Celestial ball and terrestrial harmony: the court ballet as a prescriptive image of cosmic and political harmony in France (1610-1661)

Scenic spectacle, divertissement and courtly ritual at the same time, the court ballet was composed, as spectacle genre, in the late sixteenth century, proving to be extremely popular and recurrent to the dynamics of French court until seventeenth century\'s last decades. According to the humanistic aspirations in reconstitution of the ancient Greek total drama, court ballet proposes a fusion of the arts, uniting harmoniously poetry, music, singing, dancing, painting, scenery, machinery, heraldry, finally, various arts and devices in a great spectacle, erudite and pleasant at once. In this complex composition of so many interlaced arts, dance occupied a prominent position, as well as dance was a very important activity in the sociability of the court. Court ballet was essentially performed in a courtly ambience and in reverence to the king, with the effective participation of the courtiers, ladys, princes, queen and also the French king in the stage, dancing and performing various roles. Based on the study of the libretti and descriptions of court ballets produced between 1610 and 1661 at the French court, this study proposes to understand how this court spectacle is constructed as a prescriptive representation of power in the context of the Ancien Régime, based on the allegorical notion of \"harmony\". Thus, we investigate how court ballet create an allegorical image of cosmic harmony and how it contributes to strengthen ways of thinking, being and acting of the courtiers, as well as moral values and political pacts that keep (artificially) the social body in order. (AU)