PRESERVING A LEGACY, PRESERVING BALLET HISTORY: RESTAGING THE BALLETS OF ANTONY TUDOR A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF DANCE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES BY CHRISTINE KNOBLAUCH-O’NEAL A.B., M.A.L.S. DENTON, TEXAS MAY 2013 [Type a quotei from the document or the summary of an interesting point. You can position the text box anywhere in the Copyright © Christine Knoblauch-O’Neal, 2013 all rights reserved iii DEDICATION To Grant and Kathleen Knoblauch, they were the best parents. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to gratefully acknowledge the many individuals who have contributed to this dissertation. I would like to thank my committee chair Dr. Linda Caldwell for her continued interest in this research. I want to thank Sally Bliss executor of the Tudor will and Trustee of the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust for allowing me full access to the Trust and to the Répétiteurs of the Trust who participated in my research. The research could not have been completed without her continued interest and support of this project. I am grateful to both Dr. Janet Brown and Betty Skinner for their continued encouragement and guidance during my beginning efforts to create a document worthy of the topic. In particular, I want to thank my sister Karen Brewington for her continued support and encouragement throughout my doctoral studies. All scholars should be fortunate enough to have sisters like Karen. And, finally, I want to thank Mike Lang for being there for me during every moment of my doctoral studies, listening to me, challenging me, and encouraging me to feel confident in my work. To Karen and Mike, I could not have done this without the both of you. v ABSTRACT CHRISTINE KNOBLAUCH-O’NEAL PRESERVING A LEGACY, PRESERVING BALLET HISTORY: RESTAGING THE BALLETS OF ANTONY TUDOR MAY 2013 The purpose of this study was to examine the work of the Répétiteurs of the Tudor Trust in restaging the ballets of Antony Tudor. I drew on my interviews with Sally Bliss, executor of the Tudor will and Trustee of the Tudor Trust; Donald Mahler, senior Répétiteur of the Tudor Trust and former Tudor dancer; Kirk Peterson, former principle dancer with American Ballet Theatre and Répétiteur of the Tudor Trust; Amanda McKerrow, former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Répétiteur of the Tudor Trust, and last ballerina to work with Mr. Tudor; and James Jordan, Répétiteur in- training with the Tudor Trust and Ballet Master with the Kansas City Ballet. Additionally, I drew on my experiences working with three of the participants during the restaging of Dark Elegies for the Performing Arts Department at Washington University in St. Louis along with my years of dancing with Mr. Tudor at American Ballet Theatre. The dissertation study traces the process taken by each of the Répétiteurs in restaging Mr. Tudor’s ballets and explores their understanding of and appreciation for his unique aesthetic and choreographic intention. The Répétiteurs’ processes are further shown to be enhanced by their experiences as dancers working with Mr. Tudor along vi with their continued in-depth research and analysis into the nature of Tudor’s genius and its impact on his craft. All the collected data from the R’s is further presented in context with the chorographical, historical, psychological, and literary influences felt to inform and further shape Tudor’s choreography. The study was developed through qualitative research methods for data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The data collection involved not only interviews with the Répétiteurs, but also interviews with three college dancers who had recently learned and performed a Tudor ballet restaged by one of the participants, and observations of each Répétiteur during his or her restaging process. Also, Sally Bliss, given her position, allowed full access to the archival videos of past productions of the Tudor ballets held by the Tudor Trust. Three areas of interest emerged from this diverse data collection: 1) The sense of authenticity for each restaged ballet was grounded in and secured through the Répétiteurs' experiential relationships with Tudor and/or their continued research and critical analysis of documents, videos of past productions, and biographical materials. 2) The Répétiteurs' process of restaging encouraged a sense of exploration and discovery for the dancers in order to better understand and embody the essential elements of the Tudor ballets and 3) The role of the Répétiteurs as the tellers of stories or the importance of the recounting and retelling of stories within the restaging process which created the presence of Tudor, as a Transcendental Tudor. I hope that this research adds to the literature on the creative process, the choreographic process, the restaging process, archiving and documenting dances, and the where and when of making ballet history. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page COPYRIGHT ................................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................ iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................. v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. vi PROLOGUE –BACKSTORY ..................................................................................... xiv Tudor and Me .......................................................................................................... xiv The Tudor Aesthetic .............................................................................................. xxv Tudor’s Backstory ................................................................................................. xxvi The Psychological Motivations of Tudor’s Characters .................................... xxxiii Exploring the Depth and Detail of the Tudor Ballets ...................................... xxxvii Concepts of Movement and Classical Ballet Training .......................................... xli Tudor’s Musicality ................................................................................................. xliv The Tudor Qualities ................................................................................................ xlv The Tudor Trust and the Répétiteurs .................................................................... xlvi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 The Répétiteurs' Story................................................................................................ 1 Introduction to My Research Participants ................................................................ 2 viii Nijinsky’s Scare du Printemps – Robert Joffrey’s Motivating Forces .................. 9 Introduction to the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust ...................................................... 12 Theoretical Conversations about Worldmaking, Practice, and Knowledge ......... 14 Data Chapters ........................................................................................................... 20 II. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................... 22 And so, it Began ....................................................................................................... 22 A Nod to Grounded Theory..................................................................................... 24 The Internal Review Board and Access to the Anthony Tudor Ballet Trust ....... 25 Research Questions .................................................................................................. 26 Participants with the Trust ....................................................................................... 27 Acknowledged Previous Contact ............................................................................ 28 Choosing the Student/Dancer Participants ............................................................. 29 Listening to and for Key Language of the Participants ......................................... 30 The Point of the Research: Qualities and Situation ............................................... 31 Role as Researcher ................................................................................................... 32 Field Work Observation .......................................................................................... 34 In-Depth Interviews ................................................................................................. 35 Process of Interviews: Questions ............................................................................ 35 Additional Data Gathering ...................................................................................... 42 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................... 44 Credibility ................................................................................................................ 45 Data Chapters ........................................................................................................... 47 ix Writing ................................................................................................................ 50 III.