8 - Jean-Georges Noverre: dance and reform

Summary

Noverre's life

Jean-Georges Noverre was born in Paris on 27 April 1727 and died in Saint- Germain-en-Laye on 19 October 1810. He had an abrupt and demanding temperament, made many enemies and stirred up a variety of fierce artistic controversies during his long career. More than any other choreographer before him, he turned ballet into an independent art form and means of expression. Diderot called him “le génie”, the one who would save dance, and Voltaire named him “Prométhée de la danse”.

Noverre's mother, Marie Anne de la Grange, is thought to have been born in Lausanne, although P. J. S. Richardson suggested that she was born in Picardy. His father, Jean Louys, was a Swiss soldier. Like Rousseau, Noverre's Swiss origins created suspicion about his loyalty to France, although he always considered himself a Frenchman. His father expected him to be a soldier, but the boy insisted on dancing and eventually followed his own instincts. Still a child, he went to Paris to study with M. Marcel and then with the famous Louis Dupré. His critical eye quickly led him to question why the arms had such a circumscribed use, and to wonder why masks, high heels, panniers and over-blown wigs were popular in ballets as they constrained all movements of the head, arms, legs and face.