Passionate Work : Choreographing a Dance Career / Ruth Horowitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horowitz, Ruth, 1947- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dancers--United States--Social conditions.

Dancers.

Dancers--United States--Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (326 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2024]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

"Corps de ballet literally means the "body" of the ballet company, and it refers to the group of dancers who are not principals. Another large group of dancers puts together portfolios of work, often across several dance companies. These categories of dancers typically don't have name recognition and yet comprise the majority of professional dancers today. The ways that they stitch together careers, through dedication, grit, and no small amount of skill - and the reasons they have for doing so without the promise of fame or fortune - are telling of broader trends that shape the precarious labor of professional dance, and creative careers more generally. In Passionate Work, dance hobbyist and sociologist, Ruth Horowitz captures their stories. When creative labor is studied, it is often thought of in opposition to more conventional work, and the primary metric that distinguishes them is passion. Professional creatives are not working in the traditional sense because they are following their passion. By tracing the careers of such dancers, Horowitz troubles the binary understanding of passion and work. A career in dance requires both, and approaching her subjects through this lens allows her to explore their strategies for sustaining passion through the ups and downs of a career. Horowitz explores how dancers evaluate the rewards and challenges of a notoriously underpaid, and uncertain profession. Horowitz considers major dimensions of a career in a performing art, documenting each stage in a dancer's life. Above all, she shines a light on the strategies used to achieve a sense of biographical continuity in a world often marked by discontinuity and rupture"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Preface

Introduction: The Concert Dance World

Chapter One. A Nutcracker Lens: Passion and Precarious Labor

Chapter Two. Learning the Practice of Ballet: Body and Self

Chapter Three. Career Decision Challenges: Aspirations and a Sticky Self

Chapte Four. Companies: Corporate Bodies/Human Bodies

Chapter Five. Portfolios: Precarious Work and Creative Labor

Chapter Six. Distancing from the Performing Self

Chapter Seven. New Work: New Identities and Adapted Self

Conclusion: Passionate Work in Perspective

Glossary

Notes

References

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-5036-3961-4

OCLC:

1439596180