Les Cotillons de Jacques Dezais

A rather less known choreographer is Jacques Dezais. He lived in the first half of 18th century and regarded himself as a follower of R. A. Feuillet. In 1726 he published a collection of dances named Premier Livre de Contre-Dances à Quatre, à six & à Huit. Unfortunately the publication was lost when the famous Anna-Amalie Library in Weimar burned in 2004. Fortunately some copies survived...

Milo Momm from Berlin has studied the collection of dances. At the 2. Rothenfelser Tanzsymposium in Mai 2008 he gave a presentation on his research work about Jacques Dezais. He reconstructed some of the dances from the source and together with his ensemble l'espace and Walter Waidosch and his musician friends they gave a very nice dance demonstration of four Cotillons.

Further details can be found in the conference transcript available via the fa-gisis edition.