About the Author

Ilyana Karthas is associate professor of history and affiliate faculty of women' s and gender studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Reviews

" Karthas persuasively argues that ballet introduced an androgynous aesthetic that broke down traditional gender dichotomies, but alsocontributed to new and distinct modern visions of femininity and masculinity. An important contribution to French cultural history. Highly Recommended." Choice "Ambitious in scope and focused in argument, When Ballet Became French offers a compelling account of the rise and fall and rise again of ballet' s fortunes as an exemplary French cultural, and implicitly, political form. Integrating dance history into a broader narrative of French cultural and gender history, Karthas combines an internalist understanding of the transformations in ballet' s choreography, technique, staging, and institutional form with a broader, externalist analysis of its symbolism, social location, and cultural and political resonance." Judith Surkis, Rutgers University " L' ouvrage d' Ilyana Karthas nous rappelle, par conse quent, la complexite et la richesse de l' histoire longue du ballet, sans tomber dans le pie ge de l' histoire anecdotique. C' est une bonne synthe se qui s' adresse aussi bien aux lecteurs de sireux d' en savoir plus sur l' histoire culturelle de l' entre-deux-guerres a Paris qu' aux spe cialistes de l' histoire de la danse d' autres pe riodes. On attend la traduction de l' ouvrage en franc aise avec impatience." Histoire sociale / Social History