Ballet, Sleeping Beauty and Ba
Ballet, Sleeping Beauty and BaBoth Ballet Comique De La Reine and Sleeping Beauty have some similarities of the royal French Court such as costumes, some social dancing, mannerisms and scenery. They were both very expensive and lavish ballets. The first act of Sleeping Beauty is a portrayal of what the royal French courts were like around the same time as Ballet Comique De La Reine. But, both ballets have differences, especially in the time and location of the ballets. Besides the fact that Ballet Comique De La Reine was five hours long and Sleeping Beauty was approximately 1hr and 47 minutes, there is a difference in time periods as well. There is approximately a 209-year difference between the choreography of the two ballets. Ballet Comique De La Reine of 1581 was choreographed in France while Petipa choreographed Sleeping Beauty of 1890 in Russia. Ballet Comique De La Reine was held by the actual real French court while Sleeping Beauty was an imitation. Since Sleeping Beauty was supposed to resemble the court life of the Renaissance/Baroque period, the cast were only performers who played the roles of royalty. Ballet Comique De La Reine was done in 1581 when ballets were participatory. The performers interacted with the audience(including royalty). When Petipa choreographed Sleeping Beauty, the performers had become separate from the audience where they sat and watched the ballet without participating.
Because of the change in interactions between the audience and performers, the first noticeable difference is the construction of each of the stages. The introduction and conclusion to the performances begins differently in that Sleeping Beauty opens and closes with the large curtain revealing the stage. In Ballet Comique De La Reine, curtains to the stages hadn't been introduced yet. The stage was a reconstructed ballroom floor whereas the royal court stayed on the floor while the audience stood in the balconies. The audiences during the Renaissance didn't have a choice of seating such as the royal court. The royal court always had the best seats on the floor, in the center. Instead of the proscenium stage being raised drastically as in Sleeping Beauty, in Comique De La Reine, royalty were only on a slightly raised platform (dais); on the ballroom floor. The dais was located in the exact center on the far end of the stage.
The way in which the performers narrated and told the story of the ballets were considerably different. The performers in Ballet Comique De La Reine communicated to the audience and royalty not only through dance, but also in song, spoken verse and music. The character dancers in Sleeping Beauty were silent, but they narrated their parts of the ballet through mime along with strong gestural movements of the upper torso. The ballet dancers narrated Sleeping beauty through a lot of virtuostic movements instead of vocally. The challenging and advanced technique of the dancers was highlighted. For example,...
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