This Three-Day Exploratory Seminar: “Futures of Eighteenth Century Dance Scholarship: What is Pantomime in Pantomime Ballet?” will take place in Rock Hall, the Dean's Conference Room, and the TPAC Chapel. 

Mark Franko convenes 11 international scholars and performers for presentations and discussions about Ballet pantomime (1760-1810), traditionally considered the predecessor of classical ballet. Several important reforms took place in the late eighteenth century, such as the abandonment of masks, the development of expressive gesture, and the attempt to choreograph tragedies adapted from theater without words, all of which made pantomime ballet possible. Nevertheless, this period is one of the least studied in the history of baroque dance, leading to many unanswered questions about the role of the passions, the degree to which dance used theatrical gesture or theater became choreography and how this balance or imbalance correlated with the musical score, the meaning of the term action, and how dance expressed bourgeois subjectivity while also being a vehicle for political agency.

This event is open to the public and part of AIR.

Arts Interdisciplinary Research (AIR) is a holistic research center and forum for creative and scholarly research across the arts that includes cutting-edge colloquia, exploratory seminars, lecture demonstrations, launches of research publications and creative works, reading groups, faculty talks, and stand-alone conferences initiated by the faculty of the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts.