preview

Biography Of George Balanchine 's ' The Ballet '

Decent Essays

George Balanchine once said “The Ballet is purely a female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is a gardener” (Goellner and Murphy, 36) , but this ideology doesn’t apply to everyone. King Louis XIV of France wasn’t a gardener, but the beautiful flower. He started practicing ballet from a young age. The ballet was rising in the late 17th century and it had an important role both in social and political sections. Also named as the Sun king, Louis XIV had the longest reign of absolutism. To strengthen his absolute monarchy, Louis XIV used ballet as one of his political tools. Louis XIV was born as a son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was portrayed as a gift from God and a miracle as he was born after four stillbirths of her mother. When King Louis XIII of France died, Louis XIV was only four years old, which led his mother Anne to become the Regent under the guidance of Cardinal Mazarin. Since the country was ruled by a Regent with the help of ministers and a child waiting to be a king, a few nobles saw this as an opportunity to gain more power, which became the beginning of “Fronde”. Louis’s throne and his life was in serious danger. Seeing all this chaos, the citizens started losing faith in the court government. To regain their faith, Mazarin, the chief minister used Louis’ title and talent for dancing to initiate an aura of divinity around the notability of the king (Hilton 5). That’s how Louis

Get Access