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Choreographic Structure in Dances by Dezais Ken Pierce Corrected Abstract1 Deshayes who danced at the Op´era in 1690. But it’s dif- This workshop will explore choreographic devices that ficult to believe Campardon’s conflation of the 1690 De- Etienne-Joseph´ Dezais (often referred to as Jacques De- shayes with an actor (singer) in 1713, or with the dancer zais) used in his dances: step vocabulary, phrase struc- or dancers named Dezais or Deshayes who danced at 5 ture, and use of repeated figures or instances of question the Op´era in 1720–1722. Perhaps one of these in- and answer. Material will range from very simple, as dividuals was related to, or identical with, the chore- in contredanses, to somewhat complex baroque dance ographer Etienne-Joseph´ Dezais, but so far there’s no 6 steps, as in some of Dezais’s later ballroom dances. The clear evidence of such a connection. Taubert describes emphasis will be not on the correct execution of the steps Dezais as a “master” at the “world renowned” Acad´emie themselves, but rather on the manner in which Dezais [Royale] de Dance, but makes no mention of him as a 7 arranged steps in choreographic sequences, and how he performer. arranged those sequences in space and in relation to the Scope of workshop music. Because of the limited time available, I will say little Workshop participants should wear comfortable about Dezais’s contredanses, and will focus instead on clothing and soft-soled shoes. his six dances for a single couple. Introduction Briefly: Table 1 lists the four contredanses from the After Feuillet’s death in 1710, his privilege to pub- 1712 collection, with notes about Dezais’s use of re- lish notated dances was purchased by Etienne-Joseph´ peated sequences within the dance figures. Note the use Dezais.2 Dezais continued Feuillet’s practice of pub- in la Gentilly of a double question and answer—that is, lishing annual collections of ballroom dances. He a short sequence in which the dancers simultaneously also published, in 1712, a “second” collection of con- do different steps and then switch, each doing what the tredanses for longways sets, Feuillet’s 1706 collection other has just done. The two contredanses from the an- having been the first. In 1725 he published another col- nual collection (Table 2) both have verse-chorus struc- lection of contredanses for fixed sets of four, six, or eight ture, like the 1705 dance le Cotillon.8 So do some of the dancers.3 dances in the 1725 collection. Among the dances Dezais published are some that Generalities, and discussion of tables he himself choreographed: four in the 1712 contredanse Tables 2 summarizes some of the structural aspects of collection (Table 1), one in each of the annual collec- Dezais’s dances from the annual collections. Symbols in tions during the period 1712–1719, for a total of eight column four indicate use of repeated figures, instances (Table 2), and nine the 1725 collection (Table 3). This of question and answer, and the number of measures in small sample of dances shows Dezais to have been an which both dancers face toward the presence (that is, accomplished and inventive choreographer, whether in the front of the dancing space). In four out of the six a straightforward contredanse or in a sometimes sur- duos, Dezais uses step-sequence repeats or near-repeats prisingly varied couple dance. Though all of Dezais’s that corresond to musical repeats. Often they occur with dances are by definition ballroom dances, they include modified spatial patterns, as will be seen in the exam- sections that are close in character to theatrical dances. ples, below. Two of the dances include at least one in- (Unlike Feuillet, Dezais offered no theatrical choreogra- stance of question and answer. In addition to these, la phies to the public.) Corsini might be said to begin with a sort of extended Who was Dezais? double question and answer, with unison interspersed Many authors give Dezais’s first name as Jacques. There (see Example 8). was indeed a dancer named Jacques Deshayes, who Unlike Balon, whose choreographies Dezais also brought a complaint in 1680 because he had a cham- published (see Table 4), Dezais’s dances include no ber pot emptied on his head.4 Perhaps it was this same choreographic rondeaus, in which the same movement Pierce sequence is used as a refrain corresponding to a musi- gle measure directed toward the presence, la Chamberi´ cal refrain.9 Two of Dezais’s dances are set to musical with three measures facing the presence, and le Menuet rondeaus, but for neither of them does he take Balon’s d’Espagne with two. La Ribeyra begins with a six- approach. In la Denain, a rondeau that also involves me- measure phrase that is mostly directed toward the pres- ter changes, Dezais uses repeated step sequences in the ence, ending with the dancers facing one another. Only triple-meter couplets rather than in the duple-meter re- in la Corsini do the dancers face the presence repeatedly frain. In le Menuet d’Espagne, the overall menuet struc- and for more than a couple of measures. ture precludes a choreographic rondeau; Dezais instead The number of measures spent facing the presence uses symmetrical right- and left-hand figures in the mid- is related to the use of symmetry in the dance, since the dle of the dance, corresponding to parallel halves of the dancers cannot both face the presence during an axial- refrain (see Table 5). symmetric figure. It is not difficult to find a ballroom As Table 5 shows, most of Dezais’s duos—the ex- duo in which the dancers face the presence only briefly ception is la Corsini—follow a basic overall formula, at the beginning of the dance and in the final figure. (Ex- beginning in mirror symmetry, then changing to axial amples include P´ecour’s la Forlana and l’Allemande.)11 symmetry, and remaining so until the final figure of But Dezais does seem to emphasize the connection be- the dance in which the dancers head upstage for clos- tween the dancers more than their connection with the ing bows. This basic formula is typical for baroque presence. This is in contrast to Balon, who in his dances dances, and within this formula there’s room for con- from the same period generally had the dancers facing siderable variety in the relative lengths of sections and the presence much more often.12 the transitions between them. A choreographer may Let us turn now to examples of Dezais’s choreo- break up an axial-symmetric section with a stretch of graphic approach. mirror or parallel (translational) symmetry, or with an Examples asymmetrical passage; or he or she may introduce one or more question-and-answer sequences. The choreog- Example 1: l’Asturienne, first figure (see Figure 1). rapher must also provide transitions from one type of The spatial pattern of this figure is very similar to symmetry to another.10 the first figure of la Denain (see Table 5), and to the It seems that Dezais became more assured and ad- opening figure of Balon’s la Sylvie, another dance pub- venturous from year to year, at least as regards transi- lished by Dezais for 1712. Dezais employs sequences tions and other choreographic devices. Table 5 shows similar to the first half of this figure in la Denain (fi- a progression: discreet transitions between mirror and nal figure) and la Corsini (third figure). The frequency axial symmetry in l’Asturienne, each via an assembl´e and distribution of jumps in this figure is worth noticing: into first position; more complex transitions, as in jumps occur in alternate measures, beginning with the la Chamberi´ , in which the dancers change symmetry first. Though the pattern of measures with and without while changing places; uses of question-and-answer se- jumps varies somewhat during the dance, the frequency quences, first appearing in la Chamberi´ ; extended use of jumps from figure to figure does not. In l’Asturienne, of a repeated figure, with endings varied, in la Ribeyra; roughly half the measures include jumps. and, finally, the unusual first two figures of la Corsini, Notice that in the opening figure of la Denain there which include Dezais’s first extended use of parallel is also an alternation of measures with and without symmetry. jumps, but the pattern is shifted by a measure: the With the notable exception of la Corsini, Dezais’s jumps occur in even- rather than odd-numbered mea- dances include only brief moments in which both sures. (The pattern does not continue beyond the first dancers face the presence (see Table 2). Here, too, there figure.) appears to be a progression. In l’Asturienne, the dancers Example 2: l’Asturienne, fifth and sixth figures (see face one another at the very beginning of the dance, Figure 2). and don’t both face the presence except in passing un- These two figures offer an instructive example of til the start of the final figure, during a contretemps in Dezais’s use of a repeated step sequence that corre- which their attention will probably be toward one an- sponds to a musical repeat. The steps in the sixth figure other rather than forward. La Denain begins with a sin- are those of the fifth, on the other foot, but Dezais has Pierce modified the spatial pattern so that the dancers travel far- added,13 so that the dancers are back-to-back for the ther around one another in the sixth figure, not only ex- contretemp in the penultimate measure, before turning changing places but also rotating the entire figure from to face the presence for the concluding bows.

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