The Ballet Class: Educating Creative Dance Artist?

DOCTORAL THESIS The ballet class educating creative dance artists? Crow, Susie Award date: 2020 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 27. Sep. 2021 The Ballet Class: Educating Creative Dance Artists? by Susie Crow, MA, Cert. TLHPE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Department of Dance University of Roehampton 2019 1 2 Abstract The ballet class is the primary means of learning about ballet, shaping not just the dancing but the attitudes and perceptions of dancers throughout their careers. In recent years it has been critiqued for lack of creativity, abusive and authoritarian teaching, and as inadequate physical training for today’s dancers. This research examines the ballet class as a complex pedagogical phenomenon, an embodied tradition transmitted in practice from one generation to the next. It questions whether and in what ways the class has the potential to be an artistic education for ballet’s dancers, teachers and choreographers. This thesis constructs a picture of the class as a locus for situated practical learning, combining the unconscious absorption of a ballet habitus with more conscious and reflective learning and the acquisition of expertise; considering the contested relationship of technique and artistry in the slow absorption of balletic understanding and skills. This theoretical framework underpins a series of short case studies of classes in the UK for learners over 18 years from beginner to professional, revealing the variety of class content and practice as shaped by such current pressures as irregular employment, the increasing systematisation of ballet training institutions, and the growing influence of sports science and social media. Major themes of aims and purposes, the class as a physical fitness regime, and the importance of its relation to the performance and creation of repertoire, are considered in the wider context of the historical development of ballet’s evolving technical knowledge and body of work. A final discussion of pace in teaching and the experience of dancing leads to suggestions and conclusions as to how the class may positively contribute to the development of artistry and creativity in ballet dancers. 3 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 3 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 8 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 10 Research aims and questions ........................................................................................................................ 12 Situating myself in the research ................................................................................................................... 13 Outline of the research ..................................................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 1: Critiquing the ballet class ................................................................................... 19 1.1 Lack of creativity ........................................................................................................................................ 20 1.2 Unnatural and limiting ............................................................................................................................. 28 1.3 Abusive teaching and damaging practice ........................................................................................ 31 1.4 Silent and docile bodies ........................................................................................................................... 40 1.5 Athletic bodies ............................................................................................................................................. 43 1.6 Moving forwards ........................................................................................................................................ 46 Chapter 2: Rationale and Methodology ............................................................................... 49 2.1 A qualitative research project............................................................................................................... 49 2.2 Scope of the research ............................................................................................................................... 51 2.3 Issues of gender .......................................................................................................................................... 53 2.4 Surveying the literature of practice and pedagogic knowledge ............................................. 55 2.5 Field research .............................................................................................................................................. 58 2.6 Observations and their documentation ............................................................................................ 61 2.7 Film and field notes: writing about dancing ................................................................................... 66 2.8 Interviews ..................................................................................................................................................... 68 2.9 Outsider or insider perspective? ......................................................................................................... 71 4 2.10 To summarise ........................................................................................................................................... 73 Chapter 3: Learning in the ballet class: theoretical frameworks ........................................... 75 3.1 Education or training? ............................................................................................................................. 75 3.2 Ballet as oral and embodied learning ................................................................................................ 77 3.3 Defining technique .................................................................................................................................... 81 3.4 Defining artistry ......................................................................................................................................... 85 3.5 Bourdieu and the Logic of Practice ...................................................................................................... 90 3.6 Tacit knowledge and the reflective practitioner ........................................................................... 98 3.7 Developing savoir-faire and expertise through deliberate practice .................................. 104 3.8 The relationship of expertise and creativity ................................................................................ 108 Chapter 4: The social contexts of embodied learning ........................................................ 113 4.1 The communal class ............................................................................................................................... 113 4.2 Apprenticeship and situated learning ............................................................................................ 114 4.3 The systematization of ballet training ........................................................................................... 117 4.3 The practicum .......................................................................................................................................... 121 4.5 To summarize Chapters 3 and 4 ....................................................................................................... 124 Chapter 5: A pilot observation and emerging questions for field research ......................... 126 5.1 Documentation method ........................................................................................................................ 129 5.2 Class analysis ............................................................................................................................................ 133 5.3 Emerging topics for analysis .............................................................................................................. 141 5.4 Classes and teachers observed .......................................................................................................... 142 Chapter 6: Class aims and purposes ................................................................................... 143 6.1 Class for employment ...........................................................................................................................

Load more