Dance And Dancers In The Victorian And Edwardian Music Hall Ballet (Music in Nineteenth Century Britain) (Music in Nineteenth Century Britain) (Music in Nineteenth Century Britain)
Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter
Published: July 31, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 177
ISBN-13: 9780754637363
Subjects: Dance; Music; Performing Arts; Dance - Classical; Genres & Styles - Ballet; Genres & Styles - Dance; History & Criticism - General; Ballerinas; Ballet; England; History; Public opinion
First sentence: When Lottie Collins roared her song 'Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay' at the audiences of the late Victorian music hall, she punctuated it with back bends, pirouettes and notorious high kicks which hit the 'boom' of the refrain.
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 marginalisation 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."--Jacket.