A Study Of Italian Court Dance In Fifteenth Century

Credited as “noble art” and ‘graceful art”,it is known to all that ballet originated from court dances.However,in the context of ballet evolution history,we have paid little attention to the reliable basis underlying this conclusion and necessary factors that unveil the causal relationship between ballet and court dances.In order to better clarify the link between these two,this paper will focus on the origin of court dances from the perspectives of its time and place.Based on systematic reviews of remaining Italian dance works from Fifteenth Century and foreign scholars' relevant studies,theoretical grounds and forms of Fifteenth Century court dances have been deliberately discussed through the deconstruction of dance movements.Besides this paper essentially interprets the elements that directly influence the birth of ballet as follows: first,social groups held different attitudes towards dances in action.Aristocrats were eager to seek social identities which separated court dances from folk dances.Secondly,dance masters incorporated music theories into the new definition of dances and proposed six formulaic dancing principles.These new changes made court dances popular with the social elite.Lastly,the secular intentions and dance masters' ideals were reconciled by the nature of motion in movements and the repeated movement sequences in choreography.Dances stopped being an activity free for all but turned into choreographed one for courtly appreciation.Hereby Court dances have been endowed with the initial characteristics and aesthetic of ballet.It can be easily observed that Fifteenth Century Italian court dances have evolved together with the process of European history.Dance is no long a revelation of ecstasy driven by Heavenly gods but a rational human activity following certain rules,which heralds the beginning of ballet as a “graceful art”.