Thursday, December 10, 2015

Pierre Rameau Artifacts

This is one out of two books that I had published about dance. The cover is very simple with a light red design going through the middle of the book cover. “The Dancing Masters” is about all the technical things that are involved in ballet. It also explains the dance notation system, which is a method where you could learn fashionable dances. (cite: Amazon.com)
 This is a picture of me when I was fairly young and during my dancing days. I had long curly hair that always got in the way when I danced! My face is expressed as very pleasant because I was a happy guy! (cite: wikipedia.org)
This is a page from my book, almost all the pages were written like this. They occasionally had an illustration of either dance positions or how to execute the steps. (cite: openlibrary.org)
This is a picture of me and my partner Elisabetta Farnese. This is one of our most popular pictures together. It shows the beginning right before our dance was about to begin. We had always worked well together. (cite:wikipedia.org)
This is picture of the ballroom me and my partner had danced in. We always had a huge audience, and as you can see everybody who was watching had been standing around us in a circular way and not so much sitting down like how you see ballets now a days. (cite: minhson.chez.com)
This is a sheet of music that I had danced to and I had put in my books that I had published. It wasn’t as long of a piece that I would usually had danced to. I really like this piece of music! It is very pretty to partner with and it spoke to me at the time. (cite: jp.rameau.free.fr)
These are dance positions I had drawn and they are displayed in my book because they show the technical steps of ballet and how to execute them properly. These have been used for generations because they are so helpful to ballet dancers today. I personally would use these pictures and descriptions every time I dance because it helps me to remember how to use my technic to make my dancing cleaner. (cite: wikipedia.org)


This is a drawing of me during my dance career. I’m currently in the fifth position of ballet technic. There are six positions, and my arms are in neutral. Fifth position is the most common used steps that’s why I have this picture show because it is used so much in the ballet world. This picture is on page 20 of my book. (cite:pinterest.com)
 
This picture is also displayed in my book. These drawings are the basic arm positions in ballet and ballroom. They use these positions to partner a girl. I had to be pretty muscular at times because when I had to lift girls it made me stronger. In the second picture the girls would wrap their arms over top and we would walk and then start our dance. (cite; Pinterest.com)
This last picture is a magazine article of my partner I had danced with for most of my dance career. She is very elegant and she has the same dress on as we had partnered in. I thought this cover was very interesting and detailed. It isn’t of me but it shows my partner’s beauty and she was a big part of my life. (cite: www.amazon.com)

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Pierre Rameau Interview



Reporter- Hello Pierre! I will be interviewing you today on things from your childhood and career since I have heard your dancing career was very successful. I am very excited to hear these answers from “the Pierre Rameau!”

Pierre- Yes, I’m very excited for this interview. I rarely do any greetings anymore so I’m happy to be back in this environment!

Reporter-Well let’s get started! Ok, so tell me where you grew up and the time period u grew up in?

Pierre- Well I was born on January 1, 1674 in France. I lived during the enlightenment era which was right when dance had been developed and a lot had been changing.
         Dance had first occurred in Europe especially France which is right where I grew up in the 17th-18th century. Popular dance styles that had been revealed were bourree, gavotte, and passepied. Yet I preferred the classical ballet and ballroom style.

Reporter- Very interesting! Ballet is very technical which I hear is why u wrote a book on the positions in ballet?

Pierre-Yes I’ve written 2 books in my time. On the side from dancing I was an author.

Reporter-We will get into yours books soon but next question, what events in your early life made you get interested in the arts like dance?

Pierre- Well I think the things that got me so interested in dance was when Moliere and Lully had been collaborating and they had asked me to choreograph they’re piece. I was eventually called the “superintendent of the king’s ballet.” Then I got a lot of credit for standardizing the five foot positions of ballet which was outstanding for my career!

Reporter-Next question, what role did mentors play in helping you develop the interests and talents you have as an artist?

Pierre- I really didn’t have that many mentors except my parents. They have given me a lot with dance. They always tell me that dance is a poem and I’ve gone by that moto for a good portion of my life. That moto has kept me going in choreographing and writing.
         I think I had one role model in my life and that was the queen of Spain which I had the pleasure of partnering with in my life. She was very strict and focused but she was a very nice lady and worked hard in her dance career especially when it came to us dancing together.

Reporter- She was a very successful queen in ruling and in dancing. Question 4, what was the world of art like in your particular art field when you entered it?

Pierre- The art of dance was just starting to develop when my career was just starting to take off. In 1672 Louis XIV had established the first dance academy within the Academie Royale de Musique. And to this day it’s known as the Paris Opera.

Reporter- I someday want to visit the Paris Opera since it’s the oldest running ballet company. We are half way through the questions! Ok next, how did the major cultural, economic and political situations of the time impact your work?

Pierre- I think with the enlightenment just now coming into place as my career started it changed how people viewed dance until it changed completely.
 Our society at the time wasn’t the same as it was before the enlightenment. The culture of dance was always changing whether that was people improving and becoming better or people doing too much dance to continue their career.

Reporter- Question 6, what were your major accomplishments and the methods you used in your art?

Pierre- My major accomplishments that I think I’ve achieved were my two books that I had published about dance. My first book was titled, “Le Maitre a Danser” which was a manual giving the basic instructions on ballroom dancing but in the French style. The majority of the book was based on posture, reverences, steps, and ballroom minuet. But the other part is only about the arms.
 And my second book was titles, “Abbrege de la Nouvelle Methode,” which includes many choreographed pieces by Pecour in new notation. Yet it wasn’t the best information, it provided dance historians clarifications on how to execute dance steps. I think this got my work out there.

Reporter- These books are still used today so I think you were very successful! Question 7, what were the key opportunities you had that led to turning points in your life and art?

Pierre- I think when I partnered with Elisabeth Farnese was an opportunity that led to a turning point in my love for dance because she was the queen of Spain and she had led me into the right path for dance. The ballroom dancing we performed was my strongest which led me to writing my 2 books.
         Another turning point in my life was when I was the first director that had a huge influence in the development of professional dance throughout all of Europe.

Reporter- She was very successful and I think u had turned out the same. Question 8, what hardships or roadblocks did you have to overcome in order to be an artist?

Pierre- I think when everybody was publishing books at the same time, it was hard to get noticed when everybody was publishing about dance. But I think my books had stood out more because no one thought to publish a book on the executions of steps and the arm placements.

Reporter- I think you’re books were more helpful to dancers today that’s why so many people remember and use your books. Question 9, what personal stories best illustrate how u became successful in the arts?

Pierre- I think when I started studying baroque dance, I had tried very hard to be as authentic as possible. It was hard for me to shoe my inner artist in dancing and writing. I loved my personal style and my technique as I trained in the early 1700s.
The costumes we always wore were so handsome and very in style from head to toe. All the dances that were taught were well but not perfected when it came to performing them on stage. My peers I danced with showed such livelihood when they danced which made me want to dance!

Reporter- Okay Pierre, last question that I have for you! How did your work impact the world of dance?

Pierre- my work as a dancer and author I think has changed many artists back when I had danced because I had shown my passion threw my movement of dancing and maybe not always out loud so id put it all on paper and that is how my books had been established!
 My love for dance really had carried my life on when I wanted to stop. Sometimes I wanted to give up on dance if I couldn’t accomplish something or if I had hit a roadblock in life that I felt I couldn’t get through, that’s when dance came into place because it had really set my life up and made me push through and I think in my eyes that I have become a very special person to all my peers in the dance industry and all the people that read my books J

Reporter- Wow! Very nice from you! I hope to do this again, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down and answer my questions.

Pierre-your very welcome my lady, I enjoyed it!


Sites:
- http://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-Rameau
-http://michaelminn.net/andros/biographies/rameaupierre/
-http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100402984
-http://www.biographies.net/people//en/pierre_rameau
-www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-342700821/enlightenment-and-ballet.html
-danceinhistory.com/cateory/dancing-at-court/
-http://memory.Ioc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/musdibib:@field
-http://ballet.utah.edu/ballet4410/chapter9.html
-http://searchingformodernworld.blogspot.com
-http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/books