Embodying the Antique in the early 19th century: Ballet Masters' Drawing Practices

In early 19th century ballet, drawing seems to be a relevant skill for a successful European ballet master. The lack of structured dance notation systems represents an obstacle for current embodiment of ancient dance styles and techniques, but sketches by Jean Aumer (1774-1833), Carlo Blasis (1795-1878), and André Jean-Jacques Deshayes (1777-1846) enable us to depict some specific choreographic processes of the time. Following connoisseurship trends, the dancer’s body is arranged in space according to specific principles of placement, based on several references, artworks or popular antiques: the limbs’ setting shows a refined reference to a classical art piece or sometimes hides a subtler and implicit evocation, in the vein of “being a living collection”. This is attained when dance artists combine physical and perceptual parameters, such as symmetry, balance, grouping, all-round effects and contrapposto. How and why do these ballet masters forge their drawing skills? Can we define their style as a quest of an “archeological corporeality”? Moreover, how can we retrace the scopic regime of the dance culture in the early nineteenth century? The proposal aims to reconsider the relevance of drawing practices in the development of body techniques, in the context of the growing ballet industry and the social consumption of art works.