Description
Book SynopsisExplores the pairing of classical and contemporary, art and entertainment, high culture and popular culture to reveal the place that ballet occupies in American life. Drawing on examples that range from musicals to tragic melodramas, this book shows how commercial films have produced an image of ballet that is associated with emotions.
Trade ReviewAside from cataloguing, describing, and closely reading the plethora of films that comprise the group with which she is concerned, McLean surfaces interesting theoretical issues concerning the genre. This is a unique and original project. -- Lucy Fischer * University of Pittsburgh *
Aside from cataloguing, describing, and closely reading the plethora of films that comprise the group with which she is concerned, McLean surfaces interesting theoretical issues concerning the genre. This is a unique and original project. -- Lucy Fischer * University of Pittsburgh *
This is a superb and wonderfully readable work, a true contribution to the fields of both cinema studies and dance. -- Karen Backstein * Cineaste *
Table of ContentsIntroduction : ballet in tin cans
A channel for progress : theatrical dance, popular culture, and (the) American Ballet
Gender, genre, and the ballet film through 1947 : part 1, the life of a ballerina is indeed tough
Gender, genre, and the ballet film through 1947 : part 2, the man was mad
but a genius!
If you can disregard the plot : the red shoes in an American context
The second act will be quite different : cinema, culture, and ballet in the 1950s
Turning points :
Ballet and its bodies in the "post-studio" era
