Fogelberg Rota, Stefano. "Dancing virtue: Educational aspects of Queen Christina’s court ballets."

Fogelberg Rota, Stefano. "Dancing virtue: Educational aspects of Queen Christina’s court ballets." In Virtue Ethics and Education from Late Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century, edited by Andreas Hellerstedt, 113-134. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018.

URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5npkbw.9?seq=1


Abstract:
Stefano Fogelberg Rota investigates the court ballet’s pedagogic character during the reign of Queen Christina. French ballet de cour was introduced to Sweden in 1638 as part of a larger effort to raise the cultural standing of the state. Ballet became a privileged medium for conveying the Queen’s political decisions and ambitions. These political messages were constantly communicated through the use of examples, portrayed as ideals of virtue. Virtue was used by Christina to shape an ideal image of her rule. Fogelberg Rota unveils both the underlying purposes of the representations and the rhetorical strategies employed. Finally, he examines the career of some of the noblemen dancing in order to show the importance of these performances for the advancement at court of Christina’s young aristocratic favourites.