Lettres sur la Danse, sur les Ballets et les Arts (1803)

Acclaimed throughout Europe as the reformer of ballet, Noverre published a new edition of his Lettres sur la danse in 1803, adding some twenty newletters to the fifteen already published in 1760. In these, he draws attention to his own pivotal role in ballet reform at the end of the 1750s and discusses the innovations brought about through his ballets during the 1760s and 1770s (Médée, Les Danaides, La Mort d’Agamemnon, Le Horaces et les Curiaces), in which he aims at opening up new paths for the reformed ballet. In her introductory essays, Flavia Pappacena analyses the theoretical basis of Noverre’s reform, retracing its link to contemporary culture and, by means of a comparison of the Lettres with the libretti from Noverre’s ballets, providing an original comparative analysis of theory and practice.