L'Académie Royale de Danse

The first dance institution established in the Western world, founded in Paris in 1661 by Louis XIV. He gave thirteen dancing masters the task of establishing standards of perfection for the art of dance. This group met regularly (often at the tavern L'Epée de Bois) with the brief to codify existing court and character dances, as well as to subject private and public dance teachers to examination. Those who passed were given the diplomas necessary to practise their profession and appointed Académicien de l'Art de la Danse. Noverre attacked the Academy for having published no treatise on dance theory or technique, though he joined its ranks in 1775. After the fall of the monarchy in 1789 it was closed down, though was briefly revived (1856-66) under the title Société Académie de Professeurs-Artistes du Théâtre de l'Opéra, with the prime concern of teaching ballroom dances.