What are your moves? A French dancing how-to

WHAT ARE YOUR MOVES? A FRENCH DANCING HOW-TO

So, what are your favorite styles of dance?

Tango, ballet, the cha-cha?

As beautiful as they all are, their stories are even more fascinating!

Check out the article below for a journey in French dancing and watch the video for some French moves!

(This week: the verb DANSER – to dance)

This is a guest post by Olga Cuttell at OlgaDesign.

It may come as something of a surprise to many that ballet found it’s origins, not in France, but in Italy in the late 15th century.

At that point it was still a small and unformalized aspect of Italian opera and would have been unrecognizable compared to modern ballet.

For example, early ballet was performed almost exclusively by men, with female dancers being an extreme rarity.

That said, it was – even in it’s early beginnings – a unique and attractive spectacle and it spread quickly to the French courts of Catherine de Medici.

It’s overwhelming popularity in Paris was, in no small part, due to the avid patronage of Louise XIV; a monarch who is noted as having not only been a fan of the art, but also having performed as a dancer in several productions in his youth.

This patronage lead to French dominion over ballet as it developed into a formalized art form; culminating in the formation of the first Ballet company (The Paris Opera Ballet) in 17th century. Not only is this company the longest running ballet troupe in the world, but it’s from the Paris Opera Ballet that many of the world’s most acclaimed troupes still practicing today draw their roots and traditions.

It is for this reason that French language dominates the art form. Words for ballet maneuvers, such as “pirouette” and “grands battements” are typical within the art, with only a splash of Italian rounding out the vocabulary of ballet.

While it’s true that many other nations, such as Russia and Italy, have made significant contributions to the art of ballet, the early history of this stunning and powerful form was written on the stages of Paris.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN!
Tell us in the comments below how would you use dance to learn French faster?

Let me guess.