Elevated: Ballet and culture in the United States, World War II to the National Endowment for the Arts

Unrestricted In recent decades historians have traced the popularization of “high” culture in the United States in the post-World War II era. In recognizing opera, classical music, and ballet as part of the “culture boom” of the 1960s, they tend, however, to treat the status of cultural forms as fixed and unchanging: pre-existing “high” arts become popular. By tracing the cultural history of ballet dancing in the United States, an art form long tied to the popular theater but elevated to the status of high art in the twentieth century, this dissertation examines the process by which cultural categories take form.; The widespread dissemination of ballet in the United States via television, film, and theater, the tours of international ballet companies, and the prevalence of regional ballet schools, companies, and festivals in the 1940s and 1950s reveals that ballet reached a diverse, national audience in the United States in the post-war period, a notable achievement given the peripheral nature of ballet to American culture during most of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth-centuries. Once limited to occasional appearances within popular forms of entertainment, ballet now entertained millions of Americans, many of whom eventually enjoyed ballet as a unique and independent art form - ballet for the sake of ballet.; Ballet dancers, choreographers, and publicists exploited the cultural politics of the era that privileged high art, particularly Cold War era inspired international rivalries and pervasive social anxieties pertaining to American consumer culture, gender, sexuality, race, and class, and positioned ballet as a symbol of cultural accomplishment and refinement. At the same time, by drawing from the long history of ballet in popular culture, these ballet makers also created an art form with widespread public appeal. The celebration of the ballerina, an image of grace, refinement, and control, as a representation of iconic American womanhood, and the simultaneous fascination with the glamorous, highly sexual and often effeminate Russian male ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev reveals the particularly important role changing conceptions of masculinity and femininity played in the ballet revival.; Drawing from contemporary popular literature and newspapers, the extensive film and television collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the records of several major ballet companies, dancers, and associations, “Elevated: Ballet and Culture in the United States, World War II to the National Endowment for the Arts” traces the invention of ballet as high art. Recognized today as one of the highest of the high arts in the United States, ballet dancing has not always occupied this place in American culture. The history of ballet’s elevation to this role is the history of the making of modern American culture, a culture in which the ballerina epitomizes feminine grace and is a major influence on contemporary fashions, in which ballet classes symbolize middle and upper class accomplishment, and in which appreciation of ballet indicates taste.

【无限制获取】近数十年来，历史学家梳理了二战后美国"高雅文化（high culture）"的普及历程。在将歌剧、古典音乐与芭蕾舞（Ballet）纳入20世纪60年代"文化繁荣"范畴的同时，他们往往将文化形态的地位视为固定不变：预先存在的"高雅艺术"逐渐走向大众。本论文以美国芭蕾舞的文化史为研究对象——这一艺术形态长期与通俗戏剧绑定，却在20世纪被升格为高雅艺术——借此考察文化范畴的形成过程。20世纪40至50年代，芭蕾舞通过电视、电影与戏剧在美国广泛传播，国际芭蕾舞团的巡演以及地区芭蕾舞学校、舞团与艺术节的盛行，表明战后美国的芭蕾舞已拥有多元化的全国受众。考虑到18、19世纪及20世纪早期的绝大多数时段里，芭蕾舞在美国文化中处于边缘地位，这一成就堪称瞩目。曾仅能偶尔现身通俗娱乐场合的芭蕾舞，如今为数百万美国人提供了观赏体验，其中许多人最终将芭蕾舞视为一种独特且独立的艺术形式——为芭蕾而芭蕾。芭蕾舞演员、编舞家与宣传人员利用了当时推崇高雅艺术的文化政治语境，尤其是冷战时期催生的国际竞争，以及围绕美国消费文化、性别、性、种族与阶级的普遍社会焦虑，将芭蕾舞塑造为文化成就与审美格调的象征。与此同时，这些芭蕾从业者借鉴了芭蕾舞在通俗文化中的悠久历史，打造出兼具广泛公众吸引力的艺术形态。将芭蕾舞女演员——这一优雅、精致且富有控制力的形象——作为美国标志性女性气质的代表，同时对魅力四射、极具性感特质且常带阴柔气质的俄罗斯男芭蕾舞演员鲁道夫·纽瑞耶夫（Rudolf Nureyev）抱有浓厚兴趣，这两点揭示了性别气质观念的变迁在芭蕾复兴中发挥的尤为关键的作用。本研究依托当代通俗文学与报刊资料、纽约公共图书馆表演艺术分馆（New York Public Library for the Performing Arts）的海量影视藏品，以及多家主要芭蕾舞团、舞者与协会的档案记录，完成了《升格：美国的芭蕾舞与文化：从二战到美国国家艺术基金会（National Endowment for the Arts）》（Elevated: Ballet and Culture in the United States, World War II to the National Endowment for the Arts）一书的创作。如今芭蕾舞被公认为美国最高雅的艺术门类之一，但它在美国文化中从未始终占据这一位置。芭蕾舞升格为高雅艺术的历史，亦是现代美国文化的塑造史：在这一文化中，芭蕾舞女演员是女性优雅的缩影，对当代时尚产生了重要影响；芭蕾舞课程象征着中上层阶级的审美修养；而对芭蕾舞的鉴赏则代表着个人品味。