Choreography and Narrative: Ballets Staging of Story and Desire (French Edition)

"Undoubtedly, Choreography and Narrative is an important contribution to dance history research." —Nineteenth-Century French Studies "This work is a landmark in the field and belongs in all libraries serving undergraduate, graduate, and faculty researchers in dance." —Choice "Invents a new method for writing the history of performance: Foster has found an innovative way of appealing directly to the kinesthetic imagination of her readers, evoking the elusive styles of the pieces she reconstructs." —Joseph Roach "An impressive work of scholarship, this elegantly staged study . . . uses the concept of a culturally constructed, historically specific body to cut across disciplinary boundaries . . ." —Library Journal Foster examines the development of ballet, and conceptions of the dancing body, as ballet separated from opera and emerged as an autonomous art form during the turbulence of 18th-century French society and history. Choreography And Narrative Traces Development Of The Story Ballet From The Early - Eighteenth-century Fair Theatres Through The Revolutionary Fetes To The Well-known Romantic Ballets La Sylphide And Giselle. This History Charts Ballet's Separation From Opera At Mid-century And Its Emergence As An Autonomous Art Form Dedicated To The Telling Of A Story Through Gesture And Movement Alone. The Site For This Historical Inquiry Is Paris, Home To The Most Popular And Lavish. Dance Productions Of The Eighteenth And Early Nineteenth Centuries. The Ballet Is Analyzed In Terms Of The Training Procedures For Dancers, The Aesthetic Goals And Responsibilities Of Choreographers, The Institutional Frameworks That Promote Productions, And The Expectations And Pleasures Of Dance Viewers. Throughout, Ballet Is Approached As A Cultural Practice Intimately Connected With Political And Economic Features Of French Society, A Practice Whose Evolving Form. Bears Witness To, As It Participates In, The Sweeping Social Changes Of The Eighteenth And Early Nineteenth Centuries. To Uncover The Significance Of Ballet, Choreography And Narrative Compares The Dancing Body With The Body As Constructed In Social Dance Practices, And Also In Anatomy, Etiquette, Painting, Acting, And Physical Education. Choreography Is Considered As A Theorizing Of Embodiment, One Which Reflects On The Individual, Gendered, And Social Identities Of. Those Who Dance And Those Who Watch Dancing. Introduction: Pygmalion's No-body And The Body Of Dance -- 1. Originary Gestures -- 2. Staging The Canvas And The Machine -- 3. Narrating Passion And Prowess -- 4. Governing The Body -- 5. Fugitive Desires -- Conclusion: Ballet's Bodies And The Body Of Narrative. Susan Leigh Foster. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [335]-361) And Index. Text In English; Appendix In French. Choreography and Narrative traces development of the story ballet from the early - eighteenth-century fair theatres through the Revolutionary fetes to the well-known Romantic ballets La Sulphide and Giselle. This history charts ballet's separation from opera at mid-century and its emergence as an autonomous art form dedicated to the telling of a story through gesture and movement alone. The site for this historical inquiry is Paris, home to the most popular and lavish dance productions of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The ballet is analyzed in terms of the training procedures for dancers, the aesthetic goals and responsibilities of choreographers, the institutional frameworks that promote productions, and the expectations and pleasures of dance viewers. Throughout, ballet is approached as a cultural practice intimately connected with political and economic features of French society, a practice whose evolving form bears witness to, as it participates in, the sweeping social changes of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. To uncover the significance of ballet, Choreography and Narrative compares the dancing body with the body as constructed in social dance practices, and also in anatomy, etiquette, painting, acting, and physical education. Choreography is considered as a theorizing of embodiment, one which reflects on the individual, gendered, and social identities of those who dance and those who watch dancing. Frontmatter illustrations (page ix) preface (page xiii) INTRODUCTION: PYGMALION'S NO-BODY AND THE BODY OF DANCE (page 1) 1. ORIGINARY GESTURES (page 13) 2. STAGING THE CANVAS AND THE MACHINE (page 57) 3. NARRATING PASSION AND PROWESS (page 93) 4. GOVERNING THE BODY (page 139) 5. FUGITIVE DESIRES (page 197) CONCLUSION: BALLET'S BODIES AND THE BODY OF NARRATIVE (page 253) appendix (page 265) notes (page 277) bibliography (page 335) index (page 363) A critical history of French ballet that illuminates relations of politics, spectacle, gender, and narrative. It traces the development of the story ballet from the pantomimes of early eighteenth-century theatres through the Revolutionary fetes to the well-known romantic ballets La Sylphide and Giselle. Pointed leg, stiff skirt, diminutive wings, garlanded head, tousled hair, curving arms, adoring look-all hovering in a tree's branch five feet above the ground.