Overview

In Dancing the Fairy Tale, Laura Katz Rizzo claims that The Sleeping Beauty is both a metaphor for ballet itself, and a powerful case study for examining ballet and its production and performance. Using Marius Petipa and Pyotr Tchaikovsky's classical dance--specifically as it was staged in Philadelphia over nearly 70 years--Katz Rizzo looks at the gendered nature of women staging, coaching, and reanimating this magnificent ballet, and well as the ongoing push-pull between tradition and innovation within the art form. Using extensive archival research, dance analysis, and American feminist theory, Dancing the Fairy Tale places women at the center of a historical narrative to reveal how the production and performance of The Sleeping Beauty in the years between 1937 and 2002 made significant contributions to the development and establishment of an American classical ballet. Katz Rizzo highlights not only what women have done not only behind the scenes, as administrators, producers, or directors of ballet companies and schools, but also as active interpreters embodying the ballet's title role. In the process, Katz Rizzo also emphasizes the importance of regional sites outside of locations traditionally understood as central to the development of ballet in the United States.

Full Product Details

9781322651484

Table of Contents

Reviews

This book offers a new historical perspective on the development of the art of ballet in the world and specifically in the United States, and how women have played pivotal roles as performing artists, directors and producers. The author uses the ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, as her vehicle and proves that it is both a metaphor for ballet itself, and a powerful case study for examining ballet and its performance in the twenty-first century. She speaks truth to what is known by artists in the ballet profession but also what remains elusive to or ignored by many historians and critics. --Rory Foster

Author Information

Laura Katz Rizzo is Program Coordinator of the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program in Dance at Temple University, as well as a frequent guest speaker, choreographer, and pedagogue at universities and ballet companies across the United States.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available