Ballet Body Narratives ― Pain, Pleasure and Perfection in Embodied Identity

This book is an ethnographic exploration of the world of young ballet dancer’s bodies, taking the body as the corporeal center of the experience of what it means to be a dancer. The study focuses on young ballet dancers in a ballet school in England but explores themes that will be familiar to anyone in the dance world including the seductive appeal of the ballet aesthetic, the push to achieve the perfect body, and the body as a source of identity. Angela Pickard strives to connect the relationship between dance and the body to the greater social world, drawing on both academic sources and ballet body narratives from young dancers. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Angela Pickard is Director of Teaching, Learning and School Experience in the School for Music and Performing Arts and Subject Lead for Dance at Canterbury Christ Church University. She has performed, created, taught and presented dance as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, advisor, consultant and academic. She has worked with a number of choreographers and artists in a range of projects across a multitude of venues in Kent, London and Europe and she is currently Artistic Director and choreographer of Canterbury Dance Company. Her research on ballet, the body, Bourdieu, identity, gender, talent and pedagogy has been widely disseminated. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Research in Dance Education.