In this chapter, I reflect on ballet using two lenses of property (ballet-as-property) and inheritance (the Manor House of Ballet). I draw on Cheryl Harris’s seminal paper ‘Whiteness as Property’ to explore how ballet could be seen as being treated as the property of a few rather than an art form in its own right. I suggest that being liberated into being ‘an art form’ offers ballet a rich future that avoids the decay of protectionism.
Citation: Akinleye, A.(2021) Ballet, from property to art, in Akinleye (ed.) (re:)claiming ballet London: Intellect books pp.21-35
Contents for context within book:
(editor Adesola Akinleye)
Introduction: Regarding claiming ballet / reclaiming ballet
Part One – Histories
Chapter 1: Ballet, from property to Art – Adesola Akinleye
Chapter 2: Should there be a Female ballet canon? Seven Radical Acts of Inclusion – Julia Gleich and Molly Faulkner
Chapter 3: Arabesque en Noir: The Persistent Presence of Black Dancers in the American Ballet World – Joselli Audain Deans
Chapter 4: Portrayals of Black people from the African Diaspora in western narrative ballets – Sandie Bourne
Part Two – Knowledges
Chapter 5: The traces of my ballet body – Mary Savva
Chapter 6: Ballet Beyond Boundaries – Personal History. Brenda Dixson Gottschild
Chapter 7:“Auftanzen statt Aufgeben” and The Anti Fascist Ballet School -Elizabeth Ward
Chapter 8: Dancing Across Historically Racist Borders – Kehinde Ishangi
Part Three – Resiliences
Chapter 9: Dance Theatre of Harlem’s radicalization of ballet in 1970s & 1980s – Theresa Ruth Howard
Chapter 10: Personal testimony as social resilience – Theara J. Ward
Chapter 11: “Can you feel it?”: Pioneering Pedagogies that Challenge Ballet’s Authoritarian Traditions – Jessica Zeller
Chapter 12: The Ever After of Ballet – Selby Wynn Schwartz
Chapter 13: Ballethnic Dance Company Builds Community: Urban Nutcracker leads the way – Nena Gilreath
Part four – Consciousnesses
Chapter 14: The Counterpoint Project – When Life Doesn’t Imitate Art – Endalyn Taylor
Chapter 15: Ballet’s Binary Genders in a Rainbow-Spectrum World:
A call for progressive pedagogies – Melonie B. Murray
Chapter 16: Dancing through Black British ballet: Conversations with dancers – Adesola Akinleye and Tia-Monique Uzor
Chapter 17: Ballet Aesthetics of Trauma, Development, and Functionality – Luc Vanier & Elizabeth Johnson
About the contributors
Index