Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Historical Perspectives
1. Ballet as Migrant: From Italy and Russia to America
2. Themes of Heterogeneity and Pluralism: Ballet in New York City,
1909-1934
3. Ballet in America: Coming of Age in a Market Economy
Part II: Teachers and Training
4. Ballet's Traditionalists: Malvina Cavallazzi and Luigi
Albertieri
5. Nostalgic Revisionists: Stefano Mascagno and Mikhail Mordkin
6. Pragmatic Revisionists: Veronine Vestoff, Sonia Serova, and
Louis H. Chalif
Conclusion
Selected Bibliography
Index
Jessica Zeller is Assistant Professor of Dance at Texas Christian University
"At last we've a serious examination by Jessica Zeller of seven
brave and resourceful ballet teachers from Russia and Italy who
came here to initiate and catalyze their ballet traditions. It's
been a missing link in studies of the major influences on the
creation of our unique, contemporary American ballet. Located in
New York City, their schools tempered and molded both the athletic
bodies of Americans, and in so doing affected the bold choreography
of our
artists. Zeller's fluid and judicious writing brings to light the
energy and pathos of early twentieth century dance
history."--Judith Chazin-Bennahum, University of New Mexico
"The time is ripe to thoroughly dispel the notion that high-quality
ballet training was absent from American shores in the first third
of the twentieth century. Jessica Zeller does just that,
introducing the context, teachers, philosophies, and markets that
challenged and supported the establishment of ballet as a modern
American art."--Lynn Matluck Brooks, Franklin & Marshall
College
"Jessica Zeller's exhaustively researched and engagingly written
book...is an eye-opening addition to our currently extant ballet
literature...The fact that Zeller, now a PhD who is an Assistant
Professor of Dance at Texas Christian University, has written a
book that is both scholarly and a page-turner is a remarkable
achievement. Whether you're a dancer, a balletomane, a dance
parent, or a combination of the three, don't miss the opportunity
to fill in the
gaps in your knowledge about how ballet, an émigré art form on our
shores, gained a foothold and survived the Great Depression to
evolve into a uniquely American brand of
dancing."--Broadwayworld.com
"Recommended."--Choice
"[Jessica] Zeller offers many details about the development and
teaching of each master's ballet curriculum. These are best
appreciated by turning to the book itself."--Dance Chronicle
"Using a wealth of archival sources, including dance manuals,
newspaper and magazine articles, and interviews, Zeller focuses on
pedagogy or, as she writes, 'the unspoken, underexamined element of
the oral tradition' that is the 'unique working relationship of the
dancer and pedagogue in the studio' (3). By taking stock of the
various ballet teachers who lived, worked, trained and
choreographed in the United States prior to Balanchine's arrival,
Zeller indeed
succeeds at 'offer[ing] a new telling of the history of American
ballet' and 'refute[ing] the widespread notion that the period
between 1909 and 1934 was 'largely barren ground' (1)." --Jennie
Scholick,
DRJ
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