PECOUR ACADEMY – BAROQUE DANCE IN PARIS – 3rd EDITION IN 2025
This Baroque dance academy offers in-depth work on the technical sources, the repertoires and the challenges of putting them into practice. It is aimed at an international audience by offering bilingual and intermediate-advanced to professional education. The schedule consists of morning technical classes and afternoon workshops with Irene Feste, Hubert Hazebroucq and Guillaume Jablonka.
Thème : 300th anniversary of the publications of Pierre Rameau and Anthony L’Abbé. These two personalities published 300 years ago major treatises or choreographies for baroque dance. In 2025 Pécour Academy takes the opportunity to put the works of these two authors into practice during a week, at the end of August. It is open to intermediate-advanced dancers to professionals. The morning technical repertoire will be based on Canaries, Passacaille and Loure by L’Abbé with the 3 usual teachers. The afternoon workshops and presentations will connect Rameau’s teachings with other essential sources in order to better understand the dance we practice.
Dates confirmed from 23rd to 29th of August 2025 / Christine Bayle will offer an exceptional master-class at the end of the session.
The last edition took place from Saturday, August 17, 2024 6 pm to Friday, August 23, 2024 4 pm, in Micadanses (Paris 4th arrondissement) and had as theme Games and Variations. Discover on this page the details of the 2024 edition.
Educational organization
- For the morning technical class, each teacher offers different choreographies. Participants choose only one course and take it all week. The afternoon workshops are organized in two different slots (14:15-15:30 then 15:45-17:00), each participant chooses a workshop for the first slot and another workshop for the second slot.
Click on the picture of each professor to read his/her biography
Repertoire worked with Hubert Hazebroucq
- Sarabande de Mr de Beauchamp on an unidentified tune (LM 7700) : Consult the choreography
Advanced-Professional Level
The « Sarabande de Mr Beauchamp » is one of the very few surviving pieces composed by the well-known dancing-master. The composition is refined and contrasted, with unusual steps at times. The relationship to the music is particularly subtle and varied, demonstrating the « fine and learned cadence » typical of this choreographer. It allows modulations of dynamics and movement quality. We will emphasizing this musicality, but also the importance of spatiality, and explore the interpretative possibilities that such an « abstract » piece opens up.
Repertoire worked with Irène Feste
- Chacone of Galathee performd’ by Mr. La Garde and Mrs Santlow by A. L’Abbé, tune by JB Lully (LM/1860) : Consult the choreography
Intermediate-Advanced Level
The Pastorale héroïque Acis et Galatée was Jean-Batispte Lully’s last completed work, in 1686. A resounding success, it was revived many times and exported abroad.
In England, Anthony L’Abbé choreographed the magnificent chaconne from the second act and published it in his collection A New Collection of dances, in 1725 (FL/1725.1/04).
The workshop will be an opportunity to reveal this virtuoso chaconne, in duet, in all its technical and artistic dimensions.
Repertoire worked with Guillaume Jablonka
- Entrée de deux [femmes] dancée par Mlle Provost et Mlle Guiot à l’opera d’yssée by GL Pécour, tune by AC Destouches (LM/2820) : Consult the choreography
Intermediate-Advanced Level
Two female hunters of the suite of Diana and Cupid interpret this gavotte which includes many springing steps. It was performed by two eminent soloists in 1708 on the stage of the Paris Opera. The work of the class will focus on the lightness of the supporting feet and the grace of the high arms on stage without forgetting the endurance necessary for a long dance. A first warm-up time will be based on the Flexible Barres Technique: a somatic work around the bodily sensations of the body moving in space will gradually lead to the management of gravity balance on a single foot in «élevé». Mental images will be a very strong support to this result.
Afternoon workshops
Time slot 14:15-15:30 : La Gavotte de Vestris (I. Feste) OR Love and Olympic Games (H. Hazebroucq + G. Jablonka)
In 1785, Maximilien Gardel choreographed a solo for Auguste Vestris that was to become a milestone in the dance world, and which was to take his name: the Gavotte de Vestris, taken from the opera Panurge dans l’île des lanternes, by A. E. M. Grétry.
We will look at different versions of this gavotte: for two, in trio, for eight, based on different dancing masters (Jean-Etienne Despréaux, TB Dance book 1826, Michel Saint-Léon, Charles Blasis, Théleur, etc.).
Love and Olympic Games
The expressiveness and theatricality of the dance music of Jean-Philippe Rameau will be the thread of this workshop. We will explore two handwritten musical scores annotated with scenic indications: the games of zephirs and nymphs with Hubert Hazebroucq, then the various prizes and competitions of isthmic games with Guillaume Jablonka.
Time Slot 15:45-17:00 : Feuillet Notation, reading and writing (G. Jablonka + I. Feste) OR Caprice in the ballroom minuet in the Early 18th c. (H. Hazebroucq)
Feuillet Notation, reading and writing
Intended for a beginner or intermediate audience in the reading of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, this workshop will allow to navigate through the treatise Choreography of R.A. Feuillet published in 1700: reviewing the basic rules, deciphering some tables of steps, exploring the movement of the arms on page 102, deciphering new pages of notated dances, writing some baroque dance exercises…
The Caprice in the ballroom minuet in the early Eighteenth Century
This workshop will focus on variations, ornated steps or combinations of steps that can replace the basic steps according to precise rules when performing the usual figures of the ballroom minuet, especially in the main figure (S, Z or 2). Some possible variations of space will also be presented in the ordinary figures of this dance. Our major source for this will be the treatise Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister by G. Taubert (1717).
Dates and schedule
- Sa Aug.17th 2024 6 pm : welcoming and collective dancing time
- Sun Aug 18th till Thu 22nd : 10 am-6 pm technical class, workshops, talks
- Fri Aug 23rd : 10 am-1 pm classes then public presentation gathering all participants at 2 pm
- Optional,convivial moments : walk through the Paris of dancing masters, dinner on the banks of the Seine…
Training locations and access
- Micadanses, 15, 16 et 20 rue Geoffroy l’Asnier, 75004 Paris : we will train in three different studios MayB, Noces et Biped.
- Public transport access : Metro 7 Pont Marie or Metro 1 St Paul, easily accessible also over Châtelet-Les Hallesstation then a 10 minutes walk.
These studios are easily accessible by Châtelet-Les Halles, the main metro and RER exchange station, for those who would choose accommodation far from Paris and therefore cheaper.
If you have troubles finding an accomodation (prices or availability), please contact us and we will try to find a solution.
The area has supermarkets and fast food options for easy and convenient lunches. It is possible to eat outdoors to enjoy the neighborhood or indoors in case of rain.
Cost of Training
- Registration fee : 50 € obligatory to validate the registration and non-refundable
- Educational fee : 280 € for registration before May 1st 2024, otherwise 320 € for registration after this date
Accommodation and meals are the responsibility of the participants. For advice, do not hesitate to contact us.
To register
Complete the form by clicking on the button below. You will receive a response as soon as possible. Professors reserve the right to make you another proposal. If your request is accepted, the terms of payment will be specified. For candidates whom teachers do not know, please attach a CV and a link to a video where you are seen dancing.
Why this academy ?
- Baroque dance is reaching an increasingly large international audience and is gaining ground in more and more different countries. However, once at a certain level, it is often difficult for amateur and professional dancers to continue to progress due to the lack of advanced students to fill local classes. This academy proposes to gather for a week these dancers in demand of a high level work provided by quality teachers.
Why referring to Pecour ?
- Guillaume Louis Pécour was a key figure in the dance world around 1700. He succeeded Pierre Beauchamp as ballet master to the court and Opera. Both his ball dances and his ballet entrées are transcribed by Feuillet into the Chorégraphie notation system and Pierre Rameau receives from him a public approval for the content of the publication Le Maître à Danser. Pécour is the keystone of the dance building in the Baroque era. It then seems relevant as a reference for a baroque dance academy in Paris.
Why these trainers ?
- The trainers are all professionals of the Baroque world in activity and with a recognized career. They are particularly distinguished by their involvement in practical research activities around baroque dance.
Which prerequisites ?
- This academy is aimed at participants with a technical level in baroque dance from intermediate/advanced to advanced/professional.
What outfit to learn ?
- The teaching team expressly requests a pair of adapted dance shoes with wide heel. (for example Cabaret model of the brand Sansha at 28 to 35 € per pair). The rest of the outfit should be soft and comfortable but not too loose at the legs so that teachers can correct students.
What is baroque dance ?
- What is now called «baroque dance» is the result of some fifty years of research into the restitution and putting on shows of the academic dance of French origin practiced in the 17th and 18th centuries.
A lire aussi :
- Qu’est-ce que la danse baroque ?
- Les Clefs de la Culture Baroque pour mieux comprendre cette époque, sa danse, et ce qu’on en fait aujourd’hui
- Le parcours de Guillaume Jablonka, directeur artistique de Divertimenty
- Découvrez les artistes qui collaborent avec Divertimenty
- Soutenez la compagnie
- La presse : ils parlent de nous
- Ils nous ont accueilli
About the compagnie
Since 2006, Divertimenty has been offering live performances and actions around the dance culture of the 18th century. The creations are fortified by current theoretical and practical research to anchor the contemporary aspect of the new baroque generation that the company embodies.
Contact
contact at divertimenty.org
Choreographer
Guillaume Jablonka
+33 06.62.52.50.28
Administrative contact
Vanessa Colas
+33 06.42.87.00.62
Mentions légales
Directeur de la publication : Martine Ravaine
Réalisation : Rachel COUDRAY pour POLIPHILIA – 2014
Hébergement : OVH
Crédits photographiques : Mélanie Foucault, Christophe Perricon, Valérian, Poliphilia, Alice Bloch (Opéra comique)
SIRET : 507 739 662 00025
APE : 9001 Z
Licence d’entrepreneur du spectacle PLATESV-R-2021-013023
Organisme de formation professionnelle 11 92 17047 92