La Belle Dame reunified Béatrice Massin with the repertoire of baroque dances. This exceptional moment offered the opportunity to move away from the “idolization” of the repertoire. More than anything else, it is a celebration of music and dance. We wanted to give the work a touch of humour, to embrace joy, in all these dances that are each more beautiful than the other.

The “Belle Dame” is, as such, an unprecedented piece of work, bringing together a range of baroque music and baroque dance. This French musical and choreographic legacy is presented in an absolute show that blends together living music and dance. The dances of the “Belle Dame” portray the music of 17th century France. To see and to recreate these dances is a way of re-questioning today's baroque music.

“La Belle Dame” is a tribute to Francine Lancelot and evokes her work. Dancer, choreographer, pedagogue and researcher, Francine Lancelot played a crucial role in the “belle danse” (the baroque dance) of the 17th century. This performance illuminates her sparkling personality, her delight in dancing, her willingness that shines forth in her teaching, her desire to discover. With her, knowing was always a matter for question, nothing was certain. These never-ending interrogations gave Béatrice Massin a taste for baroque and, as such, her questioning.

In 2011, the reruns of “Atys” and La Belle Dame are two magnificent opportunities to pay tribute to a beautiful lady of dance and to reconcile baroque music and dance once again, as one cannot exist without the other.

After dancing for several contemporary companies, including that of Susan Buirge, Béatrice Massin was engaged by Ris et Danceries in 1983, where for the next ten years she mixed performing with repertoire research, assistantship and choreography. She choreographed “Water Music” by Handel at the Metz Arsenal (1990), “Bastien et Bastienne” (1991), Mozart's “Les Petits Riens” (1991) for the Tourcoing opera workshop and also devised the choreography for “Medée”, set to music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1983).

In late 1993, Béatrice Massin founded her own company, Fêtes Galantes, for whom she devises one show each year. These are reconstructions of pieces from the baroque repertoire, but, above all, creations using the choreographic vocabulary of the seventeenth century: "Charpentier des ténèbres”, “Carte du tender, “Pipinone”, “Trio triptyque” and most recently, “Que ma joie demeure”. From December 1999 to July 2000, Béatrice Massin devised and directed the choreography for Gérard Corbiau's film “Le roi danse”. In September 2001, Béatrice Massin was invited by the Ballet de Lorraine to devise three baroque choreographies, which include "Noir, du côté de Callot” inspired by Callot's etchings.

Alongside her research and choreographic work, she presents educational programmes at Opéra Bastille, the Cité de la Musique and CND (National Dance Centre) in the form of danced lecture-recitals, courses and workshops. She offers the opportunity to discover baroque court dance as well as reconstructions of pieces from the baroque repertoire.

Source : Website of the Compagnie Fetes galantes

Further information : Company Website

Digital Resource by the Médiathèque du Centre national de la danse

http://mediatheque.cnd.fr/spip.php?page=mediatheque-numerique-ressource&id=PHO00003922