University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/59558 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. 1 GRACE UNDER PRESSURE: RE-READING GISELLE. Mel Ruben Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature University of Warwick Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies September, 1998 2 For Peter, Alice, Audrey and Theda Ruben 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 6 Summary 7 Terminology 8 Preface 1. Introduction 9 2. My Personal Aims for this Thesis 11 3. My Own Mythology 16 4. Ballet Writing and Ballet Going in the 1990s 20 5. The Shape of Love 35 Notes to the Preface 38 ChaQter One: The Ballet Called Giselle 1. Jntroductton 42 2. Giselle: a Romantic Ballet 42 3. The Plot of Giselle 51 4~The First Giselle 60 5. Twentieth Century Giselles 64 6. The Birmingham Royal Ballet's 1992 Giselle 74 7. Locating Ballet in Dance Studies 86 8. Using Ballet as a Text 91 9. Methodology 98 Notes to Chapter One 107 ChaQter Two Plot: Blade Runner and Giselle 1. Introduction 111 2. The Two Blade Runners 113 3. The Plot of Blade Runner 117 4. Matching the Myths 129 5. Endings and Closures 159 6. Bodies 173 4 7. Death and Resistance 188 8. Love and Salvation 193 9. Conclusion 204 Notes to Chapter Two 206 ChaQter Three: SEX and Giselle 1. Introduction 210 2. Madonna and SEX 211 3. Photography 238 4. Pornography 250 5. Reading the Movement in Giselle a. The Pointed Foot 269 b. Lifts, Leaps and Reaching 280 c. Resistance 293 d.Men 298 6. Conclusion 304 Notes to Chapter Three 307 ChaQter Four: Conclusions 1. Introduction 312 2. Conclusions on the 1992 Giselle 313 3. Concl~sions on the Academy and Ballet 317 4. Overall Conclusion 320 Notes to Chapter Four 323 AQQendlx Glossary of French Ballet Terms 325 BibliograQhy 328 5 Tables Chapter Two Table of Archetypes 135 Table of Narrative 136 6 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following for the help and support they have given me whilst writing this thesis: My family, Gill,Conrad, Roo and Kerry Phillips; the Rubens, Alan, Pamela, Carol and David; Palie and Dhillon Smart; my supervisors, Martin Wright, Duncan Webster, and Carol Chillington-Rutter, her daughters Bryony and Rowan (and of course Badger); Rowland Cotterill, Michael Bell, John Stokes and the Department of English at the University of Warwick; the British Academy; the Birmingham Royal Ballet; Michelle Wong; Helen Thomas; previous academic and ballet teachers; friends, colleagues, students and pupils; and above all, Peter, Alice, Theda and Audrey. 7 Summary 'Grace Under Pressure: Re-reading Giselle' is a close reading of the Romantic ballet Giselle (1841) , focusing on the Birmingham Royal Ballet production of 3 March 1992. The Preface provides a personal introduction, and notes the status of ballet within dance studies and the academy. It also observes that in choosing Giselle as a text one is required to reassess the historical treatment of emotion and beauty within academic feminism. Chapter One gives an historical background to Giselle, a literature review and a methodological overview. Ballet has received relatively little attention from the academy in comparison with other performing arts. Whilst dance scholarship is a growth area in the university, ballet remains neglected. Hence, in order to bring theory across from areas of greater academic activity, this thesis is structured around textual juxtaposition. Thus Chapter Two compares the plot of Giselle with that of the film Blade Runner, and Chapter Three compares the movement of Giselle with that in the book SEX by Madonna. These comparative texts were also first viewed in 1992: whilst Giselle is usually categorized as 'High' art, however, they belong in the popular domain. This thesis demonstrates that the comparative texts differ from their own genres, dystopian fiction and pornography. Consequently, Giselle is shown to be materially different from other Romantic ballets, particularly in its self- reflexive critical framework. Chapter Four concludes the discussion of the 1841 and the 1992 Giselles, and focuses on the repercussions of this study for the academy and the production and reception of ballet. Throughout this thesis runs the assumption, common in dance studies but less overt in English Literature, that academic activity is a personal and political activity, and that a study such as this requires that one engage with the status of academic enquiry both within and without the academy. 8 Terminology 1. French Ballet Terminology Whilst efforts have been made to render the sections of this thesis describing ballet movement accessible to the non-specialist reader, some usage of French terminology has been unavoidable. These words are italicized throughout, and all are listed in a glossary at the end of the main text. 2. Academic Terminology The words 'the academy' have been used throughout to signify all those individuals and institutions involved in academic activity. In order to prevent repetition, the words 'the university' and 'academe' have occasionally been used, and are given to carry the same meaning as 'the academy'. Although these terms are • used to indicate an institution with some authority in society, at no point are they intended to be inherently perjorative or critical, nor do they refer to any specific institution. Use of this terminology follows current practice in dance studies. 9 Preface 1. Introduction In this thesis I attempt a work on two levels. Primarily I am concerned with generating close readings of the ballet Giselle, and especially of the production of that ballet performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet on 3 March 1992. These readings, concerned particularly' with the plot and the physical movement of the text, enable me to recast Giselle as a ballet which communicates radical and complex ideas about women and the dancing body. Such a perception of Romantic ballet is unorthodox, however, and in order to facilitate such a reading I bring other, more modern texts to bear upon Giselle. I have chosen either texts available for consumption in 1992, or those which share significant genre links with Giselle throughout its performance history. Above all I have chosen texts upon which theory and academic activity have been extensively enacted, thus bringing Giselle into the domain of criticism and discussion in which they already exist. From the outset this strategy has meant that, perhaps unusually for an English Literature Ph.D, I have called on sources more normally suited to the areas of Cultural Studies or popular discussion. Stemming from the intentions detailed above has come another, more general and perhaps less conclusive project. Whilst it is acknowleged that the inclusion and exclusion of any text from a canon, be it personal or academic, is a political decision, I have found my choices for this thesis have lead me to contemplations of 10 a particularly political and personal nature. These thoughts, again unusual in their situation in an English Literature thesis, have been included because they have formed such an integral part of my exploration of Giselle and the texts that attend it. The structure of my pursuit of these two ends is as follows: The remaining sections of this Preface constitute an exploration of my personal reasons for writing this thesis, and an attempt to make the process of personal reflection gibe with academic activity. Harnessing these two activities together seems both to find a precedent in current dance writing, and to be particularly productive when considering dance. I also consider the type of language used in academic discussion, and whether dance forces us to alter our vocabulary in order to incorporate both the corporeal and the affective. Chapter One serves as an introduction to Romantic ballet, to Giselle itself, and to the chequered but vibrant history of dance writing and criticism. I focus on the way ballet, as opposed to other dance forms, has (or has not) been attended to by critics, and list the diverse methodologies and critical traditions which I have brought to bear upon Giselle. Chapter Two makes a structuralist analysis of the plot of Giselle in concert with Blade Runner: The Director's Cut, a dystopian science-fiction film directed by Ridley Scott. Other broadly Gothic texts are brought to bear, indicating that Giselle and Blade Runner belong to the same narrative genre tradition. 11 As throughout this thesis, the position and positioning of women, their agency and contribution to the creative process, are overwhelming concerns. Chapter Three deals with the movement, the actual dancing, in Giselle, using the photographic book SEX by Madonna as the rhyme or touchstone which permits unusual critical canons to be played out upon the ballet. My choice of comparative text immediately brings concerns such as the eroticization of the body, the relation between pornography, prostitution and ballet, and the animated and at times hostile relations between the different schools of feminism, into the equation. Chapter Four is a brief summation of my thoughts on Giselle, crystallized by a production of a later Romantic ballet, Coppelis. In addition, I return to those more general personal and political themes initially addressed in this Preface. These thoughts do not form a cohesive manifesto or agenda for either the future of British ballet or of the academy. Rather, they are an acknowledgement that the very process, both intellectual and physical, of academic consideration, is inherently political and requires of us that we reflect upon how our textual readings are woven into the larger fabric of the university and the production of textual material.