Giambattista Dufort

Giambattista Dufort (* around 1680, † after 1728) was a French dancer , dance master and choreographer . He wrote the Trattato del Ballo Nobile (Naples 1728).

Life

So far there is hardly any biographical data on Giambattista Dufort. From his treatise we can see that he was born in France, which he later left for Italy for reasons not mentioned. From 1697 at the latest he danced in pastorals and ballets. Between 1709 and 1713 he is mentioned as a dancer and choreographer in Naples . In the two libretti from 1710 he is referred to as maestro di ballo del Ducale Collegio de 'Nobili di Parma . In 1728 his Trattato del Ballo Nobile was published in Naples .

Dufort apparently studied in France, where he got to know the Beauchamp-Feuillet system. Dufort's Trattato dell Ballo Nobile is the first book in Italian to describe French dance notation. In addition to a description of the basic steps in Italian, it also contains 25 illustrations. The first part contains the rules of dancing, in which the five positions and the basic steps are explained. The second part is devoted solely to the minuet. The third part describes the contratance, the Rigaudon, the Galliarde and the Sarabande. Then Dufort describes the most important manners that you need for ballroom dancing, but can also be used in everyday life. For example, the perfect execution of the Riverenza to welcome and say goodbye. Dufort differentiates between theater dance and court dance.

Dufort is one of the first dance practitioners who was also interested in the recent history of his subject. His interest does not end, as we know from other treatises, with the usual references to the dance art of antiquity. he also writes about recent dance history. His knowledge about the beginning of the art of dance in Italy is based on the knowledge of two treatises: Il Ballarino perfetto (printed in Milan 1468) by Ronaldo Rigoni, which is dedicated to Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan. However, this treatise is not available in this form today. It may be a copy of Guglielmo Ebreos De pratica seu arte tripudii (1463), to which Galeazzo Maria Sforza is also dedicated. A copy of the treatise that has been in Paris since 1499 was written by a certain Paganus Raudensis. Dufort could have seen this copy in France. The second treatise mentioned by Dufort is Il Ballarino by Fabritio Caroso (Venice 1581), to which Signora Bianca Cappello de'Medici, Grand Duchess of Tuscany is dedicated.

Of Caroso's two treatises, Dufort evidently only knew Il Ballarino . But he should have read this treatise more closely. Dufort describes the dance style described by Caroso as outdated and ugly. Since at the beginning of the 18th century nobody danced in the style of Fabritio Caroso and Cesare Negri , Dufort can only have got an idea of ​​the dance style of the 16th century from his own reading. Dufort apparently did not know Negri's tracts either, since he does not mention them.

The obviously more intensive examination of older textbooks on the art of dance was by no means common at the time of Dufort. It is also unusual that Dufort, as a dancer who came from France and trained in the French style, even admits to the older Italian dance masters that their style, which for him was unaesthetic, could at least also appeal to their time. The foreword to the readers, in which Dufort discusses dance history, is relatively short. Nevertheless, this text has an important position in dance history. After all, Dufort is the first author of a treatise who focused his gaze on dance history on the change in step technique that goes hand in hand with a changed dance aesthetic.

Works

• TRATTATO | DEL | BALLO NOBILE | DI | GIAMBATISTA | DUFORT INDIRIZZATO | All'Eccellenza | DELLE SIGNORE DAME, E | DE 'SIGNORI CAVALIERI | NAPOLETANI. | [Ornament] | IN NAPOLI MDCCXXVIII. | Nella Stamperia di Felice Mosca | [Line] | Con licenza de 'Superiori. On-line

Ballets

• Ballo to the drama per musica Artaserse Re di Persa (music: Francesco Mancini and others), Naples 1713; together with Anna Daufin
• Balli for the drama pastorale per musica La fede riconosciuta (libretto: Benedetto Marcello ; music: Alessandro Scarlatti ), Naples 1710
• Balli for the drama per musica La pastorella al soglio (libretto: Giulio Cesare Corradi et al .; music: Antonio Orefici ), Naples 1710

literature

• Joseph Gregor: Cultural history of the ballet: its design and effectiveness in history and among the arts , Vienna: Gallus, 1944, pp. 264–268.
• Barbara Sparti: "Giambattista Dufort and La Danse Noble - Italian Style", in: Proceedings. Society of Dance History Scholars, North Carolina 1988 , Riverside 1988, pp. 216-230.
• Barbara Sparti: "Un francese 'napoletano' e il ballo nobile", in: La Danza Italiana 7 (1989), pp. 9-29.
• Carmela Lombardi (ed.), Trattati di danza in Italia nel Settecento , Naples 2000.