Historiography of Ballet Studies at the Undergraduate Level in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper explores the histories, practices, and legacies of ballet studies in academic education in the United Kingdom. Charting the coexistence of vocational training in mainstream professional colleges and the emergence of ballet studies in select higher education institutions provides a reading into the marginalisation of ballet studies within the spectrum of dance degrees in the twenty-first century. The paper presents selected readings of sociocultural, artistic, and pedagogical trends concerned with the proliferation of dance and ballet degrees (1980S–1990S); and the effect of issues in training and academic studies on the nature of past and current programmes in the field of ballet studies.