P. Siris was an English

dancer Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...

, dancing master and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

. His first name and dates of birth and death are uncertain. He may have been born in France. He was active in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

from about 1705 to at least 1735. In 1706 he published a translation of Feuillet’s ''Choregraphie'' (Paris, 1700) into English as ''The Art of Dancing'' at about the same time as the better known translation by John Weaver. In his ''The Art of Dancing'', which explains the

Beauchamp-Feuillet notation Beauchamp–Feuillet notation is a system of dance notation used in Baroque dance. The notation was commissioned by Louis XIV (who had founded the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661), and devised in the 1680s by Pierre Beauchamp. The notatio ...

and gives two notated dance examples, Siris says that he studied with

Pierre Beauchamp Pierre Beauchamp or Beauchamps (; 30 October 1631 – February 1705) was a French choreographer, dancer and composer, and the probable inventor of Beauchamp–Feuillet notation. His grand-father was called Christophe (a musician) and his fa ...

, the true creator of the notation, "about 18 years before". There are 5 extant examples of dances he choreographed, notated, and published: * La Camilla, 1708, a rigadoon * The Brawl of Audenarde, 1709, a dance suite: courante, minuet, gigue * The New English Passepied, 1712 * The Siciliana, 1714 * The Diana, 1725, dedicated to

Lady Diana Spencer Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

, whom he also taught when she was 14, December 1724 to May 1725. The names of two other dances are known: * The Dutchess, 1711 * The Princess Anna, 1715, a gavotte He is mentioned as a dance performer in London in 1705 and 1706. He was one of the subscribers to the 1735 publication of ''The Art of Dancing'' by Kellom Tomlinson.

References

External links

* P. Siris: An Early Eighteenth-Century Dancing-Master. Author: Jennifer Thorp. Source: Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research, Autumn, 1992, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 71–92. Published by: Edinburgh University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1290655 {{DEFAULTSORT:Siris, P. 18th-century British dancers English choreographers