The Loves of Mars and Venus

In his outstanding serious work The Loves of Mars and Venus (1717) he combined an interest in classical literature with the drama that characterized Italian pantomime and English theatre. The story was told through gesture and movement without spoken or sung explanation. Because of the experimental nature of the ballet,…

…in London John Weaver produced The Loves of Mars and Venus, which he claimed echoed the pantomimes of ancient Rome. This was the forerunner of several pioneering attempts to weave dance and mime into a narrative work, notably by Franz Hilverding and Gasparo Angiolini in Vienna and Jean-Baptiste de Hesse…

…Weaver, who in his ballet The Loves of Mars and Venus (1717) experimented with giving the characters gestures to express their individual personalities. Later in the 18th century Jean-Georges Noverre reacted against the purely decorative form into which ballet had developed. He believed that mime should be as close to…