(Re:) claiming ballet

Though ballet is often seen as a white, cis-heteropatriarchal form of dance, in fact it has been, and still is, shaped by artists from a much broader range of backgrounds. This collection looks beyond the mainstream, bringing to light the overlooked influences that continue to inform the culture of ballet. Essays illuminate the dance form's rich and complex history and start much-needed conversations about the roles of class, gender normativity, and race, demonstrating that despite mainstream denial and exclusionary tactics, ballet thrives with "difference."

Introduction: Regarding claiming ballet/ reclaiming ballet -- Part One Histories -- 1. Ballet, from property to art -- 2. Should there be a female ballet canon? Seven radical acts of inclusion -- 3. Arabesque en noire: The persistent presence of Black dancers in the American ballet world -- 4. Portrayals of Black people from the African diaspora in Western narrative ballets -- Part Two Knowledges -- 5. The traces of my ballet bod -- 6. Ballet beyond boundaries: A personal history -- 7. Auftanzen statt Aufgeben and the Anti Fascist Ballet School -- 8. Dancing across historically racist borders -- Part Three Resiliences -- 9. The Dance Theatre of Harlem's radicalization of ballet in the 1970s and 1980s -- 10. 'Showgirl with red pointe shoes': Personal testimony as social resilience -- 11. 'Can you feel it?': Pioneering pedagogies that challenge ballet's authoritarian traditions -- 12. The ever after of ballet -- 13. Ballethnic Dance Company builds community: Urban Nutcracker leads the way -- Part Four Consciousnesses -- 14. The Counterpoint Project: When life doesn't imitate art -- 15. Ballet's binary genders in a rainbow- spectrum world: A call for progressive pedagogies -- 16. Dan…