(Re:)Claiming Ballet (Reclaiming Ballet)

Description

Though ballet is often seen as a white, cis-heteropatriarchal form of dance, in fact it has been, and still is, shaped by artists from a much broader range of backgrounds. This collection looks beyond the mainstream, bringing to light the overlooked influences that continue to inform the culture of ballet. Essays illuminate the dance form’s rich and complex history and start much-needed conversations about the roles of class, gender normativity, and race, demonstrating that despite mainstream denial and exclusionary tactics, ballet thrives with “difference.”  With contributions from professional ballet dancers and teachers, choreographers, and dance scholars in Europe and the United States, the volume introduces important new thinkers and perspectives. An essential resource for the field of ballet studies and a major contribution to dance scholarship more broadly, (Re:) Claiming Ballet will appeal to academics, researchers, and scholars; dance professionals and practitioners;  and anyone interested in the intersection of race, class, gender, and dance. Front Cover Half Title Frontispice (Re:) Claiming Ballet Copyright Page Table of contents Epigraph Foreword Foreword Introduction: Regarding claiming ballet/ reclaiming ballet Many ways to read this book The book is in four parts Reference Part One Histories 1 Ballet, from property to art Introduction Exclusion Difference Conservation of the Manor House of Ballet Caring for the whole Manor House of Ballet Value 2: Historic value Value 3: Aesthetic value Value 4: Communal value A broad church Notes Bibliography 2 Should there be a female ballet canon? Seven radical acts of inclusion One: A first-person account of creating a female choreographic ghetto Two: Ninette de Valois (1898–2001) and the creation of the ballet canon Three: Bronislava Nijinska (1891–1972) and the shadow of men Four: Isabelle Fokine (b. 1958) and the validation of reconstruction Five: Karole Armitage (b. 1954) and funding the canon Six: The choreographic ghetto, incubators and other forms of professional mentoring of women: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Twyla Thar Seven: Women in the marketplace Conclusion Bibliography 3 Arabesque en noire: The persistent presence of Black dancers in the American ballet world Introduction The beginning of Black ballet in America New York City, NY Washington, DC Philadelphia, PA Professional ballet training schools Chicago, IL and New York City, NY Washington, DC Philadelphia, PA Boston, MA The tradition Black ballet companies, 1940s to 1960s The beginnings Negro Dance Theatre First Negro Classical Ballet and New York Negro Ballet Capitol Ballet Black ballet pioneers, 1950s Black ballet companies, 1960s to present Dance Theatre of Harlem Lines Contemporary Ballet Black ballet dancers Guest artists 1960s to 1980s 1990s to 2019 Black ballet dancers and academia Conclusion Notes Bibliography 4 Portrayals of Black people from the African diaspora in Western narrative ballets Introduction King Louis XIV’s appreciation of ancient Egyptian culture Creating the exotic in ballet Portrayals of Black people in ballet Nineteenth-century narrative ballets and Black people Egyptian themes and the Russian ballet The Pharaoh’s Daughter (1862) Cléopâtre (1909) Black slaves in Middle Eastern ballets La Bayadère (1877) Schéhérazade (1910) Conclusion Bibliography Part Two Knowledges 5 The traces of my ballet body Ballet and my body Starting a journey Travelling with Anna Venturing on The destination of my classroom Arriving in the truth of my body Notes Bibliography 6 Ballet beyond boundaries: A personal history Preface Beginnings The young dancer Intermezzo Scholarship Coda Notes Bibliography 7 Auftanzen statt Aufgeben and the Anti Fascist Ballet School Notes Bibliography 8 Dancing across historically racist borders Dance science and functional movement in performance and pedagogy Applying Katherine Dunham’s concept of form and function Reconstructing the aesthetic, culture and social proscriptions of Black and Brown bodies in classical ballet Bibliography Part Three Resiliences 9 The Dance Theatre of Harlem’s radicalization of ballet in the 1970s and 1980s Redefining whom ballet is for by engaging the community An organic, authentic curriculum of inclusion Breaking the line-challenging ballet’s concept of classicism Reimagining the aesthetics of ballet and her ballerina Radical redefinition of the tools of balletic classicism Redefining ballet repertoire to present works that are culturally reflective and innovative Looking back to move forward Bibliography 10 ‘Showgirl with red pointe shoes’: Personal testimony as social resilience 11 ‘Can you feel it?’: Pioneering pedagogies that challenge ballet’s authoritarian traditions Self-determination theory: A framework for change Self-determination theory in ballet: Maggie Black (1930–2015) Support for autonomy in Black’s teaching Support for belonging in Black’s teaching Support for competence in Black’s teaching Self-determination theory in ballet: Roger Tully (1928–2020) Support for autonomy in Tully’s teaching Support for belonging in Tully’s teaching Support for competence in Tully’s teaching Black, Tully and inclusive pedagogy Notes Bibliography 12 The ever after of ballet Forwards and backwards Fieldwork The Already Ballerinas Interventions in the field Outline of a theory of Trockadero Meanwhile, backstage Ever after Notes Bibliography 13 Ballethnic Dance Company builds community: Urban Nutcracker leads the way Urban Nutcracker and The Leopard Tale Ballet community-building Costumes and tights Artistic residence, garden, legacy Part Four Consciousnesses 14 The Counterpoint Project: When life doesn’t imitate art Bibliography 15 Ballet’s binary genders in a rainbow- spectrum world: A call for progressive pedagogies Gender inequity in ballet and beyond Contemporary notions of gender In the ballet studio Fresh approaches to pedagogy In conclusion Notes Bibliography 16 Dancing through Black British ballet: Conversations with dancers Introduction Introduction to the dancers Blazing the trail Trauma and resilience Places of safety and family building Transnational community Notes Bibliography 17 Ballet aesthetics of trauma, development and functionality Teaching a humane perspective Our stories Luc Elizabeth Convergences Our classes Techniques of awareness Framework for Integration Experiment Patterning Notes Bibliography Contributors Index Back Cover