Books published by Noverre Press

The problem of recording movements of the human body isalmost as old as the art of dancing: it has been said that theancient Egyptians had a system of notation, but there is noreal evidence to prove that this was so.The present system was developed by the Russian dancerVladimir Ivanovich Stepanov at the end of the 19th century.It is based on existing music notation, and although basicis certainly practical: one has only to read the officialtestimonial, signed by such people as Petipa and Johanssen,to realise this. Lessons in the system were given at theImperial Ballet Schools, and many ballets of the periodwere notated in it.Stepanov's book is no more than a skeleton key, showingthe general principles of his system and their application,yet even as it stands it can be used to decipher old notations- it was by means of notations made in Stepanov's systemthat Nicolai Sergeyev was able to reproduce The SleepingPrincess for Diaghilev, and other ballets for the Sadler'sWells Ballet and International Ballet. More recently, otherhands have used the system to revive ballets long thoughtto have been irrevocably lost.

Tamara Karsavina, premiere danseuse with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, was one of the greatest dancers of the 20th century. Works were choreographed on her by Fokine, Massine, and Nijinsky, who was also one of her regular partners. This book, first pubished in a limited edition in 1922, is both a biography and appreciation of a great artist.

This is the book of reminiscences of the Ballets Russes which MrBeaumont, as the best qualified man in England, has, for the last tenyears, been urged to write. Readers will find that it is more intimateand personal than any of Mr Beaumont's previous works. From1912 he saw every London season of Diaghilev's Ballet, at first, as amember of the public, and, after 1918, both before and behind thecurtain, as a friend of the Director and his lieutenants and of manyof the Company.This book records the Ballet's activities in London,and a personal critical impression of the principal dancers in theroles that they made famous. Little intimate incidents are included,and pen pictures of distinguished personalities in private life. It tellsfor the first time, and for all time, what the Diaghilev Ballet wasreally like.

A facsimile of the 1706 edition of John Weaver's translation of Raoul Auger Feuillet's 1701 dancing manual 'Choregraphie, together with a facsimile of Weaver's own 1706 publication 'A Small Treatise of Time and Cadence in Dancing'.Many examples in Feuillet's own notation system are included.