Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Adesola Akinleye (Middlesex University)
Publisher:   Intellect
Imprint:   Intellect Books
Edition:   New edition
ISBN:  

9781789383614

ISBN 10:   1789383617
Pages:   328
Publication Date:   17 May 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Regarding claiming ballet / reclaiming ballet Part One – Histories Chapter 1: Ballet, from property to Art – Adesola Akinleye Chapter 2: Should there be a Female ballet canon? Seven Radical Acts of Inclusion - Julia Gleich and Molly Faulkner Chapter 3: Arabesque en Noir: The Persistent Presence of Black Dancers in the American Ballet World - Joselli Audain Deans  Chapter 4: Portrayals of Black people from the African Diaspora in western narrative ballets – Sandie Bourne Part Two – Knowledges   Chapter 5: The traces of my ballet body - Mary Savva   Chapter 6: Ballet Beyond Boundaries – Personal History. Brenda Dixson Gottschild   Chapter 7:“Auftanzen statt Aufgeben” and The Anti Fascist Ballet School -Elizabeth Ward  Chapter 8: Dancing Across Historically Racist Borders – Kehinde Ishangi  Part Three – Resiliences   Chapter 9: Dance Theatre of Harlem’s radicalization of ballet in 1970s & 1980s – Theresa Ruth Howard   Chapter 10: Personal testimony as social resilience - Theara J. Ward  Chapter 11: “Can you feel it?”: Pioneering Pedagogies that Challenge Ballet’s Authoritarian Traditions - Jessica Zeller  Chapter 12: The Ever After of Ballet – Selby Wynn Schwartz  Chapter 13: Ballethnic Dance Company Builds Community: Urban Nutcracker leads the way – Nena Gilreath Part four – Consciousnesses  Chapter 14: The Counterpoint Project – When Life Doesn’t Imitate Art -  Endalyn Taylor Chapter 15: Ballet’s Binary Genders in a Rainbow-Spectrum World: A call for progressive pedagogies - Melonie B. Murray   Chapter 16: Dancing through Black British ballet: Conversations with dancers - Adesola Akinleye and Tia-Monique Uzor  Chapter 17: Ballet Aesthetics of Trauma, Development, and Functionality – Luc Vanier & Elizabeth Johnson  About the contributors  Index 

Reviews

[This book] examine[s] the white, cis, heteropatriarchal history of ballet, and how many dancers and choreographers are grappling with this history. It has started some very important conversations about the role of ballet today and how this art can thrive within the beauty of difference. * New Books in Performing Arts *

'[This book] examine[s] the white, cis, heteropatriarchal history of ballet, and how many dancers and choreographers are grappling with this history. It has started some very important conversations about the role of ballet today and how this art can thrive within the beauty of difference.' -- New Books Network (New Books in Performing Arts)

Author Information

Adesola Akinleye, PhD, is a choreographer artist-scholar. Trained at Ballet Rambert, her career began at Dance Theatre of Harlem, later working with UK Companies such as Carol Straker Dance Company and Green Candle. She is a Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University Research Fellow with Theatrum Mundi, visiting lecturer at Central Saint Martins, and Research Affiliate and visiting artist at MIT. Akinleye is co-artistic director of DancingStrong Movement Lab. She creates works from live performance (often site-specific involving a cross-section of the community) to films, & text. Her work is characterized by an interest in voicing peoples lived-experiences through moving portraiture. She teaches ballet, contemporary dance and other practical dance classes as well as dance education, theory and history. She has won awards internationally for her choreography, as well as published in the areas of dance and cultural studies.

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