CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by eScholarship - University of California UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Modern Physis of Léonide Massine: Corporeality in a Postwar Era Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8vf939db Author Vallicella, Lauren Elda Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara The Modern Physis of Léonide Massine: Corporeality in a Postwar Era A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Theater Studies by Lauren Elda Vallicella Committee in charge: Professor Ninotchka D. Bennahum, Chair Professor Leo Cabranes-Grant Professor Anurima Banerji, University of California Los Angeles December 2018 The dissertation of Lauren Elda Vallicella is approved. _____________________________________________ Anurima Banerji _____________________________________________ Leo Cabranes-Grant _____________________________________________ Ninotchka D. Bennahum, Committee Chair December 2018 The Modern Physis of Léonide Massine: Corporeality in a Postwar Era Copyright © 2018 by Lauren Elda Vallicella iii ACNOWLEDGMENTS The writing and research of this dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance, support, knowledge, and encouragement of myriad individuals. Foremost, I give my deepest gratitude to my committee members Anurima Banerji, Leo Cabranes-Grant, and my Chair Ninotchka Bennahum. Through directed readings, graduate seminars, and numerous conversations, each committee member has shaped my understanding of Performance Studies and Dance History in relation to theories such as Post-Structuralism, Phenomenology, Psychoanalysis, Embodiment, the Post Human, Affect, and “Otherness.” Dr. Banerji has helped me to approach Western ideologies (like Modernism) with a critical lens, and to write with more nuance and cultural specificity. Dr. Cabranes-Grant has been a constant source of stimulating perspectives and thoughtful reading suggestions, and has fundamentally shaped my own ability to think across disciplines. Dr. Bennahum has taught me how to be a dance historian, how to think critically about dance, and how to commune with history as an energetic, vital force. Without her, I would not have entered into a graduate program in dance history, nor would I have developed into the scholar, or individual, I am today. My wholehearted thanks also go to Dr. Carol M. Press, who has been, for over six years, an endless source of sage advice, support, and empathy. Dr. Press has led by example, demonstrating how to teach with compassion, organization, and exuberance. I would also like to thank the entirety of the UCSB Theater and Dance faculty and staff. In particular, undergraduate dance faculty members Nancy Colahan, Valerie Huston, Christina McCarthy, Delila Moseley, and Christopher Pilafian, for helping me grow as a dancer, graduate faculty members William Davies King, Christina McMahon, and Simon Williams, for inspiring and iv challenging me in graduate seminars, and Graduate Advisor Mary Tench, for answering countless questions with unrelating patience, encouragement, and warmth. I am so grateful for the correspondence and guidance of Lynn Garafola, who generously aided me in locating source material. My dissertation is in conversation with her writings on Les Ballets Russes, and it is from her work that much of my own foundational understanding of the company is based. Special thanks also to Linda Murray, curator for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, who helped me to locate unexpected source material at the New York Public Library, and to Nicole Duffy Robertson, who graciously allowed me access to rare film footage of a Joffrey Ballet performance of Parade from 1997. Finally, thank you to my mother Clodi, my unwavering anchor of support and love, and to my father Philip, my first, and greatest, writing teacher. v PREFACE My intention was never to be a dance historian, and certainly never an archival researcher. As a double major in English Literature and Dance, my aspirations were initially to dance, to write, and perhaps to explore intersections between literary Modernism and dance. As a college senior, I read excerpts from Daniel Albright’s Untwisting the Serpent: Modernism in Music, Literature, and Other Arts and saw clearly for the first time how literature and dance could be considered intertextually (those “Other Arts” happened to include a brief section on the Les Ballets Russes production Parade). My decision to attend graduate school and pursue dance history was based, in part, upon my hope that I could carve out a place for dance within literature, to demonstrate that the words written in books and the articulated movements of bodies on stage were often signifiers of a similar aesthetic energy. Though my path has shifted significantly over the last seven years, my interest in Modernism, Les Ballets Russes, and my desire to cultivate an intertextual understanding of early-twentieth century material has remained constant. With the primary guidance of my Thesis and Dissertation Advisor Dr. Ninotchka Bennahum, and exemplary texts like Susan Foster’s Choreography and Narrative, and Sally Banes’ Dancing Women, I learned how to read choreography like literary texts, and to write about dance with the same passion that I wrote about literature. Even with this newfound passion, however, archival historical research was daunting. Coming primarily from a background in New Literary Criticism, I began by viewing choreography as hermetic objects, untethered to any historical currents (other than the canonical Western idea of Modernism itself) or to issues of agency. My own kinesthetic, embodied understanding of choreography as a dancer, and my knowledge of Modernism vi within literature guided my initial readings of Les Ballets Russes material. My task then became to deepen my own relationship to history, to discover the texture, the nuance, the élan of a particular moment in time (in my case, early-twentieth century France). Through multiple trips to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Paris Opéra I began to comprehend dance holistically; static ideas about dance as merely isolated, semiotic objects gave way to the actual, material bodies of Les Ballets Russes members, and the interconnected details of their personal lives, their choreography, and larger socio-political events. While the relationship between Parade and World War I began as the focal point of my research, what eventually emerged was the inscrutable brilliance of Léonide Massine. My dissertation thus took shape as an attempt to recast Massine as a prominent figure within Les Ballets Russes and European Dance Modernism, as well as to develop a theorization of the body (of a postwar corporeality) that I felt was lacking from dance and art historical texts about this time period. Several ideas have been footnoted or omitted entirely from this dissertation. These ideas were trimmed in order to streamline the scope of my dissertation and maintain a timely writing process. However, these ideas will be given consideration and further development as I rework material for publication. In particular, a thorough exploration of “Primitivism” (in relationship to the particular “exoticism” and “Orientalism” of Les Ballets Russes) has not been included here. While I provide definitions for Modernism, ideas of the Primitive (though inextricably linked) were not given equal attention. Notions of white supremacy, cultural appropriation, and the exoticization of “Othered” cultural art forms is an unavoidable reality of European Modernism. My decision to limit discussions of Primitivism is in no way meant to negate the impact of such de-humanizing ideologies. Rather, my writing was a pointed consideration of the unique aesthetic of Léonide Massine, whose work was arguably vii shaped more by a deep respect and communion with the dances of other cultures than many other artists of his time. A more thorough consideration of this topic will be provided in future writing. Additionally, a stronger, more detailed survey of ballet history is needed. While terms like Russian Imperial Ballet versus French Romantic Ballet are briefly discussed, the specific, distinctive qualities and training systems of ballet as an international phenomenon merit further discussion. Massine was the product of, not one training system, but many. For example, an in-depth discussion of the influence of Italian Ballet Master Enrico Cecchetti on the Russian Imperial Ballet would provide a more nuanced understanding of Massine’s own aesthetic. Similarly, the deep influence of Spanish dance on Massine is merely footnoted here. While I have not chosen to write on any of Massine’s [overtly] Spanish dances like Cuadro Flamenco (1921), much of his choreography is arguably saturated with the rhythms, aesthetics, and energies of Spain. Finally, it should be mentioned that I have consciously chosen to not focus on art or music history in this dissertation. I make reference to the artists and composers of Les Ballets Russes, but I do not endeavor to delve deeply into their work. I feel that a disproportionate amount of literature has already been written about the musicians and graphic artists of Les Ballets Russes, while much has been left unexplored about its choreographers. In my dissertation, I endeavor to