Repetitions and Variations: The Embodied Cultural Memory of Ballet

Abstract

The corporeal practice of ballet training, comprised of visual and aural input along with kinesthetic awareness and sensation, serves to transmit and reify a specific form of embodied knowledge. Passed from generation to generation and body to body, from at least mid-19th century Europe to its current global representations, systems of ballet training and modes of ballet performance have moved through history and geography continually enacting and reenacting a legacy of repertoire rife with collective/cultural memory and meaning. Ballet training methodologies and choreography have evolved significantly, yet well-established vocabulary, syllabi, curricula, and repertoire continue. Given the continually evolving yet perennial nature of ballet, theories from the field of performance studies provide an interesting lens through which we might examine classical ballet and its repertoire. This article contributes to the existing academic literature by framing ballet as a living culture – an ever-evolving, self-perpetuating, way of life - rather than as a purely historical or aesthetic topic. By engaging with performance studies theorists to explore notions of culture, tradition, ritual, orature, and repertoire, this article encourages further investigation of ballet through a variety of lenses.