI).
In the dance workshops I observed the correspondence between my intuitive musical ‘lift’ and the élevé of the dancers. While I was actively participating in dance exercises I realized that all baroque dances have an upward body movement on the downbeat, which is richly varied in character and height.
The characteristic step-unit of the Courante consists of an élevé (lift) accompanied by a slow gliding step, temps de courante (Mather, 1987, p. 234). The dancers ‘sustain the long thesis in a noble, compelling manner with dignity and composure’ (Little & Jenne, 1991, p. 116).
Performing the Courante, it is important to achieve a balance between the vertical lift and the sustained horizontal shape of a gliding step (pas glissé).
LINK to the video essay
The musical notation of the Bourrée suggests a light and uplifting character. The two-bar structure consists of two bouncy accents in the first bar landing on a single accent in the second bar.
The historical sources suggest that the Bourrée should be played ‘gayly and with a short and light bow-stroke’ (Quantz, 1752, p. 271). Johann Mattheson describes its essential nature as ‘contentness, pleasantness, unconcern, relaxed, easy going, comfortable, and yet pleasing’ (Mattheson, 1739, pp. 225-26). In the words of Meredith Little, the ‘Bourrées […] express a genuine, aristocratic joie de vivre’ (Little & Jenne 1991, p. 35).
In the dance workshops I learned the pas de bourrée, one of the most basic steps in baroque dance. The energetic élevé of the pas de bourrée on the downbeat is compared to the bouncy accents found in the musical structure.
LINK to the video essay
. 
The Menuet is one of the most well-known baroque dances today, probably thanks to its continued presence as a standard movement in classical and romantic symphonies and sonatas. But the elegant and stately character of the Menuet, as often assumed today, is in a contrast to the descriptions in the baroque sources, where it is described as ‘a gay and very fast’ dance (Brossard, 1703) and having the affect of a ‘moderate cheerfulness’ (Mattheson, 1939, p. 451).
During the dance workshops, while learning the lively and rapid steps, the beat-box in my head was running nearly twice as fast as the traditional (mis)understanding of the Menuet (see the introduction to my beat-box method in V1aT2). Also, I became aware of an interesting inconsistency in understanding of the rhythmical phrase between musicians and dancers, creating exciting counter rhythms between the bow articulation and the dance steps.
LINK to the video essay
. 
Although the late baroque Sarabande is described as a slow, but passionate movement, in its Hispanic origins the Sarabande was a fast and lively dance, associated with the sound of guitars and castanets. The fast Sarabande seems to have survived into the early Baroque period (the first half of the 17th century), but apart from the basic structure, the later Sarabande has the appearance of a completely different dance. From the beginning of the 18th century the Sarabande ‘is taken gravely’ (Masson, 1699, p. 7) and ‘played with a rather flattering expression’ (Quantz, 1752). The Sarabande is further described as 'a soft and passionate movement, always set in a slow triple, apt to disturb the tranquillity of mind' (Talbot 1690, quoted in Donington, 1974, pp 335-36). On a slightly different note, Johann Mattheson finds the Sarabande to ‘express an emotion of ambition’ (1739, p. 230).
In the workshops with dancers I experienced a particular energy, balanced poise, and sustained tension when dancing the Sarabande. The challenge for the musician is not just to play the Sarabande as a slow beautiful melody, but to manifest the tension found in the kinaesthetic energy of the body movements.
LINK to the video essay
. 
The musical notation of the ‘Rigaudon’ implies a vigorous and robust character. Starting with an upward triad, it tumbles unstoppably a whole octave down.
Quantz describes the Rigaudon in the same sentence together with the Bourrée, telling us how they are both 'played gayly and with a short and light stroke of the bow' (Quantz, 1752, p. 291). Masson (1699, cited in Donington, 1990, p. 394) also describes the Rigaudon together with the Bourrée. While the structure of both dances is basically identical, the Rigaudon is still more rustic, ‘danced by sailors and peasants’ (Mattheson, 1739, p. 455).
As Rebel’s Suite comprises both the Bourrée and the Rigaudon, I needed to devise a musical contrast between the two dances in the performance. Later on in the dance workshops I experienced the different kinaesthetic sensation between these two dances (see the discussion in Section V2eT2) and this became the point of departure for my rendition of the two dances.
LINK to the video essay
This section describes the analytical procedure behind the video essays in this study.
LINK Analytical approach (V2)
A graceful lift (V2a)
From Gesture to Sound
The Projects