Chief investigator: Dr Sarah McCleave, Reader in Musicology, School of Arts, English and Languages

Description

This archivally-orientated project seeks to articulate the process of acquiring reputation and sustaining it in relation to female theatre dancers active circa 1720-1860, a period during which the professional lives of theatre performers observed many changes as society and cultural infrastructures developed and evolved. As a group, these women warrant study because of their profession’s gender dynamics: female performative talent was clearly celebrated and documented but the assumption of creative, directorial or administrative roles is proportionally very rare.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust (2019-21). This research has also been supported by the Howard D. Rothschild Fellowship in Dance from the Houghton Library, Harvard University (2020).

Project Outputs

Website/blog https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/dancebiographies/.  ‘Dance biographies: female theatrical dancers circa 1680-1860’ aims to explore the development and promotion of the careers of female theatrical dancers flourishing between 1680 and 1860.  McCleave is editor and principal contributor. This blog’s posts have been published (at irregular intervals) since November 2020. :

Book Chapter

(2020). ‘What place for a Woman? Dancing in London’s Theatres circa 1770-1810’, in Performing Arts in Changing Societies: Opera, Dance and Theatre in European and Nordic Countries, ed. by R. Selvik, S. Galdsø, and A. Margret, pp. 128-144. Taylor and Francis (Routledge Research in Music).

Conference Papers

(2024). The Paris Opéra as Employer: The Benefits and Disadvantages for its Danseuses, for ‘Women in Dance: Patronage, Performance and Pedagogy’: Annual conference of the European Association for Dance History. Edinburgh.

(2024). The Pretensions of Fanny Bias: Managing a Career at the Paris Opéra, 1807-1825, for ‘Dance and Institutions’: 27th Annual Oxford Dance Symposium. New College.

(2022). Dance and diplomat: the career of Emilie Bigottini, for ‘War, Peace and Politics in Dance’: Annual conference of the European Association for Dance History. London.

(2021). How did theatre dancers network?, for ‘Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain’. London.

(2021). Portraits and Personae: visions of female theatrical dancers circa 1730-1840, for ‘Watching Dance, Dancers and their Audiences’: Annual Oxford Dance Symposium, New College.

(2019). Fact or Fantasy? The Collective and Individual Identities of the Romantic-Era Ballerina, for ‘Romantic Fact and Fantasies’, 16th International Conference of the British Association for Romantic Studies, University of Nottingham.

Under Development

(Monograph) Fame and the female dancer: negotiating the theatres of London and Paris, 1720-1860.

(Journal article) Managing a Career at the Paris Opéra: the Negotiations of Émilie Bigottini and Fanny Bias.