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Ballet class : an American history / Melissa R. Klapper.

by Klapper, Melissa R., author.

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New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]

Ballet -- United States -- History.

Ballet -- Social aspects -- United States.

Ballet -- Study and teaching -- United States -- History.

9780190908683 (hardcover alkaline paper) :

0190908688 (hardcover alkaline paper) :

xvii, 403 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Overture -- First movements. -- A (very selective) early history of ballet in America -- Ballet class -- The Russians are coming: The impact of European teachers on American ballet class -- Brought to you by the Ford Foundation: Mid-Century innovation and the dance boom -- Themes and variations. -- Up a steep and very narrow stairway: Teachers, studios, and the business of ballet -- Race and ballet in America: A troubled/troubling history -- Yes, boys take ballet class too -- Diplomates of dance: Ballet and higher education -- An art or a sport? Recitals and competitions -- Ballet bodies -- Think pink: Ballet and girl culture -- Ballet and popular culture in America.

Surveying the state of American ballet in a 1913 issue of Clure's Magazine, author Willa Cather reported that few girls expressed any interest in taking ballet class and that those who did were hard-pressed to find anything other than dingy studios and imperious teachers. One hundred years later, ballet is everywhere. Beginning with the arrival of Russian dancers like Anna Pavlova, who first toured the United States on the eve of World War I, 'Ballet Class: An American History' explores the growth of ballet from an ancillary part of nineteenth-century musical theater, opera, and vaudeville to the quintessential extracurricular activity it is today, pursued by countless children nationwide and an integral part of twentieth-century American childhood across borders of gender, class, race, and sexuality. 0A social history, 'Ballet Class' takes a new approach to the very popular subject of ballet and helps ground an art form often perceived to be elite in the experiences of regular, everyday people who spent time in barre-lined studios across the United States. Drawing on a wide variety of materials, including children's books, memoirs by professional dancers and choreographers, pedagogy manuals, and dance periodicals, in addition to archival collections and oral histories, this pathbreaking study provides a deeply-researched national perspective on the history and significance of recreational ballet class in the United States and its influence on many facets of children's lives, including gender norms, consumerism, body image, children's literature, extracurricular activities, and popular culture.

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