Ballet Class

An American History

Melissa R. Klapper

First social history of ballet class in America
Based on an impressive collection of oral histories, archives, dance periodicals, children's books, memoirs by professional dancers and choreographers, and ballet pedagogy manuals
Charts the expansion of ballet class from the early twentieth century to the present day

Ballet Class

An American History

Melissa R. Klapper

Description

Surveying the state of American ballet in a 1913 issue of McClure's Magazine, author Willa Cather reported that few girls expressed any interest in taking ballet class and that those who did were hard-pressed to find anything other than dingy studios and imperious teachers. One hundred years later, ballet is everywhere. There are ballet companies large and small across the United States; ballet is commonly featured in film, television, literature, and on social media; professional ballet dancers are spokespeople for all kinds of products; nail polish companies market colors like "Ballet Slippers" and "Prima Ballerina;" and, most importantly, millions of American children have taken ballet class. Beginning with the arrival of Russian dancers like Anna Pavlova, who first toured the United States on the eve of World War I, Ballet Class: An American History explores the growth of ballet from an ancillary part of nineteenth-century musical theater, opera, and vaudeville to the quintessential extracurricular activity it is today, pursued by countless children nationwide and an integral part of twentieth-century American childhood across borders of gender, class, race, and sexuality.

A social history, Ballet Class takes a new approach to the very popular subject of ballet and helps ground an art form often perceived to be elite in the experiences of regular, everyday people who spent time in barre-lined studios across the United States. Drawing on a wide variety of materials, including children's books, memoirs by professional dancers and choreographers, pedagogy manuals, and dance periodicals, in addition to archival collections and oral histories, this pathbreaking study provides a deeply-researched national perspective on the history and significance of recreational ballet class in the United States and its influence on many facets of children's lives, including gender norms, consumerism, body image, children's literature, extracurricular activities, and popular culture.

Ballet Class

An American History

Melissa R. Klapper

Dedication
Acknowledgements

Overture

First Movements:
Chapter 1: A (Very Selective) Early History of Ballet in America
Chapter 2: Ballet Class 101
Chapter 3: The Russians Are Coming: The Impact of European Teachers on American Ballet Class
Chapter 4: Brought to You by the Ford Foundation: Mid-Century Innovation and the Dance Boom

Themes and Variations
Chapter 5: Up a Steep and Very Narrow Stairway: Teachers, Studios, and the Business of Ballet
Chapter 6: Race and Ballet in America: A Troubled/Troubling History
Chapter 7: Yes, Boys Take Ballet Class Too
Chapter 8: Diplomates of Dance: Ballet and Higher Education
Chapter 9: An Art or a Sport? Recitals and Competitions
Chapter 10: Ballet Bodies
Chapter 11: Think Pink: Ballet and Girl Culture
Chapter 12: Ballet and Popular Culture in America

Coda

Bibliography

Ballet Class

An American History

Melissa R. Klapper

Author Information

Melissa R. Klapper is Professor of History and Director of Women's and Gender Studies at Rowan University. She is the author of Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920, Small Strangers: The Experiences of Immigrant Children in the United States, 1880-1925, and Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women's Activism,1890-1940, winner of the National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies.

Ballet Class

An American History

Melissa R. Klapper

Reviews and Awards

"Klapper pulls together information from an array of oral histories, archives, dance magazines, children's books and memoirs. As a professor of history, she may have an academic background but the book never feels like an academic tome ... a fascinating read." -- Seeing Dance

"Ballet Class is a thoroughly delightful and informative read - a well-rounded study that looks at ballet class through several different lenses. For dance history buffs, significant attention is paid to the early days of ballet class and the events that drove its rise and popularity...Ballet Class is an academic book to be sure, but has a very approachable style." -- Heather Desaulniers, CriticalDance

"Ballet Class has provided a solid and wide-ranging foundation — I hope others will hasten to take this as an opportunity to build even further." -- Emma Cohen, Thinking Dance

"This thoughtful and capacious book starts informally with the author assessing her own childhood ballet classes -- then opens out to chart ballet's rise to prominence among America's most cherished childhood traditions.Â Along the way she does justice to a number of under-sung ballet teacher-pioneers, takes on ballet's problematic relations to such topics as body image, gender, and race -- and ends up offering nothing less than a two-century-long social history of American culture itself." -- Elizabeth Kendall , Associate Professor of Liberal Studies and Literary Studies, The New School for Social Research, author of Balanchine and the Lost Muse Revolution and the Making of a Choreographer

"At a time when the relevance of ballet for the 21stÂcentury context is under scrutiny, this lively account provides much needed personal and meticulously researched revelations into its beloved (though not unproblematic) role in providing comfort, challenge, discipline, artistry, fitness, creativity, and empowerment to generations of regular girls and boys across America." -- Naomi Jackson , Associate Professor of Dance, Herberger College of the Arts, Arizona State University

"Of the myriads of little girls who fell in love with ballet the first time they faced the mirror, few became ballerinas. I imagine that fewer became prize-winning historians, but Melissa R. Klapper did. She has returned to the dance studio with this definitive history of America's ballet classes. Ballet students end class with a reverence to their teacher. I bow to Melissa Klapper. Her remarkable book takes those who remember the five positions back to their days in ballet class." -- Pamela S. Nadell, Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women's and Gender History at American University and author of America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today