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Ballet & government subsidy


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I was wondering... what happened to the ballet during the French revolution? Did it disband? Did it re-band? Who saved it?

And, if Britain didn't have a royal ballet from the 18th century & 19th century... why not? Was it the religious issues? Did the 18th century royal family not have the same wealth to draw on as the Tsar & Louis? Was the lack of a unified German state the reason no large ballet company formed in Germany? What happened in Spain? How did countries without a historical government-subsidized performing arts company finally come to have one. Why do some countries have them and others not?

I understand some of the drawbacks of such companies, the artistic limits that come with government subsidy... but don't they tend to have schools attached that produce strong dancers (regardless of what limits those dancer might encounter later)? I guess SAB is the US's closest equivalent to a royal academy?

What is the socio-political soup necessary for a country to have an official ballet academy? (Or, does not having one allow more creativity to enter the field?)

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And, if Britain didn't have a royal ballet from the 18th century & 19th century... why not? Was it the religious issues? Did the 18th century royal family not have the same wealth to draw on as the Tsar & Louis?
If "Royal company" implies regular financial support and direct administrative involvement, I don't recall that Britain ever had a Royal company in any art prior to the end of World War II.

Even the theater companies in Shakespeare's day were private, usually joint-stock, companies, though they were often patronized by a member of the nobility. The Lord Chamberlain's Men, Lord Admiral's Men, Lord Strange's Men all had powerful individuals, not government agencies, as their patrons. These arrangements provided influence and protection more than actual cash.

Queen Anne (wife of James I) sponsored and even performed in elaborate court performances ("masques") involving verse, music, court dance (performed largely by amateurs), and opulent costume and scenic effects. This continued under her son Charles I and his French wife Henrietta Maria, both of whom were criticized for wasting money.

The masques ceased when the money ran out, when the King failed in his attempt to develop new sources of revenue not dependent on Parliament, and when the English Civil War began. There's a huge literature on the history of English masques.

About the influence of religion: the established Protestant church was turning more and more Puritan after Elizabeth's death. Both Queen Anne and Queen Henrietta Maria (an aunt of Louis XIV) were foreign-born and Roman Catholic -- and therefore highly suspect. I imagine that the public, under the influence of Puritan divines, began to see a direct and slippery slope from "court dance" to "professional dancing girls" to "SIN !!!" and that this perception grew during the constitutional and religious battles of the 17th century. The British majority's deep suspicion of anything connected to ballet (strong especially in Presbyterian Scotland and evangelical Wales) survived well into the 20th century.

As to budget: the English Crown had fairly large resources, but very little flexibility, since royal revenue was used to pay for much of the cost of government. Additional funds were dependent on subsidies voted to the Crown by Parliament. The Commons usually tried to obtain cuts in royal power before agreeing to additional financial subsidies.

Louis XIV was not limited in this way. Nor were the 19th century Russian Tsars. French government support of and direct involvement in ballet took a nose-dive during the most radical period of the French Revolution (following the execution of Louis XVI) and the costly wars of that time, although the Paris Opera, with its junior partner, ballet, continued to function. Government involvement revived under the Directorate (later 17990s) but especially under Napoleon, who was personally interested in any theater that increased the glory of the regime. ("Gloire" remains a value much talked about by certain French leaders even today.)

On the other hand, the Soviet government after its own Revolution kept the ballet establishments going more or less as they had existed under the Tsars.

Countries with a government supported "Royal Company" tended to create schools in part because they needed dancers who would look well together on the stage. Students and performers were not unlike minor government employees. The development of a distinct company style may not have been all that different, I think, from the development of a distinct style of bureaucracy or a uniform code of law. On the Continent, the centralizing influence of Napoleon survived the collapse of his own regime in France.

Counties without such centralization either imported their dancers or relied on whatever native talent developed in the private-enterprise world of entertainment and theater. This raises questions about the famous "English style". When and how did it develop? Was there any such style prior to de Valois and her post-World War One generation?

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I was wondering... what happened to the ballet during the French revolution? Did it disband? Did it re-band? Who saved it?

I'll have to check my books later, but surely the Paris Opera Ballet was not disbanded during the French revolution: actually it was very active, as Pierre Gardel created at least three of his main works in that period ("Télémaque" and "Psyché" in 1790 and "Le jugement de Pâris" in 1793), they were extremely popular and performed several hundred times during the next decades- actually, in 1976 (when Ivor Guest published the first version of his POB book), "Psyché" still ranked second in the list of the most often performed works of the POB repertory (even though it probably hadn't been performed since around 1830...) Themes inspired from Greek and Roman antiquity were very popular in that period, as can be seen from the ballets' titles...

The Gardel brothers were directors of the POB for decades (first Maximilien, who died in 1787, and then Pierre until 1820 officially, and in fact until 1829) so I guess they must have been very influential in that period- and probably Pierre managed to be not too involved in politics, as he managed to survive so many different political regimes (monarchy of Louis XVI, First Republic, First Empire, and Restauration with Louis XVIII and Charles X)... Also, if I remember correctly, until the 1990s the official status of the Comédie Française depended on a decree signed by Napoleon during the campaign of Russia in 1812, called "le décret de Moscou" (strange to think that he was interested in theater in such a critical period... But from what I've read, Napoleon was very keen on theeater, he went to the theater more than 600 times in his life- but I've no idea whether he was interested in ballet too!) I'll see if I can find more details about that period.

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f I remember correctly, until the 1990s the official status of the Comédie Française depended on a decree signed by Napoleon during the campaign of Russia in 1812, called "le décret de Moscou" (strange to think that he was interested in theater in such a critical period... But from what I've read, Napoleon was very keen on theeater, he went to the theater more than 600 times in his life
I believe that Napoleon brought along a troupe of comediens to a couple of the major international conferences where they were expected to impress the Tsar of Russia and others with the superiority of French culture and language (Racine, etc.). He even summoned a troupe to Moscow during his invasion of Russia. I'm not sure whether they actually performed there before the disaster and the forced retreat.

As for Napoleon and ballet, I'd love to hear from someone who knows .. but I suspect it was a little too non-verbal -- and possibly seemed too trivial, ephemeral or sensual -- for his taste.

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Thanks! I'll keep my eyes open for Ivor Guest...

I can't but imagine being director of the opera under Louis XVI must have involved acquaintances later deemed dangerous during the Terror... Someone should mine this for Hollywood!

Dance in the Shadow of the Guillotine (1988) by Judith Chazin-Bennahum is the most comprehensive treatment of this topic that I know about. You might also check out the more recent--and beautifully illustrated--Art, Dance, and the Body in French Culture of the Ancien Régime by Sarah R. Cohen.

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