5/5 Jeremy N. 5 years ago on Google
Once
there
was
a
great
King
who
was
as
much,
if
not
more,
a
great
Dancer.
For
Kingdoms
rise
and
fall,
but
what
he
did
for
the
art
of
dance
is
a
gift
bequeathed
to
the
entire
world
for
all
generations....
How
can
this
dancer,
400
years
later,
relate
what
it
means
to
dance
on
the
stage
plating
to
the
Royal
Box
where
Louis
XVI
and
Marie-Antoinette
used
to
watch
operas
and
ballets
by
Rameau,
Gluck,
Marain-Marais,
Steffani,
Lully,
etc.
To
traverse
the
staircases
and
corridors
frequented
by
the
'Sun-King'
himself.
Louis
XIV
--
the
king
who
was
such
an
avid
and
proficient
dancer
himself
and
dissatisfied
with
his
court
entertainments
being
limited
by
the
skills
of
aristocratic
amateurs,
decreed
that
there
be
l'Academie
de
la
Danse,
a
school
where
non-nobility,
commoners
who
showed
talent
and
temperament
fit
for
it,
were
to
devote
their
time
to
rigorous
daily
training
and
emerge
having
become
the
first
of
my
profession's
lineage:
classical
ballet
dancers.
400
years
later,
in
1996,
I
was
in
the
first
season
of
performances
to
take
place
here,
on
that
stage,
in
that
Theatre
since
the
revolution,
and
have
been
back
5
more
times
over
the
intervening
22
years.
A
truly
great
honor
for
me
and
the
group
with
whom
I
still
dance,
Opera
Atelier,
and
it's
directors
who
were
also
my
teachers
in
the
art
that
sprang
from
the
culture
that
once
had
a
king
with
a
passion
for
the
form
and
style,the
logic
and
the
symmetry,
the
physicality,
expressiveness;
and
the
beauty
of
Ballet.
