Between Moving Bodies: Power, the Senses and Crafting the Gifted Body

BETWEEN MOVING BODIES: POWER, THE SENSES AND CRAFTING THE GIFTED BODY By LAUREN ELIZABETH NORTON A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Archaeology and Anthropology College of Arts and Social Sciences THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY June 2019 © Copyright by Lauren Elizabeth Norton 2019 All Rights Reserved Declaration I, Lauren Elizabeth Norton, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. This thesis has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institutions. This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. !i Between Moving Bodies For Beryl, with love !ii Acknowledgements It is perhaps fitting that the completion of this thesis, which examines the powerful operations of generosity between bodies and their results, has depended entirely on the openness of others and their willingness to give of themselves towards me. Because of this I owe a debt to many people – more than I can thank here. Yet in true Maussian style it is the obligation I have felt to give back that has spurred me on to finish this thesis. Born of and borne by their generosity, I hope its completion allows me to, in part, return the gifts of their instruction, support, love, patience and encouragement. In the hope of giving back, of demonstrating my worthiness of their gifts, and continuing the cycle of exchange, I give to them this thesis – giving a part of myself and returning a part of them. My first thanks go to the staff and students at Canada’s National Ballet School who generously opened their world to me and whose experiences provide colour to the pages you are about to read. Thank you for sharing with me your thoughts, feelings, passions, fears, joys, successes and frustrations as you navigated the intricacies of life at the school and the training process. To Mavis Staines, thank you for seeing the value of my project, for taking a chance on me and for allowing me the opportunity to briefly join the NBS family. To my supervisor Prof. Simone Dennis at ANU, I am enormously grateful for the guidance, support and inspiration you have given me throughout this process. Thank you for challenging me to push further, for your questions and suggestions, and for your belief in this research and in my ability to execute it. !iii Between Moving Bodies Thank you to my friends Kathy, Bel, Allison, Kate and Briony for the shared cups of tea, glasses of wine, laughter and your heartfelt words of advice and encouragement – whether near or far I cherish your friendship. I am so very grateful for the love and support of my family. In particular, to my mother Susan and father Bruce, thank you for your unwavering encouragement and for making it possible for me to pursue my dreams. This thesis and PhD would not have been possible without your support. To my sister Madeleine, thank you for always cheering me on and for the quick visits, warm hugs, shared laughs and words of advice. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my grandmother Beryl, who died while I was away on fieldwork and to whom this thesis is dedicated. Her commitment to lifelong learning, asking questions and doing things for herself continues to inspire me and I know how proud she would be that I have completed this. Finally, to my husband Shawn, whose continual love and support has enabled me to celebrate the highs and survive the lows of this process. I am profoundly grateful for your willingness to enter the worlds of anthropology and ballet, for your patient listening to and kind reflections on my thoughts and ideas, and for your gentle and constant encouragement. !iv Abstract This thesis examines the creation of gifted bodies, their sensory experiences and operations of institutional power. Drawing on 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a professional classical ballet school in Toronto, Canada, I examine how the students relate to the training processes they must undergo in order to become gifted, where powerful exchange relations between student, teacher and school facilitate the creation of body, identity and institution. I begin by suggesting that the institutional training of gifted bodies may be easily pursued through Marcel Mauss’ (1954) theory of gift exchange, where gifts of skill, technique and training are exchanged between teachers and students during daily interactions within the ballet school. Over the years of training, these regularised gift exchanges result in the gifted body – the core valuable of the institution. However, these are corporeal gifts belonging to and residing within bodies, of ways of moving and feeling, which cycle between bodies – something Mauss’ thesis does not permit access to. In recognising this, throughout this thesis I follow and extend Rosalyn Diprose’s (2002) insight into the possibilities of corporeal generosity and an openness between bodies to bring Mauss’ thesis into the realm of the corporeal and sensory. Addressing existing literatures of giftedness and ballet, I discuss how gifted bodies and their relations have traditionally been analysed visually, where the performing body has been read for what it may reveal about giftedness, gender, culture and society. As I will show, this has often obscured the emic experiences of those engaged in such processes as well as the relations of power that operate to shape and array bodies within the institution. While the !v Between Moving Bodies results of these powerful relations are sometimes made visible on the body – where muscles become strengthened, stretched and sculpted – I argue that the creation of the gifted body is not pursued by the institution or experienced by the individuals in this way. Instead, this is a process felt by bodies at the level of sensibility. To access these felt experiences, both haptic and affective, I apply a sensory analysis privileging touch, which I argue is the way in which gifts for ballet are transmitted, received and experienced by the body and through which giftedness is accrued. To do so, I expand a definition of touch beyond physical contact to also encompass feeling between and within bodies from which movement cannot be undone. Utilising touch in such a way allows an examination of the intercorporeal relations between teacher and student in the ballet studio and the way such relations involve the exchange of multisensory gifts. This approach provides a different avenue through which to understand the powerful operations at work on and between bodies in the context of the institution, where it becomes apparent that the gifting relations that work to shape bodies and the hierarchies these encounters perpetuate, enable the creation of bodies, identities and the institution itself. Yet these are operations that determine which bodies become gifted and which do not. As such, the pain experiences of students provide an apt illustration of the interface between bodies and institutions, indicating not only success or failure or the body’s physical transformation but also the regularised injustices which make the gifted body, identities and the institution possible. To conclude I expand this discussion beyond the realm of classical ballet to suggest that a similar approach may be applied to other forms of institutional life where other kinds of gifted bodies are also the core valuable. !vi Table of Contents Declaration i Acknowledgements iii Abstract v Preface 1 A return to ballet 1 Anthropology offers answers and questions 3 A problem with perspective 5 Limitations and challenges 8 Introduction 13 Thesis questions, aims and argument 13 My gifted bodies 16 My approach to giftedness 19 Limitations to generosity 22 A sensory approach 25 A touching analysis 29 Powerful touches 33 A painful process 36 My research contribution 41 Chapter 1: Finding a gift for ballet 43 Mauss goes to the ballet 44 Phase one: looking for evidence 47 !vii Between Moving Bodies Phase two: getting a better sense of ‘things’ 55 Ongoing evaluation 59 Fieldsite selection 65 Fieldwork methods: observation 66 Participants 69 Interviews and group discussions 69 Data analysis 71 Chapter 2: Looking at gifted bodies 73 Ballet in anthropology: a brief history 74 The look of the ballet body 76 Parallels to understanding giftedness 81 Bringing the body into focus 84 Training the gifted body 90 The way forward 98 Chapter 3: A touching analysis 100 A sense of ballet 101 Anthropology of touch: a brief history 105 Teaching with touch 108 What is touched touches back 113 Touch facilitates becoming gifted 115 The gift of time 120 Multisensory, multibodied training 123 Chapter 4: Making sense of ballet 125 The exchange of balletic gifts 126 !viii Tasteful bodies 127 Moving bodies 132 Seeing bodies 135 Seeing myself versus being myself 140 Misplaced mistrust 147 Hearing bodies 150 Feeling the sound of music 154 Considering reciprocity 160 Chapter 5: Powerful gifting 162 Bodies of the past 167 Obligation and identity 169 Not all bodies are the same 171 Bodies are also institution making 173 The problematic gift of identity 176 In a state of potential becoming 181 Institutionalised injustice 182 Looks can be deceiving 189 (In)formative touches 192 (In)appropriate-looking relations 195 Beyond touching 200 Chapter 6: Bodies in pain 202 The look of pain 204 The power of pain 212 The problem of pain 220 Shaping meaning and feeling 224 !ix Between Moving Bodies The pains of bodies past 228 Making and differentiating bodies 233 Hierarchies made and re-made 239 The feeling of pain 242 Productive pain 247 Chapter 7: Conclusions 250 Future gifts 254 Beyond ballet bodies 257 Chapter summary 260 Glossary 268 References 273 !x Preface Preface A return to ballet When anthropologist Helena Wulff (1998a) described her seminal work, Ballet Across Borders, as a way to return to the ballet world, her words struck a chord with me.

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