abstract: ABSTRACT Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the brilliant swordsman, unequalled equestrian, athlete, dancer, violin virtuoso, composer and orchestral conductor is, and remains a singularly unique historical figure of the 18th century French Court of Louis XVI. Believed to be the first man of mixed race to compose classical music, Saint-Georges, who was frequently invited to the court at Versailles to make music with Marie Antoinette not only thrived, but excelled during the height of an appalling slave trade and one of the most explosive periods in European history: the French Revolution. Saint-Georges’ ever evolving talent, and without preamble composed six operas. This research document will introduce to the reader important milestones that influenced the direction of his life, as well as a survey of two arias and duet from the opera L’Amant Anonyme using the paradigm of dance metrics as described in “Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni,” by Wye Jamison Allanbrook and “Classical Music, Expression, Form and Style” by Leonard Ratner. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2016

The topic of my thesis is fencing which is kind of sport close to me, however not widely known in public. In level of theory I write about history of fencing, introduce fencing as a sport discipline and describe specifications of trainings. In research part by questionnaires and created graphs and charts of performance based on representative set of respondents I try to find an impact of the social background to fencer's performance. The focus of my work is to disclose whether good social background can have any influence to good fencer's performance or not.