Abstract
Chapter 3 discusses Western theatre dance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, arguing that in this period the dance work-concept acquires a particular “thickness,” clear contours and regulative force in at least some ballet and modern dance practice. Dance comes to be understood as generating authored, repeatable, persistent, and autonomous works that function both as guiding structures for performers and as a focus of appreciation for audiences. Specific developments such as dance “symphonism” and the so-called new ballet are explored, and commonalities in the way the work-concept develops in ballet and modern dance are considered. The chapter also examines one consequence of the work-concept’s consolidation in this period, namely its retrospective application to older ballets and dances by practitioners and historians keen to establish a canon of choreographic achievement.
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