Epiphanies of embodiment: injury, identity and the balletic body

Abstract

Our ethnography of the balletic body is a contribution to the relatively small corpus of empirical research studies on embodiment in general and on dance as a social practice in particular. In contrast, much of the literature on the sociology of the body is characterized by its theoretical discussion of the nature of the body. We draw upon our fieldwork at the Royal Ballet (London) where we conducted 20 in-depth interviews with ballet staff, and where we also watched ‘the company at work’(in class, rehearsal and performance). We explored the perceptions, of their bodies and dancing careers, of both dancers ( n= 9) and ex-dancers ( n=11: who are now teachers, administrators and character artists with the company). Furthermore, we especially focused upon the epiphanies of injury and ageing that endanger their balletic vocation, and that may even threaten their personal identity. Although our ethnography of the balletic body is set within the elite and narrow cultural field of dance, we hope that our research is also an appealing and constructive adjunct to discussions on the interactions between self and society; the body and culture; embodiment and identity; and individuals and institutions. Our article is one example of our broader research programme on the embodiment of vulnerability in the arts, medicine and society.

How Can We Define Mastery? Reflections on Learning, Embodiment and Professional Identity

“…As Wainwright and Turner (2004a), Chandler (2012) and Almeida and Flores-Pereira (2013) have taken dance as a useful heurism to study work from a practical and embodied perspective, we assumed that the concept of mastery could be particularly useful to guide studies on transformation processes of the body. As cognition that emerges from practice in a polished, sophisticated and beautiful way, mastery highlights not only embodied processes, but also the social organization of knowledge entangled through practice and the singular configuration of factors that help build work identities.…”

“…In the data analysis, the authors reach conclusions that approach the previous findings of another ethnography of the body, conducted in the cultural field of professional ballet by Wainwright and Turner (2004a), for enabling the understanding of the balletic body as a series of cultural practices. In methodological terms, Wainwright and Turner (2004a) use ethnography to challenge the disembodied literatures on dance, specifically on ballet, that tend to adopt a post-modern reading of dance as text (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999;Desmond, 1997;Goellner & Murphy, 1995;Wainwright & Turner, 2004b). In theoretical terms, the authors assert that ballet is a social practice whose embodiment's process is related to distinctions in the ballet habitus that unfolds in three dimensions: an individual one, an institutional one and a choreographic one.…”

“…In theoretical terms, the authors assert that ballet is a social practice whose embodiment's process is related to distinctions in the ballet habitus that unfolds in three dimensions: an individual one, an institutional one and a choreographic one. By taking the concept of habitus of Pierre Bourdieu (1984 Wainwright and Turner (2004a) link body and professional identity in accordance with a post-structural perspective that broaches previous discussion about sociology of professions, as they eventually focused on professional identity as an embodied process that expresses the interrelationship between individuals and institutions, body and society.…”

Performance, culture and the sociology of education

“…There is, moreover, an anthropology of such embodied performing arts as ballet and other dance forms (Wulff, 1998a(Wulff, , 1998b(Wulff, , 2000Buckland, 1999, Wainwright & Turner, 2004, or the body-performative texts of manners and gender (Foster, 2000). One can also mention in this context Hilgartner's pioneering study of the performative work of expert advice in scientific discourse (Hilgartner, 2000), which opens up a series of fascinating possibilities in science and technology studies.…”

老年人移动构成的时空——老龄化地理学中非表征理论的引入①

“…In gerontology, perhaps the most notable wellaligned trend with regards to practice and performance is that of scholars drawing on insights from the sociology of sport and applying them to the study of older bodies and older athletes (Wainwright et al, 2004;Tulle, 2008;Phoenix et al, 2009). In this field of study, researchers focus on the relationship between older bodies and cultural discourses such as decline, and the management, reconstruction, or reconfiguration of older bodies (Tulle, 2008;Wahidin, 2002).…”