Publisher's Synopsis
Susan Foster traces the development of the story ballet from the pantomimes of early 18th-century theaters through the Revolutionary fetes to the well-known romantic ballets La Sylpbide and Giselle. She examines changing conceptions of the dancing body as ballet separated from opera and emerged as an autonomous art form during this turbulent period in French history. Approaching choreography as theory, she shows how choreographic choices are integral to the construction of bodily, individual, gendered, and social identities.
