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Shapes of American Ballet: Classical Traditions, Teachers, and Training in New York City, 1909-1934

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Shapes of American Ballet: Classical Traditions, Teachers, and Training in New York City, 1909-1934 Shapes of American Ballet: Classical Traditions, Teachers, and Training in New York City, 1909-1934 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jessica Rachel Zeller, M.F.A. Graduate Program in Dance Studies The Ohio State University 2012 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Karen Eliot, Advisor Melanie Bales Dr. Candace Feck Susan Hadley Copyright by Jessica Rachel Zeller 2012 Abstract In this historical study, I examine the ballet pedagogy in New York City from the opening of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School in 1909 to the founding of George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet in 1934. I posit that the first generation of American ballet dancers emerged during the research period under the tutelage of numerous Italian and Russian immigrant ballet teachers, and that the Italian and Russian national ballet lineages helped to shape the period’s ballet into a more legitimate branch of the classical tradition than has previously been acknowledged. I illuminate the individual histories and contributions of these noteworthy yet largely overlooked instructors, whose contributions set the development of American ballet in motion. In addition, I tease apart the context for ballet during this period. I look at the impact of capitalism, commercialism, democracy, and immigration on ballet teachers, their students, and their approaches, and I survey the effects of vaudeville and revue, the burgeoning film industry, and Progressive Era movement trends like aesthetic barefoot dance and the Delsarte System of Expression on ballet, its people, and its pedagogy. Broad theories of nationalism, internationalism, and Americanism undergird my study of this rich and underexamined period in ballet history. ii For the teachers in this study, who persevered. iii Acknowledgments First and foremost I would like to thank my committee members Dr. Karen Eliot, Melanie Bales, Susan Hadley, Dr. Candace Feck, and Dr. Sheila Marion for their enthusiastic support and deeply insightful feedback. I am honored to have been the recipient of such capable counsel. Many thanks as well to the faculty and my colleagues in the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University for their warm appreciation of my classical perspective in their largely un-classical world. Thanks to Cissy Caspare and Tony at the Palace Theatre on Broadway, to Treg McCoy at the Hollywood Theatre/Times Square Church, and to the staff at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for their kind assistance with this project. Funding for this study was generously provided by The Ohio State University Graduate School’s Post-Prospectus Fellowship and Alumni Grant for Graduate Research and Scholarship, as well as the Department of Dance’s Quarterly Funding Initiative. My heartfelt appreciation goes to my family for their unflagging belief in me, and for reading every last word of this dissertation and claiming to have enjoyed it. Lastly, to my husband Brock, who endured years of seeing my face lit by the bluish light of my computer screen, I extend my deepest gratitude. This project would not have been possible without his patience, love, and encouragement. iv Vita 2000 ...............................................................B.S. Dance/Arts Administration, Butler University 2005-2012......................................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Dance, The Ohio State University 2008 ...............................................................M.F.A. Dance, Department of Dance, The Ohio State University 2011-2012......................................................Writing Center Consultant, The Ohio State University Publications Zeller, Jessica. “Teaching through Time: Tracing Ballet’s Pedagogical Lineage in the work of Maggie Black.” Dance Chronicle 32, no. 1 (2009): 57-88. Fields of Study Major Field: Dance Studies v Table of Contents Abstract .....................................................................................................................ii Dedication .................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgments .....................................................................................................iv Vita ............................................................................................................................v List of Figures ...........................................................................................................vii Introduction ...............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Themes of Heterogeneity and Pluralism in American Ballet ..................20 Chapter 2: Ballet’s American Context: Democracy and Capitalism.........................89 Chapter 3: National and International Tendencies in the Development of American Ballet.............................................................................................126 Chapter 4: The Traditionalists...................................................................................155 Chapter 5: Nostalgic Revisionists .............................................................................198 Chapter 6: Pragmatic Revisionists ............................................................................231 Conclusion.................................................................................................................281 Glossary.....................................................................................................................291 Bibliography..............................................................................................................295 vi List of Figures Figure 1: “Dancers of Fokine’s American Ballet.” New York Times. 1924.................47 Figure 2: “Dejection” and “Despair,” from Sonia Serova’s Nature Dancing: The Poetry of Motion. 1916 ............................................................................................................48 Figure 3: Louis H. Chalif, (pictured) from The Chalif Text Book of Dancing: Book III: Greek Dancing. 1920 ...................................................................................................51 Figure 4: “Acrobatic Dancing Practice” at the Ned Wayburn Studios of Stage Dancing. The Art of Stage Dancing. 1925 ...................................................................................56 Figure 5: Mlle. Dazié’s “Toe Skates.” Bain News Service. George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress ...................................................................................60 Figure 6: Malvina Cavallazzi coaching a student. 1913. Photo from Willa Cather’s “Training For The Ballet” in McClure’s Magazine .....................................................70 Figure 7. Elizabetta Menzeli, teaching at the Knickerbocker Conservatory. Photo circa 1910 ..............................................................................................................................80 Figure 8: “Conditioning Class at the Ned Wayburn Studios.” The Art of Stage Dancing. 1925 ..............................................................................................................................80 Figure 9: “This position symbolizes modesty.” The Chalif Text Book of Dancing, Book I. 1914 ..............................................................................................................................101 Figure 10: “Positions of the Arms.” Alexis Kosloff’s Russian Ballet Technique. 1921 ......................................................................................................................................101 Figure 11: “Positions of the Arms” Tomaroff’s Home Study Course of Dancing and Body Building, Book Five, Arm Movements, Adagio, Adagio Variations. 1927...................102 Figure 12: “Lesson 10: Grand Jeté Tour.” Tomaroff’s Home Study Course of Dancing and Body Building, Book Seven, Jumps and Leaps, Turns and Pirouettes, Combinations. 1927 ..............................................................................................................................104 vii Figure 13: “Entrechats: Braidings.” Tomaroff’s Self-Combining Technical Ballet and Character Cards. 1961.................................................................................................106 Figure 14: “Fouettés: Whipped Movements.” Tomaroff’s Self-Combining Technical Ballet and Character Cards. 1961 ...............................................................................106 Figure 15: Cavallazzi with a student at the Metropolitan, circa 1912. Photo from “Begin Careers As Operatic Dancers,” Musical America, July 6, 1912...................................163 Figure 16: Rosina Galli. Bain News Service. George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress...................................................................................................................170 Figure 17: Luigi Albertieri, far right. Photo from Century Opera Magazine, circa 1915 ......................................................................................................................................185 Figure 18: Luigi Albertieri. Photo from The American Dancer, circa 1930................188 Figure 19: Mordkin in “Bow and Arrow Dance.” Photo from “Mikhail Mordkin: His Last Curtain Call” in The Dance Magazine, 1944 ...............................................................212
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