Dance and Dancers in the Victorian and Edwardian Music Hall Ballet
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781351163637
Subjects: Ballet; Public opinion; Ballerinas; History; Music-halls (Variety-theaters, cabarets, etc.); Opinion publique; Ballerines; Histoire; Social aspects
Description: "The Victorian and Edwardian music hall ballet has been a neglected facet of dance historiography, falling prey principally to the misguided assumption that any ballet not performed at the Opera House or 'legitimate' theatre necessarily meant it was of low cultural and artistic merit. Here Alexandra Carter identifies the traditional marginalization of the working class female participants in ballet historiography, and moves on to reinstate the 'lost' period of the music hall ballet and to apply a critical account of that period. Carter examines the working conditions of the dancers, the identities and professional lives of the ballet girls and the ways in which the ballet of the music hall embodied the sexual psyche of the period, particularly in its representations of the ballet girl and the ballerina. By drawing on newspapers, journals, theatre programmes, contemporary fiction, poetry and autobiography, Carter firmly locates the period in its social, economic and artistic context. The book culminates in the argument that there are direct links between the music hall ballet and what has been termed the 'birth' of British ballet in the 1930s; a link so long ignored by dance historians. This work will appeal not only to those interested in nineteenth century studies, but also to those working in the fields of dance studies, gender studies, cultural studies and the performing arts."--Provided by publisher
Table of contents: title: Chapter Prologue  -- Alexandra Carter; title: chapter One In Fit and Seemly Luxury: Ballet at the Alhambra and the Empire  -- Alexandra Carter; title: chapter Two From the Principals to the Passées: Performers in the Music Hall Ballets  -- Alexandra Carter; title: chapter Three Dancing the Feminine: Gender and Sexuality on Stage  -- Alexandra Carter; title: chapter Four A Fairyland of Fair Women: Dancing the Narratives of the Age  -- Alexandra Carter; title: chapter Five Images and Imagination: Poetry, Fiction and the Eye of the Writer  -- Alexandra Carter; title: chapter Six Prejudicial to Public Morality: The Moral Image of the Dance and Dancer  -- Alexandra Carter; title: chapter Seven Cara's Tale --; title: The reminiscences of Cara Tranders, ballet girl at the Empire Palace of Varieties, 1892-1899 1  -- Alexandra Carter; title: chapter Epilogue 1 -- Alexandra Carter.