Re-Thinking Ballet Pedagogy: Approaching a Historiography of Fifth Position
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-18-2015
Keywords
ideal body, fifth position, ballet, pedagogy
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14647893.2015.1036019
Abstract
This article addresses the use of the fifth position in historical and current dance training practices with particular emphasis upon examining the 180° aesthetic and its hegemonic, idealized persistence in dancing bodies, as a marker of perfection and “beauty”. Historical research is interwoven with practice-based experience and dance medicine research to reveal the conflicted issues within the pedagogy, its rationale, ideology and continued practice in dance classrooms. The author argues for a more thorough the examination of how traditional dance practices and their dominant aesthetics exert power and control in the psyches of today’s dancing bodies, urging pedagogical re-evaluation and evolution.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Research in Dance Education, v. 16, issue 3, p. 245-258
Scholar Commons Citation
Morris, Merry L., "Re-Thinking Ballet Pedagogy: Approaching a Historiography of Fifth Position" (2015). Theatre and Dance Faculty Publications. 14.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/the_facpub/14
