Contemporary Ballet: Exchanges, Connections and Directions Welcome We are thrilled to welcome so many of you to this special topics conference on contemporary ballet. Based on the overwhelming response and enthusiasm to the call for papers, it is clear that there is a need for discourse and rigorous investigation into how this moment in ballet historiography is being shaped. We began to dialogue about ‘contemporary ballet’ two years ago, while conceptualizing what would become the 2015 issue of Conversations across the Field of Dance Studies: Network of Pointes. That effort to articulate complexities of the genre yielded many more questions and the idea to continue the “conversation” surrounding the efficacy of ballet, its history, locality, and relevancy at a conference exclusively devoted to the topic. We chose New York City for both practical and ideological purposes. It provided willing sponsors to whom we are eternally grateful. Furthermore, New York prompts a discourse about the city’s past and present relationship to ballet histories. In October 2015, we put forth a call for papers hoping to elicit practitioners, scholars, critics and those who work across those categories as well as in-between. Today we happily welcome over fifty presenters and ten invited speakers. The topics that surround contemporary ballet address gender, race, the choreographic form as tradition and innovation, as well as national practices and politics from the global north and south. Over the next two days, you will witness the range and breadth of scope that refreshingly confirms a new chapter is being written. The support from our two hosts in New York City has been truly invaluable. We are grateful to New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts and Barnard College, Columbia University for their generosity in resources to make this event happen. Our sponsors for the two-day conference include: the Faculty of Education (Royal Academy of Dance), Skidmore College, the Dance Department at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles) and SLIPPAGE: Performance, Technology, Culture. Finally, we owe much gratitude to the Society of Dance History Scholars and its Board of Directors for the confidence to realize this event. In addition, we would like to thank Andrea Salvatore (CBA), Tricia Toliver (Barnard College, Columbia University), Thomas F. DeFrantz (Duke University), Jim Ranieri (Prime Management), Ariel Osterweis (our local arrangements chair) and Ann Cooper Albright (President of SDHS). Last but not least, our sincere appreciation to Lynn Garafola in her capacity as Artistic Advisor for the conference. It is our hope that you will find this two-day conference as intriguing as we did during the process of curating the event. Jill Nunes Jensen and Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel May 20 – 21, 2016 New York City 1 Contemporary Ballet: Exchanges, Connections and Directions Conference Committee Artistic Advisor Lynn Garafola, Professor of Dance, Barnard College, Columbia University (New York City) Program Chairs Jill Nunes Jensen Ph.D., Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles) Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel, Ph.D., Faculty of Education Royal Academy of Dance (London) Local Arrangements Chair Ariel Osterweis, Ph.D., Skidmore College (New York) and Cal Arts (Los Angeles) Invited Speakers Joshua Beamish, Choreographer and Director of Move: the company Emily Coates, Director of dance studies (Yale University) Jodie Gates, Director and Vice Dean (USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance) Julia Gleich, Choreographer and Director Gleich Dances, curator of CounterPointe Francesca Harper, Choreographer, performer and director Jill Johnson, Dance Director (Harvard University) Gabrielle Lamb, Choreographer, dancer and filmmaker Emery LeCrone, Choreographer, performer and teacher Helen Pickett, choreographer, educator and performer Troy Schumacher, choreographer and Director of BalletCollective May 20 – 21, 2016 New York City 2 Contemporary Ballet: Exchanges, Connections and Directions Friday, May 20, 2016 at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts 8:00 – 9:00 Registration 9:00 – 9:10 Welcome from Conference Chairs Jill Nunes Jensen and Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel (Main Studio) PANEL 1 (9:20 – 10:50) Topic: Contemporary Narratives Moderator: Melissa Templeton Room: Main Studio Mara Mandradjieff Maguy Marin’s Posthumanist Cinderella: (Sub)objectivity and Contemporary Ballet Tanya Evidente Defining Contemporary Ballet: A Study of James Kudelka's Narrative Themes, Vocabulary and Artistic Collaborations Meryl Lodge From Rags to Riches: the Cinderella Story of Contemporary Ballet in South Africa Ann Murphy Toward a Definition of Contemporary Ballet Or PANEL 2 (9:20 – 10:50) Topic: Legacies and Exchanges Moderator: Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel Room: Meeting Room 1 Molly Faulkner and Julia Gleich Contemporary Ballet is a Liminal State: Reflection and Refraction Tyler Walters Ballet Under Glass Deborah Norris Exploring the Choreographic Work of Cathy Marston: A Matriarch of British Contemporary Ballet in the 21st Century Jessica Maria MacFarlane Reread, Rewrite, Rewire: Connecting Female Writers and Choreographers in Contemporary Ballet Or PANEL 3 (9:20 – 10:50) Topic: Pedagogy and Training (Roundtable) Moderator: Rachel Strauss Room: Meeting Room 2 Paige Caldarella Emily Stein Iyun Harrison Bruce McCormick 10:50 – 11:10 Break Plenary Session (11:10– 12:15) Topic: Contemporary Ballet, Women, and Institutions Moderator: Jill Nunes Jensen Room: Main Studio Guest Speakers: Emily Coates, Jodie Gates, and Jill Johnson 12:15 – 1:45 Lunch on your own May 20 – 21, 2016 New York City 3 Contemporary Ballet: Exchanges, Connections and Directions PANEL 4 (1:45– 3:15) Topic: International Voices Moderator: Professor Thomas DeFrantz Room: Main Studio Anjali Austin Perspectives of an American Artist: The Auto-Ethnographic Chronicles of an African-American Classical Ballet Dancer Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel Negotiating Alterity and Hybridity: Mauro Bigonzetti’s Contemporization of Ballet Kylie Radford From “Burudani” to Making Impact: Insights and Perceptions of a French Artistic Director’s Journey with the Uganda National Contemporary Ballet Elisa Davis Contemporary Ballet Going Gaga Or PANEL 5 (1:45– 3:15) Topic: Historical Structures and Organizations Moderator: Lise Uytterhoeven Room: Meeting Room 1 Joellen Meglin A Thought Experiment: Against Artistic Monopolies in Ballet Caroline Sutton Clark Groovy Bodies: The 1970s and Contemporizing Ballet Henrique Rochelle Ballet as an Imported Tradition and its Current Uses by Brazilian Dance Companies Lester Tomé Cuban Dancers’ Global Careers, Brain Drain and Brain Gain: Contesting Paradigms of Labor Circulation in Contemporary Ballet Or PANEL 6 (1:45– 3:15) Topic: Recirculating Classical Forms (Organized Panel) Moderator: Hanna Järvinen Room: Meeting Room 2 Rebecca Chaleff Choreographing Alterities: The Imperial Politics of Giselle Julian Carter Contemporary Performances of The Dying Swan: Race and Whiteness Michelle LaVigne The Persistence of Classical Form: Repetitions of The Nutcracker in Contemporary Ballet Culture VK Preston Dance Archaeology: Dancing Deep Diaspora 3:15 – 3:35 Break PANEL 7 (3:35 – 5:20) Topic: (In)Forming Ballet Bodies Moderator: Jill Nunes Jensen Room: Main Studio Roger Copeland Ballet, Modernity and the Contemporary Ann Nugent The Forsythescape: A Cumulative Force Rachel Strauss Form, Abstraction, and the Apollonian in Contemporary Ballet, with Reference to the Work of Pam Tanowitz Ariel Osterweis with Christina Johnson Complexions Contemporary Ballet and the Nuances of TechNIQUE: Race, Gender, Hybridity May 20 – 21, 2016 New York City 4 Contemporary Ballet: Exchanges, Connections and Directions Or PANEL 8 (3:35 – 5:20) Topic: Global Connections (1) Moderator: VK Preston Room: Meeting Room 1 Ruth Helier-Tinoco Contemporary Ballet in Mexico City: Opus Ballet, Ricardo Domingo and La Técnica Domingo Yuma Ochi Emergence of Contemporary Ballet in the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris: On the Intervention of Jérôme Bel Samantha Parsons Stripping the Covers of the Body Politic Jennifer Fisher Ballet is Still an Ethnic Dance Form Or PANEL 9 (3:35 – 5:20) Topic: Exchanges, Connections and Directions Moderator: Lester Tomé Room: Meeting Room 2 Barbara Dickinson Ballet, logos and Contemporary Directions Janet Werther Queer Women in Contemporary Ballet Caroline O’Brien Contemporary Ballet Costumes Julie Janus Walters Intelligence in Motion Cadence Whittier Cultivating a Contemporary Approach in Ballet Class 5.30 End of Conference Day 1 May 20 – 21, 2016 New York City 5 Contemporary Ballet: Exchanges, Connections and Directions Saturday, May 22, 2016 at the Julius S. Held Lecture Hall 304 Barnard Hall 8:00 – 9:00 Registration and Breakfast 9:00 Welcome from Conference Chairs and Professor Katie Glasner PANEL 1 (9:10 – 10:40) Topic: Contemporary Partnerships Moderator: Ann Nugent Daniel Callahan American Accents in Copland’s Corral: Choreomusicality and Intersectionality in Rodeo and 'Rōdē,ō Russell Janzen The Limits of Ballet: Conversations About Gender Presentation in a Physical Art Kyle Bukhari Rupturing the Present: Space, Figure and Text in Michael Clark and Charles Atlas' animal/mineral/vegetable (2013) Jill Nunes Jensen ThroughLINES Revisited 10:40 – 11:00 Break PANEL 2 (11:00 – 12:30) Topic: Global Connections (2) Moderator: Ariel Osterweis Thomas F. DeFrantz The Race of Contemporary Ballet: Interpellations of Africanist Aesthetics Melissa Templeton What Gets Lost in the Word “Contemporary?” From Imperialism to Globalization and the Africanist Aesthetic