A Fragile Equilibrium: Of Degas’s Relationship to the Writing of Dance

While Edgar Degas proved a long-lasting attachment to the world of the Opera – from the old Le Peletier opera house to most the recent Opéra Garnier, but also from rehearsal rooms to the stage, and musicians to ballerinas –, the extent of his theoretical knowledge of the practice of dance is difficult to estimate. Contemporary, or shortly subsequent to the work of key figures (A.J.J. Deshayes, C.Blasis, A.Saint-Léon, G.-L.Adice) who tried to establish, all along the nineteenth century, efficient dance notation systems and dance methods in which the graphic transcription of dance is central, his own work attracts the attention in that it visually echoes those multiple endeavours. But, when some of these never became public and some others might have never been in Degas’s possession, one can only be cautious in drawing such parallels.

A double mechanism, upon which the proposed paper would like to reflect, comes to the fore. First, since archival material of today could have been ongoing work during the artist’s lifetime, while printed material might have never crossed his path, it is delicate to decide what material can be used today, when one tries to understand Degas’s creation in the context of the until now understudied dance notation systems of the nineteenth century. But, can art history decide to turn a blind eye to those fascinating resources, which could have so much impact on our understanding of his art? These are the questions this paper would aim at raising, before trying to answer them through carefully-selected examples.