DEPARTMENT OF DANCE STUDIES CLASS. LOO. -1 1 -9 3 SL. ACC. 1 SURREY UNIVERSrrV USRARY 'WINGED AND SHIVERING’: IMAGES OF DANCERS IN THE ALHAMBRA AND EMPIRE BALLETS 1884-1915 by ALEXANDRA CARTER, B.Ed.(Hons.), M.A. Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Surrey for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. September 1993 ProQuest Number: 27557557 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 27557557 Published by ProQuest LLO (2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLO. ProQuest LLO. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 % 1, :Y: (g) Alexandra Carter 1993 ABSTRACT Between 1884 and 1915, ballet was the main attraction on the programmes presented by London's Alhambra and Empire palaces of varieties. The executants of the ballets were women for whom dancing was a profession but their activities were produced, mediated and received by and within a predominantly male culture. This study relates a contextual examination of the hegemonic practices of the institutions which produced the ballet, and the written and iconographie discourses through which it was mediated, to a textual analysis of the works themselves. As a result, it is argued that the ballet, through its consistent presentation of certain images of the dancers, was a significant cultural form for the construction, circulation and reinforcement of images of women in Victorian and Edwardian society. Furthermore, the ballet produced not only commensurate but also differentiated images of the dancers which mirrored the complex sexual psyche of the era. In support of these arguments, pertinent elements of discrete disciplinary theories and knowledge are combined in an inter-disciplinary approach which accommodates the shared concerns of these disciplines and achieves the necessary synthesis between textual and contextual analysis. The unifying perspective which provides the motivation and the methodology is that of feminism. In its subject matter, this study remedies the neglect of the music hall in dance historiography and provides the impetus for further research on the period. In foregrounding the notion of dance as work, it also counteracts the marginahsation of the working hves and contribution of the vast majority of performers who were not the 'stars' of dance, hi its rationale and declared bias, the study locates dance firmly within feminist discourse and provides a model for the analysis of dance as a form for the cultural production of gender. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My first encounter with the history of dance as a scholarly activity was through the teaching of Professor June Layson and it is through her work that I have been able to make conceptual and organisational sense of a mass of historical documentation. Middlesex University has assisted me financially and my thanks go to Professor Christopher Bannerman for valuing my studies. My thanks also go to Daphne Claringbold and Clive, Joan and Albert Appleby for their help with proof reading and common- sense observations at various stages of preparation and completion. I have very much appreciated the encouragement and good cheer of my fellow research students at the University of Surrey. My greatest debt is to my supervisor. Professor Janet Lansdale. Her critical acumen and clarity of perception have encouraged constructive reflection and the necessary distancing from my own work. Her standards of scholarship have provided inspiration throughout the whole project. Finally, my gratitude to Simon for his advice, encouragement and unfailing support which have accompanied me along the way. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 PART I THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES 6 CH.l INTER DISCIPLINARITY, IDEOLOGY AND THE T : METHODOLOGIES FOR STUDY 7 1.0 INTRODUCTION 8 1.1 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES 8 1.1.1 An inter-disciplinary approach 12 FEMINIST THEORIES AND THE ARTS 16 1.2.1 Feminist theories and feminist research 1.2.2 Feminist theories, the arts and the social construction of die gendered image 13 CONCLUSION 25 CH.2 ORDERING THE WORLD: SOURCES ON THE MUSIC HALL BALLET 29 2.0 INTRODUCTION 30 2.1 WRITTEN SOURCES 31 2.1.1 General literature 2.1.2 Literature on dance history 2.1.3 Literature on ballet in the music halls 2.1.4 Autobiography and biography 2.1.5 Fiction and poetry 2.2 VISUAL SOURCES 46 2.3 CONCLUSION 48 PART II THE MUSIC HALL AND THE BALLET 52 CH.3 BALLET AT THE ALHAMBRA AND THE EMPIRE 53 3.0 INTRODUCTION 54 3.1 THEATRE OF THE PEOPLE: the English music hall 56 3.1.1 An historical overview 3.1.2 Programmes, performers and audiences 3.2 ESr FIT AND SEEMLY LUXURY: ballet at the Alhambra and the Empire 62 3.2.1 The dance context 3.2.2 An historical overview of the Alhambra and the Empire 3.2.3 The makers of the ballets 3.2.4 The management of the ballets 33 AN ENGLISHMAN'S CLUB: audiences, the music hall and the ballet 73 3.4 PROMENADES AND THE PUBLIC: the moral context of the ballet 78 33 CONCLUSION 81 CH.4 FROM THE PRINCIPALS TO THE PASSEES: PERFORMERS IN THE MUSIC HALL BALLET 91 4.0 INTRODUCTION 92 4.1 THE HIERARCHY OF THE ALHAMBRA AND EMPIRE COMPANIES 94 4.2 THE PRINCIPALS ... TO THE PASSÉES 96 4.2.1 The principals 4.2.2 Character, speciality and other roles 4.2.3 Coryphées and corps de ballet 4.2.4 Children and supernumeraries 43 TRAINING FOR THE MUSIC HALL BALLET 108 4.4 THE WORKING CONDITIONS OF THE DANCERS 112 43 CONCLUSION 119 PART HI IMAGES OF THE DANCERS IN THE MUSIC HALL BALLETS 126 CH.5 SPINS AND TURNS, CHARM AND GRACE: THE COMPONENTS OF THE BALLETS 130 5.0 INTRODUCTION 131 5.1 THE DANCE VOCABULARY 132 5.1.1 The premières danseuses 5.1.2 The corps de ballet 5.2 THE DANCER AS SPECTACLE 147 5.3 THE FEMINISATION OF THE DANCER 155 5.4 CONCLUSION 159 CH.6 A FAIRYLAND OF FAIR WOMEN: THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE BALLETS 168 6.0 INTRODUCTION 169 6.1 THE WORLD OF THE BALLET 171 6.1.1 Fantastic,unreal and impossible: the supernatural world 6.1.2 A flower herself: the natural world 6.1.3 Other places and other times: the international and historical worlds 6.1.4 Escape into reality: the contemporary world 6.1.5 Embodiments of virtue: the world personified 6.1.6 Every man in the audience: the romantic world 6.2 CONCLUSION 184 CH.7 UTTERLY AND OBVIOUSLY FEMININE: THE EN TRAVESTIE PERFORMER 191 7.0 INTRODUCTION 192 7.1 THE EN TRAVESTIE PERFORMER 193 7.2 CONCLUSION 200 PART IV FANTASY AND REALITY 204 CH.8 IMAGES AND IMAGINATION 206 8.0 INTRODUCTION 207 8.1 PAINTED ANGELS: poetry, fiction and the eye of the writer 208 8.1.1 Carnal lust: the dancer and pornography 8.2 VIEWS OF THE AUDIENCE 216 8.3 CONCLUSION 217 CH.9 PREJUDICIAL TO PUBLIC MORALITY 222 9.0 INTRODUCTION 223 9.1 HIGH KICKS OR HIGH ART: the moral image of the ballet 225 9.2 SEX AND SEWING: the moral image of the dancer 230 9.3 CONCLUSION 240 CH.IO WOMEN AS PERFORMERS, WOMEN AS PEOPLE: THE MUSIC HALL BALLET AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER 246 10.0 INTRODUCTION 247 10.1 THE PSYCHE OF THE ERA 247 10.2 PRURIENCE, PRIDE AND PARADOX 252 10.3 CONCLUSION 253 APPENDICES I Subject matter of the ballets at the Alhambra 1884 - 1912 259 II Subject matter of the ballets at the Empire 1884 -1915 262 III Dancers' roles in the ballets at the Alhambra 1884 - 1912 266 IV Dancers' roles in the ballets at the Empire 1884 -1915 270 V Women as title roles in the ballets at the Alhambra and the Empire 273 BIBLIOGRAPHY 274 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE 1. The Empire programme cover 1912 137 2. PaUadino, Genée and Bedells (various sources) 138 3. The Sketch 1895 Titania’: the new ballet at the Alhambra; a group ofcoryphées 141 4. The Alhambra programme cover 1896 145 5. The Alhambra programme cover 1893 151 6. The Alhambra programme cover 1908 152 7. The Empire programme cover 1897 153 8. The Sketch 1895 Titania': the new ballet at the Alhambra: Attendants on Hippolyta 198 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Between 1884 and 1915, at least one, usually two and sometimes three ballets were presented nightly at the Alhambra and the Empire palaces of varieties in London's Leicester Square. For over thirty years, these venues, off-shoots of the traditional music hall, were a significant part of the London entertainment scene. ^ The ballet employed thousands of people, the great majority of whom were women and as the venues gained in social respectability, women also began to attend but audiences throughout the period consisted mainly of men. The ballets themselves were produced by an all-male management. None of the works are extant, and the recording of them in written and in graphic form, reveals the perceptions of this male audience. Thus, an activity which was performed by women was produced and received by men. In the public images of the theatre the ideologies of the dominant culture were encoded and communicated. This study argues that the ballets, in their representations of the dancers who were the living images of the theatre, were part of the hegemonic processes which formed constructs of femininity particular to late Victorian and Edwardian England.