The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet

Abstract The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet is the first work of its kind to treat contemporary ballet as a genre within ballet history. In contrast to many, the anthology prioritizes connections between communities as it interweaves chapters authored by scholars, critics, choreographers, and working professional dancers. The work broadens the scope of ballet studies in the twenty-first century. In considering contemporary ballet as a noted moment in ballet’s historiography deserved of chronicling and further study, the Handbook provides new perspectives on ballet’s past, present, and future. In an effort to dismantle the linearity of academic canons, the seven parts, and fifty-three chapters within, provide multiple entry points for readers to engage in the balletic discourse through the lenses of dance criticism, choreography, and dance theory. With choices to rename pioneers as “game changers,” an emphasis on composition and process alongside dances created, and the postulation that contemporary ballet is a definitive era, the book carves out space for critical inquiry as it makes plain the inequalities, struggles, and lack of diversity in the form. The chapters can be read independently or collectively, as each contributes valuable, often experiential, knowledge while simultaneously adding to the larger project. Many of the chapters consider whether or not ballet can reconcile its past and actually become present, while others see ballet as flexible and willing to be remolded at the hands of those with tools to do so. The anthology is a resource for the general public as well as researchers; it positions twenty-first-century ballet from an international scope and brings forth contemporary issues and polemics, while pointing to possible directions for the future of the form.