Sunday, March 13, 2016

The First Ballet in Britain

From Madame Gilflurt:
Today we leave the salon behind to take a trip to the theatre and a very notable date in the calendar of British dance where, on 2nd March 1717, the curtain went up at Drury Lane on The Loves of Mars and Venus, a piece by an English choreographer named John Weaver.

In itself a theatrical premier may not seem like a particularly noteworthy event but The Loves of Mars and Venus holds an important place in the history of dance in Britain as it was the first ballet to be performed in the country. The kernel of the ballet's story is from Greek mythology though Weaver's main source for adaptation was a 1695 play of the same name written by PA Motteux. (Read more.)
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