Jean-Georges Noverre's ballets inspired by ancient Greece
Résumé
Jean-Georges Noverre, creator of the action ballet in eighteenth century, was interested in ancient Greek mythological subjects, such as Paris and Helena, Danaïdes, Ajax' death Agmemnon' s death, Herakles' death, Iphigenia in Tauride, Alceste, or Medea and Jason. During a period where the ancient Greek music was not known (except Mesomede of Crete but who was only known by scholars), Noverre worked in collaboration with different musicians as Granier, Salieri, Rodolfe and the famous Gluck. The paper will ascertain Noverre 's knowledge of ancient Greece (books, drawings) and how he used it in his work (characters, settings, costumes …). If it is known that the baroque dance technique is very different from ancient Greek dance but since Noverre researched some elements in ancient pantomime and ancient choir and we propose to study them (gestures, steps, choreography).