Aesthetics at the Ballet: Looking at ‘National’ Style, Body and Clothing in the London Dance World

Abstract

Historical and political circumstances such as nationalism are often negotiated, both in terms of identification and repudiation, through the arts, music and dance. Among the dancers the idea of ‘street’ clothing, make-up and hairstyle was prominent. The Royal Ballet in Britain started out as a ballet school in the 1920s and was acclaimed transnationally after the Second World War. The establishment of the Royal Ballet as a national ballet company thus corresponded with the weakening of Great Britain as a world power. Princess Margaret is the president of the Royal Ballet and represents the very apex of British society in the ballet world, as do board members and sponsors from the aristocracy. Anna Kisselgoff’s dismissal of national ballet styles as stereotypes is unique in the ballet world. As Howard Morphy astutely observes, the anthropology of the body needs to include an anthropology of clothing and bodily adornment, which should be treated as an area of inquiry in aesthetic anthropology.