Dance played a major role in all French Baroque theatrical entertainments. Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos, a short ballet performed at the court of Louis XIV, is of major importance, largely because it has survived complete in all its components - choreography, music, and text - and also because it uses a previously unknown dance notation system. This book reproduces the entire manuscript of this ballet and provides a comprehensive study of the work itself and of the circumstances in which it was created and performed. Chapters devoted to the composer, choreographer, and performers provide a framework for understanding the performance context not only of this work, but of other court entertainments of the period. A study and evaluation of the notation system in which the dances are recorded, together with a detailed analysis of the dances, completes the introduction.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The performance context; 2. The creators and performers; 3. Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos in performance; 4. The music; 5. The dance notation; 6. The dances; 7. The sources; Appendix A. Libretto; Appendix B. Reproduction of the article 'Choregraphie' from the Encyclopedie ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers (1753).