Publisher's Synopsis
Dance as Text is an historical and theoretical examination of French court ballet over a hundred-year period, beginning in 1573, that spans the late Renaissance and the Baroque. Utilising aesthetic and ideological criteria, Mark Franko analyses court ballet librettos, contemporary performance theory, and related commentary on dance and movement in the literature of this period. Examining the formal choreographic apparatus that characterises late Valois and early Bourbon ballet spectacle, Franko argues that the evolving aesthetic ultimately reflected the political situation of the noble class, who devised and performed court ballets. Franko's analysis blends archival research with critical and cultural theory in order to re-situate the burlesque tradition in its politically volatile context.
