The Dancing Sun King

“L’État, c’est moi” is the statement, if not verified, that King Louis XIV (1638-1715) is said to have proclaimed before parliament in April 1655 and which became the guiding principle of monarchical absolutism. Whether it is said or not, Louis XIV lived and embodied the centralist fusion of power at all levels like no other before and after him. The entire French court culture was exclusively tailored to the person of the unlimited ruler – a baroque total work of art that encompassed all the arts.

Dance, in particular, has played a central role since the marriage of Catherine de Medici to France in 1533. The male nobles devoted themselves to him on the stage of the court theatre, while at the numerous balls both sexes danced in baroque (or Belle dance) practiced.

The talent for dance, the epitome of mastery of body and mind, was an important asset for a successful career at court. There it was always a matter of “imitating” the consummate courtier to win – and keep – the favor of the king. Like the war, the dance in Paris thus produced its heroes, some of whom “would have been in top form”, the historian and abbot Michel de Marolles recalled in his memoirs.

Louis XIV was practically born with a passion for dancing: it came to celebrate his birth «Ballet de la Felicite» at Saint-Germain Castle for the execution. Dance played an important role in his upbringing. Under the guidance of the best dance masters, he would have practiced his style and expression every day. From 1651 he performed in the Hofschouwburg. On stage there, at the age of 14, he proved that he not only mastered the ballet dance, but could also use it very skillfully as a political tool.

In the first weeks of 1653, the royal troops defeated the oppositional «Fronde» – the armed revolts against the French court and government that had raged since 1648. The latter consisted – instead of the still underage king – of the Queen Mother Anna of Austria and the de facto reigning Prime Minister Cardinal Mazarin, who was hated by the nobility and the people alike.

To celebrate the triumph, Louis XIV commissioned a lavish ballet spectacle to be understood as an allegory of the restoration of law and order, the submission of the nobility to the victorious monarchy. Which «Ballet Royal de la Nuit» was at the same time a declaration of war against subversives of all persuasions and played a central role in consolidating the king’s absolute power. His sensational performance in this ballet marks the beginning of a sophisticated propaganda machine, anticipating his coronation (1654) and the proclamation of his autocracy (1661).

The premiere of «Ballet Royal de la Nuit» took place on February 23, 1653 at the Petit-Bourbon royal mansion in Paris. It was not yet a narrative ballet, as it had only been known since the mid-18th century, but consisted of sequences of episodes with allegorical, mythological, exotic and knightly elements. Because ballet was not yet an independent art form at that time, music, dance, play, song and performance met each other as a collective work of the performing arts.

The central message of the production was to unite everything: with the death of Louis XIII, the king’s father, night fell on France. The darkness produced the disaster (culminating in the “Fronde”) that successfully defeated Louis XIV, bringing the nation out of times of uncertainty and back into light, thanks to his divinely legitimized rule that promised France a glorious future.

The king embodied in it six different roles «Ballet Royal de la Nuit»: an hour, a game, a drunkard, a curious man, an angry man and – in the brilliant final scene – the rising sun. In the latter he appeared as Apollo, the mythological god of the arts and the sun. His apparition followed the scene with the morning star, played by “Monsieur”, the king’s younger brother, and the dawn Aurora, who carried in her chariot the dew and the twelve hours of the day. She left the stage with the following words: “Le Soleil qui me suit c’est le jeune LOUIS” (“The sun that follows me is young LOUIS)”.

Using elaborate special effects and mechanical stage technology from the architect and set designer Giacomo Torelli, nicknamed «Grand Sorcier» («great wizard»), the king was hoisted into the stage on a kind of jack-up platform. He entered the stage with a radiant diadem and an elaborate plume. His ornate costume, full of jeweled appliqués and gold embroidery, featured the motif of the sun throughout. The king sparkled and shone in the light of thousands of candles. In pointed heels and with small, dancing steps, he walked through the room with elegance and dignity. His open arms with the gracefully spread hands supported the seemingly floating balancing act, lifted from all things earthly, like the life-giving central star at the center of the planetary system.

Louis XIV was accompanied by specially selected courtiers and professional dancers, singers and acrobats. Among other things, these represented various virtues – including honor, grace, moderation, superiority and glory. Like planets, they revolved in their regular orbits around the sun – symbolizing how dependent the nobility was on the infallible ruler who was above everything and directed everything.

Among the enthusiastic spectators were Cardinal Mazarin, who was also the King’s godfather, and the Queen Mother Anna of Austria, who must have seen her belief confirmed that the unexpected birth of her son meant a great fate for him: after three miscarriages in At a young age and after twenty-two years of childless marriage – the couple lived at odds and therefore largely separated – Anna unexpectedly became pregnant at the age of 37 and nine months later gave birth to her first healthy child with the long-awaited heir to the throne .

Which «Ballet Royal de la Nuit» was a huge success and was repeated six more times. The iconic role of the sun god was like a second birth for Louis XIV, who henceforth bore his well-known nickname “Sun King”. From that moment on, the sun became his favorite emblem.

Louis XIV was not only an active dancer and lover of the court ballet, but also its greatest patron. In 1661 he called the «Academy Royale de la Dance» and made his most important teacher, the dancer and choreographer Pierre Beauchamp, the first ballet master. The five positions of ballet that are still essential today go back to him. In addition, also founded by the king in 1669 «Academy Royale de Musique» the dance academy later developed into one of the internationally important institutions of the Paris Opera.

The dance, which was increasingly performed by ballet professionals, was thus separated from courtly ceremonies during the reign of Louis XIV – which suited the king: he soon could no longer keep up with the professionalisation. In the ballet comedy by Molière and Jean-Baptiste Lully «Les Amants magnifiques» he retired from the stage as a dancer in 1670.