The Cambridge Companion to Ballet

A collection of essays by international writers on the evolution of ballet.

Marion Kant (Edited by)

9780521832212, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 June 2007

396 pages, 50 b/w illus.
24.4 x 17 x 2.2 cm, 0.83 kg

'This volume has a place in the libraries of dance institutions, but history departments may find it of use, as will anyone with a keen interest in classical and modern dance.' Reference Reviews

Ballet is a paradox: much loved but little studied. It is a beautiful fairy tale; detached from its origins and unrelated to the men and women who created it. Yet ballet has a history, little known and rarely presented. These great works have dark sides and moral ambiguities, not always nor immediately visible. The daring and challenging quality of ballet as well as its perceived 'safe' nature is not only one of its fascinations but one of the intriguing questions to be explored in this Companion. The essays reveal the conception, intent and underlying meaning of ballets and recreate the historical reality in which they emerged. The reader will find new and unexpected aspects of ballet, its history and its aesthetics, the evolution of plot and narrative, new insights into the reality of training, the choice of costume and the transformation of an old art in a modern world.

Foreword Ivor Guest
Chronology
Introduction Marion Kant
Part I. From the Renaissance to the Baroque: Royal Power and Worldly Display: 1. The early dance manuals and the structure of ballet: a basis for Italian, French and English ballet Jennifer Nevile
2. Ballet de Cour Marina Nordera
3. English masques Barbara Ravelhofer
4. The Baroque body Mark Franko
Part II. The Eighteenth Century: Revolutions in Technique and Spirit: 5. Choreography and narrative: the ballet d'action of the eighteenth century Dorion Weickmann
6. The rise of ballet technique and training: the professionalism of an art form Sandra Noll Hammond
7. The making of history: John Weaver and the enlightenment Tim Blanning
8. Jean-Georges Noverre: dance and reform Judith Chazin-Benahum
9. The French Revolution and its spectacles Inge Baxmann
Part III. Romantic Ballet: Ballet is a Woman: 10. Romantic ballet in France: 1830–50 Sarah Davis Cordova
11. Deadly sylphs and decent mermaids: the women in the Danish romantic world of August Bournonville Anne Middlebo Christensen
12. The orchestra as translator: French nineteenth-century ballet Marian E. Smith
13. Russian ballet in the age of Petipa Lynn Garafola
14. Opening the door to a fairy tale world: Tchaikovsky's ballet music Thérèse Hurley
15. The romantic ballet and its critics: dance goes public Lucia Ruprecht
16. The soul of the shoe Marion Kant
Part IV. The Twentieth Century: Tradition Becomes Modern: 17. The ballet avant-garde I: the Ballet Suedois and its modernist concept Erik Näslund
18. The ballet avant-garde II: the 'new' ballet: Russian and Soviet dance in the twentieth century Tim Scholl
19. George Balanchine Matilda Butkas
20. Balanchine and the deconstruction of classicism Juliet Bellow
21. The Nutcracker: a cultural icon Jennifer Fisher
22. From Swan Lake to Red Girl's Regiment: ballet's sinicisation Yangwen Zhen
23. Giselle in a Cuban accent Lester Tome
24. European ballet in the age of ideologies Marion Kant.

Subject Areas: Ballet [ASDL], Dance [ASD]