The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet

Edited by Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen

Oxford Handbooks

Features viewpoints from scholars, choreographers, dancers, and dance critics
Highlights contributions from choreographers around the globe
Includes a significant range of cultural and historical contexts in the late 20th and early 21st centuries

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet

Edited by Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen

Description

In distinction to many extant histories of ballet, The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet prioritizes connections between ballet communities as it interweaves chapters by scholars, critics, choreographers, and working professional dancers. The book looks at the many ways ballet functions as a global practice in the 21st century, providing new perspectives on ballet's past, present, and future. As an effort to dismantle the linearity of academic canons, the fifty-three chapters within provide multiple entry points for readers to engage in balletic discourse. With an emphasis on composition and process alongside dances created, and the assertion that contemporary ballet is a definitive era, the book carves out space for critical inquiry. Many of the chapters consider whether or not ballet can reconcile its past and actually become present, while others see ballet as flexible and willing to be remolded at the hands of those with tools to do so.

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet

Edited by Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen

Oxford Handbooks

Acknowledgments

About the Contributors

Introduction
On Contemporaneity in Ballet: Exchanges, Connections, and Directions in Form
Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen

Part I: Pioneers, or Game Changers

Chapter 1: William Forsythe: Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and the Forsythescape
Ann Nugent
Chapter 2: Hans van Manen: Between Austerity and Expression Anna Seidl
Chapter 3: Twyla Tharp's Classical Impulse
Kyle Bukhari
Chapter 4: Ballet at the Margins: Karole Armitage and Bronislava Nijinska
Molly Faulkner and Julia Gleich
Chapter 5: Maguy Marin's Social and Aesthetic Critique
Mara Mandradjieff
Chapter 6: Fusion and Renewal in the Works of Jiří Kylián
Katja Vaghi
Chapter 7: Wayne McGregor: Thwarting Expectation at The Royal Ballet
Jo Butterworth and Wayne McGregor

Part II: Reimaginings

Chapter 8: Feminist Practices in Ballet: Katy Pyle and Ballez
Gretchen Alterowitz
Chapter 9: Contemporary Repetitions: Rhetorical Potential and The Nutcracker
Michelle LaVigne
Chapter 10: Mauro Bigonzetti: Reimagining Les Noces (1923)
Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel
Chapter 11: New Narratives from Old Texts: Contemporary Ballet in Australia
Michelle Potter
Chapter 12: Cathy Marston: Writing Ballets for Literary Dance(r)s
Deborah Kate Norris
Chapter 13: Jean-Christophe Maillot: Ballet, Untamed
Laura Cappelle
Chapter 14: Ballet Gone Wrong: Michael Clark's Classical Deviations
Arabella Stanger

Part III: It's Time

Chapter 15: Dance Theatre of Harlem: Radical Black Female Bodies in Ballet
Tanya Wideman-Davis
Chapter 16: Huff! Puff! And Blow the House Down: Contemporary Ballet in South Africa
Gerard M. Samuel
Chapter 17: The Cuban Diaspora: Stories of Defection, Brain Drain and Brain Gain
Lester Tomé
Chapter 18: Balancing Reconciliation at The Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Bridget Cauthery and Shawn Newman
Chapter 19: Ballet Austin: So You Think You Can Choreograph
Caroline Sutton Clark
Chapter 20: Gender Progress and Interpretation in Ballet Duets
Jennifer Fisher
Chapter 21: John Cranko's Stuttgart Ballet: A Legacy
E. Hollister Mathis-Masury
Chapter 22: "Ballet" Is a Dirty Word: Where Is Ballet in São Paulo?
Henrique Rochelle

Part IV: Composition

Chapter 23: William Forsythe: Creating Ballet Anew
Susan Leigh Foster
Chapter 24: Amy Seiwert: Okay, Go! Improvising the Future of Ballet
Ann Murphy
Chapter 25: Costume
Caroline O'Brien
Chapter 26: Shapeshifters and Colombe's Folds: Collective Affinities of Issey Miyake and William Forsythe
Tamara Tomić-Vajagić
Chapter 27: On Physicality and Narrative: Crystal Pite's Flight Pattern (2017)
Lucía Piquero Álvarez
Chapter 28: Living in Counterpoint
Norah Zuniga Shaw
Chapter 29: Alexei Ratmansky's Abstract-Narrative Ballet
Anne Searcy
Chapter 30: Talking Shop: Interviews with Justin Peck, Benjamin Millepied, and Troy Schumacher
Roslyn Sulcas

Part V: Exchanges Inform

Chapter 31: Royal Ballet Flanders under Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Lise Uytterhoeven
Chapter 32: Akram Khan and English National Ballet
Graham Watts
Chapter 33: The Race of Contemporary Ballet: Interpellations of Africanist Aesthetics
Thomas F. DeFrantz
Chapter 34: Copy Rites
Rachana Vajjhala
Chapter 35: Transmitting Passione: Emio Greco and the Ballet National de Marseille
Sarah Pini and John Sutton
Chapter 36: Narratives of Progress and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal
Melissa Templeton
Chapter 37: Mark Morris: Clarity, a Dash of Magic, and No Phony Baloney
Gia Kourlas

Part VI: The More Things Change . . .

Chapter 38: Ratmansky: From Petipa to Now
Apollinaire Scherr
Chapter 39: James Kudelka: Love, Sex, and Death
Amy Bowring and Tanya Evidente
Chapter 40: Liam Scarlett: "Classicist's Eye . . . Innovator's Urge"
Susan Cooper
Chapter 41: Performing the Past in the Present: Uncovering the Foundations of Chinese Contemporary Ballet
Rowan McLelland
Chapter 42: Between Two Worlds: Christopher Wheeldon and The Royal Ballet
Zoë Anderson
Chapter 43: Christopher Wheeldon: An Englishman in New York
Rachel Straus
Chapter 44: The Disappearance of Poetry and the Very, Very Good Idea
Freya Vass
Chapter 45: Justin Peck: Everywhere We Go (2014), a Ballet Epic for Our Time
Mindy Aloff

Part VII: In Process

Chapter 46: Weaving Apollo: Women's Authorship and Neoclassical Ballet
Emily Coates
Chapter 47: What Is a Rehearsal in Ballet?
Janice Ross
Chapter 48: Gods, Angels, and Björk: David Dawson, Arthur Pita, and Contemporary Ballet
Jennie Scholick
Chapter 49: Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Voicing Dance
Jill Nunes Jensen
Chapter 50: Inside Enemy
Thomas McManus
Chapter 51: On "Contemporaneity" in Ballet and Contemporary Dance: Jeux in 1913 and 2016
Hanna Järvinen
Chapter 52: Reclaiming the Studio: Observing the Choreographic Processes of Cathy Marston and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Carrie Gaiser Casey
Chapter 53: Contemporary Partnerships
Russell Janzen

Index

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet

Edited by Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen

Oxford Handbooks

Author Information

Edited by Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel, Head of Research, Faculty of Education, Royal Academy of Dance, and Edited by Jill Nunes Jensen, Senior Lecturer of Dance, Loyola Marymount University

Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel is Head of Research at the Royal Academy of Dance. Farrugia-Kriel is editor of Focus on Education, and her books include Princess Poutiatine and the Art of Ballet in Malta (2020), and her essays have been published in Dance Chronicle, the South African Dance Journal, The Sunday Times of Malta, and in The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance. Farrugia-Kriel has organized conferences in London, Paris, and New York, and steered three dance symposia in Australia. Jill Nunes Jensen is on faculty at Loyola Marymount University. Her research serves as the primary scholarship on Alonzo King LINES Ballet and is published in When Men Dance, Dance Chronicle, Theatre Survey, Perspectives on American Dance: The Twentieth Century, and Re-thinking Dance History, 2nd Edition. As co-editor for Conversations: Network of Pointes with Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel (2015) the idea to curate a special topics conference on contemporary ballet was catalyzed

(New York, 2016) and ultimately this anthology. Nunes Jensen has been an invited speaker on AKLB and Contemporary Ballet, most recently at the San Francisco Ballet and Duke University.

Contributors:

Mindy Aloff
Gretchen Alterowitz
Zoë Anderson
Amy Bowring
Kyle Bukhari
Jo Butterworth
Laura Cappelle
Bridget Cauthery
Emily Coates
Susan Cooper
Thomas F. DeFrantz
Tanya Evidente
Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel
Molly Faulkner
Jennifer Fisher
Susan Leigh Foster
Carrie Gaiser Casey
Julia Gleich
Russell Janzen
Hanna Järvinen
Gia Kourlas
Mara Mandradjieff
E. Hollister Mathis-Masury
Wayne McGregor
Thomas McManus
Rowan McLelland
Ann Murphy
Deborah Kate Norris
Michelle LaVigne
Shawn Newman
Ann Nugent
Jill Nunes Jensen
Caroline O'Brien
Sarah Pini
Lucía Piquero Álvarez
Michelle Potter
Henrique Rochelle
Janice Ross
Gerard Samuel
Apollinaire Scherr
Jennie Scholick
Anne Searcy
Anna Seidl
Arabella Stanger
Rachel Straus
Roslyn Sulcas
John Sutton
Caroline Sutton Clark
Melissa Templeton
Lester Tomé
Tamara Tomić-Vajagić
Lise Uytterhoeven
Katja Vaghi
Rachana Vajjhala
Freya Vass
Graham Watts
Tanya Wideman-Davis
Norah Zuniga Shaw

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet

Edited by Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen

Oxford Handbooks

Reviews and Awards

"Each of the 53 essays describes the tangible ways that contemporary ballet may redefine ideas within varied cultures and communities. Contributions come from critics, theorists, dancers, choreographers, and other practitioners ... with its broad scope, this volume serves as comprehensive introduction and also provides new discoveries for those with expert-level knowledge of contemporary ballet." - C. Huffaker, CHOICE

"Comtemporary Ballet has yet to be pinned down as a category, even by the most dedicated scholars" - Jann Parry, Dancing Times

"The discussion of how contemporary ballet distinguishes itself from classical ballet was particularly noteworthy and brought to mind similar conversations about modern dance and postmodern dance. And the readability must be praised. So often, academic books are unnecessarily wordy, and the point gets buried in the prose. Here the message was definitely well researched and analytical, but also clear and concise... The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet is going to be a terrific reference addition to any dance library." - Heather Desaulniers, Critical Dance

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet

Edited by Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen

Oxford Handbooks

From Our Blog

From La Source to Cold War cultural diplomacy, seven books on ballet [reading list]

From its origins in the Renaissance, ballet has evolved in various distinct ways, with different schools around the globe incorporating their own cultures. Explore some of our recent titles that look at the history (and future) of ballet, consider some of its influential figures, and the role it played in Cold War cultural diplomacy.

Posted on September 7, 2021

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