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Shapes of American Ballet

Teachers and Training before Balanchine

By (author) Jessica Zeller
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, New York, United States
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Published: 4th Aug 2016
Dimensions: w 163mm h 240mm d 17mm
Weight: 450g
ISBN-10: 0190296682
ISBN-13: 9780190296681
Barcode No: 9780190296681
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Synopsis
In Shapes of American Ballet: Teachers and Training before Balanchine, Jessica Zeller introduces the first few decades of the twentieth century as an often overlooked, yet critical period for ballet's growth in America. While George Balanchine is often considered the sole creator of American ballet, numerous European and Russian emigres had been working for decades to build a national ballet with an American identity. These pedagogues and others like them played critical yet largely unacknowledged roles in American ballet's development. Despite their prestigious ballet pedigrees, the dance field's exhaustive focus on Balanchine has led to the neglect of their work during the first few decades of the century, and in this light, this book offers a new perspective on American ballet during the period immediately prior to Balanchine's arrival. Zeller uses hundreds of rare archival documents to illuminate the pedagogies of several significant European and Russian teachers who worked in New York City. Bringing these contributions into the broader history of American ballet recasts American ballet's identity as diverse-comprised of numerous Euro-Russian and American elements, as opposed to the work of one individual. This new account of early twentieth century American ballet is situated against a bustling New York City backdrop, where mass immigration through Ellis Island brought the ballet from European and Russian opera houses into contact with a variety of American forms and sensibilities. Ballet from celebrated Euro-Russian lineages was performed in vaudeville and blended with American popular dance styles, and it developed new characteristics as it responded to the American economy. Shapes of American Ballet delves into ballet's struggle to define itself during this rich early twentieth century period, and it sheds new light on ballet's development of an American identity before Balanchine.

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At last we've a serious examination by Jessica Zeller of seven brave and resourceful ballet teachers from Russia and Italy who came here to initiate and catalyze their ballet traditions. It's been a missing link in studies of the major influences on the creation of our unique, contemporary American ballet. Located in New York City, their schools tempered and molded both the athletic bodies of Americans, and in so doing affected the bold choreography of our artists.
Zeller's fluid and judicious writing brings to light the energy and pathos of early twentieth century dance history. * Judith Chazin-Bennahum, University of New Mexico * The time is ripe to thoroughly dispel the notion that high-quality ballet training was absent from American shores in the first third of the twentieth century. Jessica Zeller does just that, introducing the context, teachers, philosophies, and markets that challenged and supported the establishment of ballet as a modern American art. * Lynn Matluck Brooks, Franklin & Marshall College *